The Volumes
November 2010
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume I
From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire
November 2010
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II
From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery”
Part 1: From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood
November 2010
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II
From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery”
Part 2: Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World
November 2010
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III
From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition
Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque
November 2011
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III
From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition
Part 2: Europe and the World Beyond
November 2011
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III
From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition
Part 3: The Eighteenth Century
May 2012
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV
From the American Revolution to World War I
Part 1: Slaves and Liberators
May 2012
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV
From the American Revolution to World War I
Part 2: Black Models and White Myths
February 2014
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V
The Twentieth Century
Part 1: The Impact of Africa
October 2014
The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V
The Twentieth Century
Part 2: The Rise of Black Artists
February 2017
The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art
The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art asks how the black figure was depicted by artists from the non-Western world. Beginning with ancient Egypt—positioned properly as part of African history—this volume focuses on the figure of the black as rendered by artists from Africa, East Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The aesthetic traditions illustrated here are as diverse as the political and social histories of these regions. From Igbo Mbari sculptures to modern photography from Mali, from Indian miniatures to Japanese prints, African and Asian artists portrayed the black body in ways distinct from the European tradition, even as they engaged with Western art through the colonial encounter and the forces of globalization.
The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art reinvigorates the de Menil family’s original mission and reorients the study of the black body with a new focus on Africa and Asia.
About the Books
In the 1960s, as a response to segregation in the United States, the influential art patron Dominique de Menil began a research project and photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Now, fifty years later, as the first American president of African American descent serves his historic term in office, her mission has been re-invigorated through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research to present new editions of the coveted five original books, as well as an additional five volumes.
News
The National Gallery of Art hosted a panel discussion marking the publication of The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V: The Twentieth Century, Part 1: The Impact of Africa.
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library
I Tatti Renaissance Library
Loeb Classical Library
Murty Classical Library of India