Description

Book Synopsis
Through the figure of Josephine Baker, Second Skin tells the story of an unexpected yet enduring intimacy between the invention of a modernist style and the theatricalization of black skin at the turn of the twentieth century. Stepping outside of the platitudes surrounding this iconic figure, Anne A. Cheng argues that Baker''s famous nakedness must be understood within larger philosophic and aesthetic debates about, and desire for, ''pure surface'' that crystallized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Through Cheng''s analysis, Baker emerges as a central artist whose work engages with and impacts various modes of modernist display such as film, photography, art, and even the modern house.

Second Skin

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    A Hardback by Anne Anlin Cheng

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      Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
      Publication Date: 1/22/2024
      ISBN13: 9780197748381, 978-0197748381
      ISBN10: 197748384
      Also in:
      Entertainment Films, cinema

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Through the figure of Josephine Baker, Second Skin tells the story of an unexpected yet enduring intimacy between the invention of a modernist style and the theatricalization of black skin at the turn of the twentieth century. Stepping outside of the platitudes surrounding this iconic figure, Anne A. Cheng argues that Baker''s famous nakedness must be understood within larger philosophic and aesthetic debates about, and desire for, ''pure surface'' that crystallized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Through Cheng''s analysis, Baker emerges as a central artist whose work engages with and impacts various modes of modernist display such as film, photography, art, and even the modern house.

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