Search results for ""Louisiana""

Behind the historical accounts of the great men of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People lies the almost forgotten story of the black women who not only participated in the organization but actually helped it thrive in the early twentieth-century South. In Invisible Activists, Lee Sartain examines attitudes toward the gender, class, and citizenship of African American activists in Louisiana and women's roles in the campaign for civil rights in the state. In the end, he argues, it was the women working behind the scenes in Louisiana's branches of the NAACP who were the most crucial factor in the organization's efficiency and survival.During the first half of the twentieth century—especially in the darkest days of the Great Depression, when membership waned and funds were scarce—a core group of women maintained Louisiana's NAACP. Fighting on the front line, Sartain explains, women acted as grassroots organizers, running public relations campaigns and membership drives, mobilizing youth groups, and promoting general community involvement. Using case studies of several prominent female NAACP members in Louisiana, Sartain demonstrates how women combined their fundraising skills with an extensive network of community and family ties to fund the NAACP and, increasingly, to undertake the day-to-day operations of the local organizations themselves.Still, these women also struggled against the double obstacles of racism and sexism that prevented them from attaining the highest positions within NAACP branch leadership. Sartain illustrates how the differences between the sexes were ultimately woven into the political battle for racial justice, where women were viewed as having inherent moral superiority and, hence, the potential to lift the black population as a whole. Sartain concludes that despite the societal traditions that kept women out of leadership positions, in the early stages of the civil rights movement, their skills and their contributions as community matriarchs provided the keys to the organization's progress.Highly original and essential to a comprehensive study of the NAACP, Invisible Activists gives voice to the many individual women who sustained the influential civil rights organization during a time of severe racial oppression in Louisiana. Without such dedication, Sartain asserts, the organization would have had no substantial presence in the state.

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Based on a sweeping range of archival, visual, and material evidence, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians examines perceptions of Indians in French colonial Louisiana and demonstrates that material culture—especially dress—was central to the elaboration of discourses about race. At the heart of France's seventeenth-century plans for colonizing New France was a formal policy—Frenchification. Intended to turn Indians into Catholic subjects of the king, it also carried with it the belief that Indians could become French through religion, language, and culture. This fluid and mutable conception of identity carried a risk: while Indians had the potential to become French, the French could themselves be transformed into Indians. French officials had effectively admitted defeat of their policy by the time Louisiana became a province of New France in 1682. But it was here, in Upper Louisiana, that proponents of French-Indian intermarriage finally claimed some success with Frenchification. For supporters, proof of the policy's success lay in the appearance and material possessions of Indian wives and daughters of Frenchmen. Through a sophisticated interdisciplinary approach to the material sources, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians offers a distinctive and original reading of the contours and chronology of racialization in early America. While focused on Louisiana, the methodological model offered in this innovative book shows that dress can take center stage in the investigation of colonial societies—for the process of colonization was built on encounters mediated by appearance.

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World’s fairs and industrial expositions constituted a phenomenally successful popular culture movement during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to the newest technological innovations, each exposition showcased commercial and cultural exhibits, entertainment concessions, national and corporate displays of wealth, and indigenous peoples from the colonial empires of the host country. As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority. Anthropology Goes to the Fair takes readers through the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition to see how anthropology, as conceptualized by W J McGee, the first president of the American Anthropological Association, showcased itself through programs, static displays, and living exhibits for millions of people “to show each half of the world how the other half lives.” More than two thousand Native peoples negotiated and portrayed their own agendas on this world stage. The reader will see how anthropology itself was changed in the process.

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The Louisiana & Arkansas Railway, known as "The Better Way," ran its first trains at the turn of the century and expanded over the years to connect New Orleans to Dallas. Well-maintained and enduringly profitable, this regional railroad succeeded because of the tenacity of three men who consecutively oversaw all aspects of operations. The story of the L&A is largely a collective biography of William Edenborn, William Buchanan, and Harvey Couch—the men who built and extended the line by shrewd acquisitions. These successful businessmen combined wisdom, foresight, and propensity for hard word—traits they had first demonstrated in other careers—with their longtime love for trains. Each applied remarkable talents for industry and commerce toward the development of the L&A to mold it into a model regional railroad. In this first history of the L&A, Fair traces the line's development from the early boom days of railroading to its dissolution in the modern era of takeovers. Although for much of its existence the L&A operated under the control of a parent company, the KCS, it long maintained independence. The eventual takeover by the superline in 1992 finally dissolved the L&A entirely.

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Like many other soldiers who fought in the Civil War, New Orleans newspaper editor William J. Seymour left behind an account of his wartime experiences. It is the only memoir by any field or staff officer of the famous 1st Louisiana Brigade (Hays’ Brigade) in the Army of Northern Virginia. Long out of print, The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J. Seymour: Reminiscences of a Louisiana Tiger is available once more in this updated and completely revised edition by award-winning author Terry L. Jones.Seymour’s invaluable narrative begins with his service as a volunteer aide to Confederate Gen. Johnson K. Duncan during the 1862 New Orleans campaign. Utilizing his journalistic background and eye for detail, Seymour recalls in great detail the siege of Fort Jackson (the only Southern soldier’s account except for official reports), the bickering and confusion among Confederate officers, and the subsequent mutiny and surrender of the fort’s defenders. Jailed after the fall of New Orleans for violating Maj. Gen. Ben Butler’s censorship order, Seymour was eventually released and joined General Hays’ staff in Virginia.Seymour’s memoirs cover his experiences in the army of Northern Virginia in great detail, including the campaigns of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Shenandoah Valley, ending with the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. His pen recounts the activities of the Louisiana Brigade while offering a critical analysis of the tactics and strategies employed by the army.A perceptive and articulate officer, Seymour left behind an invaluable account of the Civil War’s drudgery and horror, pomp and glory. Terry L. Jones’ spare and judicious editing enhances Seymour’s memoirs to create an indispensable resource for Civil War historians and enthusiasts.

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From backwoods bars and small-town dives to swampside dance halls and converted clapboard barns, Louisiana Saturday Night offers an anecdotal history and experiential guidebook to some of the Gumbo State's most unique blues, Cajun, and zydeco clubs. Music critic Alex V. Cook uncovers south Louisiana's wellspring of musical tradition, showing us that indigenous music exists not as an artifact to be salvaged by preservationists, but serves as a living, breathing, singing, laughing, and crying part of Louisiana culture. Louisiana Saturday Night takes the reader to both offbeat and traditional venues in and around Baton Rouge, Cajun country, and New Orleans, where we hear the distinctive voices of musicians, patrons, and owners -- like Teddy Johnson, born in the house that now serves as Teddy's Juke Joint. Along the way, Cook ruminates on the cultural importance of the people and places he encounters, and shows their critical role in keeping Louisiana's unique music alive. A map, a journal, a snapshot of what goes on in the little shacks off main roads, Louisiana Saturday Night provides an indispensable and entertaining companion for those in pursuit of Louisiana's quirky and varied nightlife.

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As recently as 90 years ago, it was not uncommon for organizers of world fairs or even museum curators to scour the world looking for "exotic" people to exhibit at their respective expositions and institutions. At one such fair, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, Charles H. Carpenter, chief photographer of the Field Museum in Chicago, photographed what would become his "magnum opus", a collection of over 800 photographs of Native Americans. In an effort to preserve the visually rich moments captured as a result of this peculiar cultural piece of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "Portraits of Native Americans" gathers together 23 black and white photographs from this prodigious collection. Carpenter photographed the Native Americans on the fairgrounds as the tourists saw them and against simple studio backdrops, where photographer and subject achieved an intimacy that elevated these pictures to art. Although the ways in which American Indians and non-Indians view each other have greatly changed since these photographs were taken, these images are an evocation of their time.

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In eighteenth-century New Orleans, the legal testimony of some 150 enslaved women and men--like the testimony of free colonists--was meticulously recorded and preserved. Questioned in criminal trials as defendants, victims, and witnesses about attacks, murders, robberies, and escapes, they answered with stories about themselves, stories that rebutted the premise on which slavery was founded.Focusing on four especially dramatic court cases, Voices of the Enslaved draws us into Louisiana's courtrooms, prisons, courtyards, plantations, bayous, and convents to understand how the enslaved viewed and experienced their worlds. As they testified, these individuals charted their movement between West African, indigenous, and colonial cultures; they pronounced their moral and religious values; and they registered their responses to labor, to violence, and, above all, to the intimate romantic and familial bonds they sought to create and protect. Their words--punctuated by the cadences of Creole and rich with metaphor--produced riveting autobiographical narratives as they veered from the questions posed by interrogators.Carefully assessing what we can discover, what we might guess, and what has been lost forever, Sophie White offers both a richly textured account of slavery in French Louisiana and a powerful meditation on the limits and possibilities of the archive.

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The image is terrible and familiar. A man sits, his face in profile, his torso exposed. His back is a breathtaking mass of scars, crisscrossing his body and baring the brutality of American slavery. Reproduced as a carte de visite, the image circulated widely throughout abolitionist networks and was featured in Harper's Weekly. Its undeniable power testified to the evils of slavery. But who was this man and how did this image come to be?Bruce Laurie uncovers the people and events that created this seminal image, telling the tale of three men, two Yankee soldiers from western Massachusetts who were serving the Union Army in Louisiana and a man named Peter whose scarred back horrified all who saw it. The two soldiers were so shocked by what had been done to Peter, they sought to capture the image and document slavery's cruelty, the likes of which was all too common among those fleeing bondage in Louisiana. Meticulously researched and briskly told, this short volume unearths the story behind an iconic image.

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Before the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana became one of the state’s top private employers—with its vast landholdings and economic enterprises—they lived well below the poverty line and lacked any clear legal status. After settling near Bayou Blue in 1884, they forged friendships with their neighbors, sparked local tourism, and struck strategic alliances with civic and business leaders, aid groups, legislators, and other tribes. The Coushattas also engaged the public with stories about the tribe’s culture, history, and economic interests that intersected with the larger community, all while battling legal marginalization exacerbated by inconsistent government reports regarding their citizenship, treaty status, and eligibility for federal Indian services. Well into the twentieth century, the tribe had to overcome several major hurdles, including lobbying the Louisiana legislature to pass the state’s first tribal recognition resolution (1972), convincing the Department of the Interior to formally acknowledge the Coushatta Tribe through administrative channels (1973), and engaging in an effort to acquire land and build infrastructure.Basket Diplomacy demonstrates how the Coushatta community worked together—each generation laying a foundation for the next—and how they leveraged opportunities so that existing and newly acquired knowledge, timing, and skill worked in tandem.

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Before the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana became one of the state’s top private employers—with its vast landholdings and economic enterprises—they lived well below the poverty line and lacked any clear legal status. After settling near Bayou Blue in 1884, they forged friendships with their neighbors, sparked local tourism, and struck strategic alliances with civic and business leaders, aid groups, legislators, and other tribes. The Coushattas also engaged the public with stories about the tribe’s culture, history, and economic interests that intersected with the larger community, all while battling legal marginalization exacerbated by inconsistent government reports regarding their citizenship, treaty status, and eligibility for federal Indian services. Well into the twentieth century, the tribe had to overcome several major hurdles, including lobbying the Louisiana legislature to pass the state’s first tribal recognition resolution (1972), convincing the Department of the Interior to formally acknowledge the Coushatta Tribe through administrative channels (1973), and engaging in an effort to acquire land and build infrastructure.Basket Diplomacy demonstrates how the Coushatta community worked together—each generation laying a foundation for the next—and how they leveraged opportunities so that existing and newly acquired knowledge, timing, and skill worked in tandem.

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The rollicking tale of a first-of-its-kind adventure—driving a Tesla through Central America.Only a week after the nation’s newspapers were filled with headlines of the first cross-country trip in an electric car, two Louisianans slip quietly across the Rio Grande in south Texas in an attempt to do the unthinkable—drive a factory electric car across seven Third World countries to the “end of the road,” Panama City, Panama.Without support and armed only with a toolbox, a bag of electrical adapters, and their wits, author Randy Denmon and his friend Dean trudge on through jungles, deserts, volcanoes, rivers, and crater-sized potholes, all the while trying to avoid the drug cartels and corrupt border guards that could mean a quick end to their adventure . . . and their lives. Through it all, the same enormous problem loomed daily: how to charge the car in such a primitive and desolate setting?Despite the numerous setbacks, Randy never lost his sense of humor. Off the Grid is as much a spiritual journey as a physical one about two guys who dropped everything for one grand twenty-first-century adventure—traveling back in time in a car that seemed to come from the future.

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The weather patterns and topography of America's Gulf Coast create favorable growing conditions for thousands of species of mushrooms, but the complete region has generally gone uncharted when it comes to mycology. Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States at last delivers an in-depth, high-quality, user-friendly field guide, featuring more than 1,000 common and lesser-known species—some of which are being illustrated in color for the first time.Using easily identifiable characteristics and a color key, the authors enable anyone, whether amateur mushroom hunter or professional mycologist, to discern and learn about the numerous species of mushrooms encountered in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Wild-food enthusiasts will appreciate the information on edibility or toxicity that accompanies each description, and they will also find the book’s detailed instructions for collecting, cleaning, testing, preserving, and cooking wild mushrooms to be of great interest. Providing encyclopedic knowledge in a handy format that fits in a backpack, Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States is a must-have for any mushroom lover.

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Normally, forced heirship is primarily associated with a restraint of the decedent's testamentary freedom of disposition. Nevertheless, to effectively protect the forced heirs, forced heirship systems usually also contain various mechanisms to restrain the decedent's lifetime freedom of disposition. Scholars and courts have been debating the proper characterization of these mechanisms in conflicts of laws for decades. Raphael de Barros Fritz addresses the many open questions surrounding this issue by analysing the characterization of forced heirship mechanisms in the laws of Louisiana and Germany.

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From Gumbo to Jambalaya, bring the traditional tastes of Louisiana to your kitchen with 50 authentic Cajun and Creole recipes, shown in 250 photographs. It includes two deliciously distinctive cuisines - elegant and sophisticated Creole cooking ideas are presented alongside hearty and rustic Cajun food, so you will never be stuck for inspiration. It includes famous classics as well as a selection of traditional recipes that have been updated to create healthy, tasty dishes for today's busy cooks. It helps you spice up meal times with Oyster and Bacon Brochettes, Chicken Sauce Piquante or Roast Pork with Cajun Stuffing. It offers fresh ideas for all occasions and tastes: appetizers and snacks, fish and shellfish, meat and poultry dishes, and vegetarian options, not forgetting divine desserts. It features step-by-step photography, clear method text, and plenty of tips and hints to ensure success every time. Louisiana is home to two vibrant, spicy and famous cuisines: Cajun and Creole. This evocative volume presents a collection of easy-to-follow recipes that summarise the very best of the Cajun and Creole heritage. There are traditional dishes such as Green Herb Gumbo, Blackened Redfish and Chicken and Prawn Jambalaya, as well as lesser-known options including Corn and Crab Bisque, Avery Island Salsa and Maque Choux. The recipes include enticing appetizers, snacks and sauces, meat and poultry dishes, vegetables, fish and shellfish dishes, and delectable desserts, such as Bananas Foster, Pralines and Pecan Nut Divinity Cake. With 250 step-by-step photographs and plenty of cook's tips throughout, this book makes authentic Cajun and Creole dishes simple to achieve at home.

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The 10th installment in the bestselling Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series tells the story of the Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (1803) is today seen as one of history’s greatest bargains. But why did Napoleon Bonaparte sell this seemingly prosperous territory? At the time, France controlled Haiti, and there, slaves were used to harvest sugar. But in 1791, Toussaint Louverture led the largest slave uprising in human history, the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). Napoleon had originally wanted to use Louisiana for trade, but with Haiti out of his control, Napoleon’s dream of making a French empire in North America seemed doomed. So when Thomas Jefferson and James Madison tried to buy New Orleans, Napoleon sold them the whole Louisiana Territory. Filled with wild and true facts and Hale’s signature humor, the latest installment in the bestselling series takes readers on another action-packed adventure through history.

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Big old trees inspire our respect and even affection. The poet Walt Whitman celebrated a Louisiana live oak that was solitary "in a wide flat space, / Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near." Groves and alleys of live oaks remain as distinctive landscape features on Louisiana's antebellum plantations, while massive individuals still cast their shade over churches, graveyards, parks, and roads. Cajuns have adopted the "Evangeline Oak" as one of their symbols. And the attachment that Louisianians feel for live oaks is equaled by that of Guatemalans for ceibas, the national tree of Guatemala. Long before Europeans came to the Americas, the ceiba, tallest of all native species, was the Mayan world tree, the center of the universe. Today, many ceibas remain as centers of Guatemalan towns, spreading their branches over the central plaza and marketplace. In this compelling book, Kit Anderson creates a vibrant portrait of the relationship between people and trees in Louisiana and Guatemala. Traveling in both regions, she examined and photographed many old live oaks and ceibas and collected the stories and symbolism that have grown up around them. She describes who planted the trees and why, how the trees have survived through many human generations, and the rich meanings they hold for people today. Anderson also recounts the natural history of live oaks and ceibas to show what human use of the landscape has meant for the trees. This broad perspective, blending cultural geography and natural history, adds a new dimension to our understanding of how big old trees and the places they help create become deeply meaningful, even sacred, for human beings.

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This is the first guide to dragonflies and damselflies of the south-central United States. The book covers 263 species, representing more than half of the North American fauna. The area of coverage significantly overlaps with other regions of the country making this book a useful aid in identifying the dragonflies and damselflies in any part of the United States, Canada, or northeastern Mexico. More photographs of damselflies in North America appear here than in any other previously published work. All 85 damselfly and 178 dragonfly species found in the region are distinguished by photographs, numerous line drawings, keys, and detailed descriptions to help with identifications. Features include: * Discussions of habitats, zoogeography, and seasonality * Details on dragonfly and damselfly life history and conservation * An introduction on studying and photographing dragonflies and damselflies * An entire section devoted to the external anatomy of dragonflies and damselflies * Species accounts organized by family into sections on size, regional and general distribution, flight season, identification, similar species, habitat and biology and ecology * Range maps for each species, as well as an extensive bibliography and a list of resources for further study

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One of the most gifted American journalists of the twentieth century, A. J. Liebling learned his craft as a newspaper reporter before joining The New Yorker in 1935. This volume collects five books that demonstrate his extraordinary vitality and versatility as a writer.Named the best sports book of all time by Sports Illustrated in 2002, The Sweet Science (1956) offers a lively and idiosyncratic portrait of boxing in the early 1950s that encompasses boastful managers, veteran trainers, wily cornermen, and the fighters themselves: Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Archie Moore, “a virtuoso of anachronistic perfection.” No one has captured the fierce artistry of the ring like Liebling. “A boxer,” he observed, “like a writer, must stand alone.” A classic of reporting, The Earl of Louisiana (1961) is a vivid account of Governor Earl Long’s bid for reelection after his release from a mental asylum in 1959—and an insightful look at Southern politics during the civil rights era.The Jollity Building (1962) collects hilarious stories about Manhattan cigar-store owners, night-club promoters, and the scheming “Telephone Booth Indians” of Broadway, as well as a profile of “The Honest Rainmaker,” the racing columnist and confidence man extraordinaire Colonel John R. Stingo. An unabashed celebration of the pleasures of unrestrained eating, Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris (1962) is a richly evocative memoir of Liebling’s lifelong love for Paris and French food and wine. The Press (1964) brings together the best of Liebling’s influential “Wayward Press” pieces, in which he perceptively examined the flaws of American journalism and presciently warned of the dangers of consolidated media ownership. “Freedom of the press,” he wrote, “is guaranteed only to those who own one.”LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

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Over the last three decades, Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist (born 1962) has been an original and impactful voice on the contemporary art scene with her sensuous, colorful and norm-subverting audio and video universes (the artist's first name is itself a nod to Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's rebellious, freethinking heroine Pippi Longstocking). With projections on ceilings, walls and floors, Rist liberates the moving image from the screen through installations and new electronic formats. While body and gender are central themes in her early pieces, the main focus of her recent work has shifted towards nature. Rist's art is sensually playful and compelling, while also diving deeply into existential abysses. Superbly produced with a die-cut cover, this book is published in connection with Rist's midcareer survey exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and comprises texts by some of the foremost specialists on Rist's work.

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A handsome, affordable introduction to the modernist polymath who charted the rhythms of color across textiles, illustration, painting and more Sonia Delaunay was a true pioneer of modernist abstraction; breaking with the figurative vocabulary that subordinated color to subject matter, she placed dynamic color interaction at the core of her vision, whether expressed through painting, book illustration or costume and textile design. Drawing inspiration from both traditional Russian crafts and the modern frenetic metropolis, Delaunay’s work reflects the drastic changes ushered in by industrialization. Through her polyvalent practice, Delaunay helped construct the new modern woman that she herself embodied: equal parts avant-gardist, creative entrepreneur and businesswoman. This richly illustrated catalog showcases the range of Delaunay’s work as it unfolded over 60 years, from abstract paintings and works on paper to textile design, garments, fashion photography, books and carpets—even a brightly colored sports car. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) migrated to Paris in 1906 and became a key figure in the city’s avant-garde scene. During these early years, her paintings underwent a formal shift influenced by the vivid colors of Fauvism. She soon met her husband, fellow artist Robert Delaunay, and the couple pioneered a fusion of Cubism and Neo-Impressionism that they termed Simultanism, which denotes abstract painting that uses color in a manner comparable to the use of sound and rhythm in music. In 1964, Delaunay became the first living woman artist to have a retrospective at the Louvre.

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Key works and writings from six decades of pioneering image-text works in celebration of Eros For six decades, Dorothy Iannone (born 1933) has developed an iconography that is at once epic and intensely personal. Often her works bear a close resemblance to graphic novels: hand-lettered texts and images work together to tell the story, bluntly and with humor in both verbal and visual details. Liberated sexuality and romantic relations are central themes. Iannone’s erotic scenes stem from historical representations of ecstatic unions across times, cultures and religions, with references to antiquity, Greek vases, Egyptian art, Roman and Pompeian murals, the Kama Sutra and Tantra, Icelandic sagas, Christianity, Buddhism, world literature and film history. Serving as muses, the artist’s lovers appear in her narratives: several works feature the artist Dieter Roth, who was Iannone’s partner from 1967 to 1974. This richly illustrated catalog presents some of the artist’s most important work, alongside an introduction by Italian art historian Barbara Casavechia, the artist’s own writing and an illustrated biography.

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“A great and unlikely success story, Da Corte creates funny and therapeutic works in the hope of easing the ‘exquisite pain’ of modern life.” –New York Times This comprehensive monograph celebrates the acclaimed Philadelphia-based installation artist Alex Da Corte (born 1980), famed for his show-stopping 2021 Roof Garden Commission for the Met, As Long as the Sun Lasts. Da Corte’s Day-Glo works are distinctly rooted in traditional American arts and culture—tellingly, as a teenager he planned to become an animator for Disney—and the artist himself often appears in his films, impersonating iconic figures such as Popeye, the Statue of Liberty, Fred Rogers or Eminem. Throughout, the pop flavor of Da Corte’s aesthetics is mixed with a satirical existentialism: his works often combine sadness and effortless play, connecting our sense of self with consumer culture—from the films we watch to the objects we buy, give and throw away. Published for a major retrospective at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and documenting all of his major works to date, Alex Da Corte: Mr. Remember matches the artist’s high-production, ultra-chromatic sensibility in its gorgeous production, with a three-color cloth binding, silver foil on the cover, a paperback volume sewn into the book and an abundance of riotous color throughout, with more than 100 pages of installation views from previous exhibitions.

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Surveying the films, installations and performances of the superstar Icelandic artist Widely recognized as one of the most exciting and significant voices of contemporary art, Icelandic performance and multimedia artist Ragnar Kjartansson takes a loving yet critical look at Western culture. His longform video installations explore the dynamics of repetition, often through music, and develop into feats of endurance, both physical and emotional. The Guardian deemed his 2012 work The Visitors “the best artwork of the 21st century.” Combining quintessential videos such as Me and My Mother and Bliss with lesser-known paintings and sculptures, the retrospective at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art presents three new pieces made for the exhibition (including the title work with the plywood flames burning on the catalog cover) and captures the litany of senses Kjartansson has embraced without hesitation in his 20-year career. New work created for the anthology includes a painted plywood monument to “an epic waste of love and understanding” and a new performance piece titled Scaredman. The richly illustrated catalog includes personal contributions and dialogues in response to each of the artist's works on display by leading contemporary artists and scholars. Curator Tine Colstrup discusses A Lot of Sorrow with Marina Abramović, and reflects on Terrible, Terrible with Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina. The book proves itself an invaluable guide to Kjartansson’s examination of love, identity, melancholy, masculinity and power. Ragnar Kjartansson (born 1976), a native of Reykjavik, Iceland, studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and the Royal Academy of Arts, Stockholm. He represented Iceland at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia in 2009 and participated in the 2013 Encyclopedic Palace of the World at the 55th Biennale di Venezia in 2013.

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The first overview in a decade on Arke's poetical explorations of dual ethnicity Central to the multimedia oeuvre of Pia Arke (1958–2007) was the artist’s dual ethnicity in Greenland and Denmark, excavated in video works, collaged maps and landscape photographs that addressed themes of exploration, the complexities of ethnicity. Famed for her film Arctic Hysteria, Arke died of cancer at 48, and her work has only gained recognition over the past decade. With reproductions and essays, this volume introduces her to a wider audience. Kim Leine discusses themes of mortality; Darren Almond charts Arke’s depictions of the landscapes of Greenland; Minik Rosing looks at spirituality in relation to Greenland; Laura Smith examines “Arctic hysteria”; Erik Steffensen recounts the artist’s early years; Stefan Jonsson gives a biographical portrait; Erik Gant delves into the relationship between art and reality; Jessie Kleemann is interviewed about Arke’s legacy; and the exhibition’s curator, Anders Kold, explores Arke’s motifs of body and map.

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The mother as motif in art and literature, from prehistoric fertility goddesses to the Madonna and Child and beyond Ushering us into the world, our mother is our physical and cultural wellspring. Even if she is lost or absent, we are all sons and daughters. Throughout history and across cultures, the role of the mother has shifted, expanding at times and narrowing at others, as traditional family structures are by turns questioned and reinforced. This volume of art and literature on the many representations of the mother figure in art history ranges across religion, music, film and medicine. Excerpts, essays and poems by Marcel Proust, Maggie Nelson, Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, Gustave Flaubert, Sylvia Plath and Hans Christian Andersen meditate on motherhood alongside a wealth of visual material. Although the volume’s main focus is on 20th-century and 21st-century art, Mother! Origin of Life reaches back through history to trace artistic motifs from the prehistoric era to Ancient Greece to the Renaissance, noting how contemporary artists continue to tap into such universal themes. Between more than 150 artworks, expert texts and a short anthology of motherhood in literature, this publication reveals how depictions of motherhood in the arts have been linked to broader cultural perceptions. Artists include: Sophie Calle, Mary Cassatt, Rineke Dijkstra, Laure Prouvost, Frida Orubapo, Tracey Emin, Alberto Giacometti, Mary Kelly, René Magritte, Alice Neel and Pablo Picasso.

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A sweeping journey through the roaring art and culture of the Weimar Republic At the center of this volume are the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) artists—Otto Dix, George Grosz and Albert Renger-Patzsch—and the groundbreaking photographer August Sander, in particular his famed series People of the 20th Century, which portrayed both prominent and anonymous Germans from all parts of society in a simple and matter-of-fact pictorial style. Sander and the Neue Sachlichkeit artists both pursued an anti-Expressionist aesthetic, embracing social engagement and a rejection of romantic idealism. The Cold Gaze also looks at the extraordinary writers associated with the Weimar Republic, such as Vicki Baum, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin, Hans Fallada, Erich Kästner and Christopher Isherwood. Further points of focus by a range of contributing writers include Germany’s Americanization during this period; Marcel Breuer’s innovations in furniture design; the invention and ascent of the Futura font; the Weimar cult of technology; and much more. This richly illustrated catalog unfolds a period that was at once euphoric and harsh, an extraordinary moment in modernity birthed in the shadows between two world wars.

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Adventures in bronze from acclaimed Danish artist Per Kirkeby Danish multimedia artist Per Kirkeby (1938-2018) combines nature and the human body in his bronze sculptures. The Louisiana Museum of Art presents Bronze, the first book to focus entirely on Kirkeby’s bronze sculptures and his inspirations—including works by Rodin, ancient myths and the female body.

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