Representing the Black Female Subject in Western Art

Charmaine A. Nelson analyzes not only how, where, why and by whom black female subjects have been represented in Western art, but also what the social and cultural impacts of the colonial legacy of racialized western representation have been. She poses critical questions about the contexts of production, the problems of representation, the pathways of circulation and the consequences of consumption.

This book offers the first concentrated examination of the representation of the black female subject in Western art through the lenses of race/color and sex/gender. Charmaine A. Nelson poses critical questions about the contexts of production, the problems of representation, the pathways of circulation and the consequences of consumption. She analyzes not only how, where, why and by whom black female subjects have been represented, but also what the social and cultural impacts of the colonial legacy of racialized western representation have been. Nelson also explores and problematizes the issue of the historically privileged white artistic access to black female bodies and the limits of representation for these subjects. This book not only reshapes our understanding of the black female representation in Western Art, but also furthers our knowledge about race and how and why it is (re)defined and (re)mobilized at specific times and places throughout history.