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Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art from the First Half of the Twentieth Century, on view at the Mint Museum, offers a compelling account of the flourishing artistic environment in the Southern United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Historically, modernist art has largely been tied to the major centers of the United States and Europe. In recent decades, however, scholars have increasingly acknowledged the multiplicity of modernist impulses in the visual arts, emphasizing the powerful cross-currents of modernist practices that emerged concurrently across the globe, including within previously ignored geographies like the Global South. Yet, despite the… Full Review

With his thoughtful new book, Networks of Touch: A Tactile History of Chinese Art, 1790–1840, Michael J. Hatch draws attention to a neglected period of Chinese art history—that which falls between the faltering later years of the Qianlong emperor’s reign (1735–96) and the Opium Wars (1839–42, 1856–60). Focusing on a group of educated men who were associated with the influential scholar-official Ruan Yuan (1764–1849), Hatch examines how their common dedication to “evidential scholarship” (kaozheng xue) is manifest in art forms that range from calligraphy and painting to teapots and marble table screens. Hatch’s meticulous research into this… Full Review

Tourists snapping selfies on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence these days may be hard-pressed to say anything about the bridge other than that it’s “old”—appropriate, I suppose, given its name Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). Yet as Theresa Flanigan’s meticulous study of the bridge’s origins in The Ponte Vecchio: Architecture, Politics, and Civic Identity in Late Medieval Florence reminds us, the extant Ponte Vecchio is “the oldest surviving bridge in Florence, the only functional medieval bridge along the entire course of the Arno River, and one of the few remaining medieval examples of the urbanized or inhabited bridge type in all… Full Review

In the era of the second Trump administration, the United States, a settler colonial nation that from its foundation has been invested in the expansion of its power and reach across space and over peoples, is living in a moment of especially overt imperial rhetoric. From the president’s insistence on calling the “Gulf of Mexico” the “Gulf of America” to administrative ruminations over Canadian entrance into the union or seizing control of Greenland, the ongoing nature of American imperialism is apparent in word and deed. Importantly, these are not new developments tied only to the political party in power, nor… Full Review

In ancient China, mirrors were more than just reflective surfaces. They were decorative artifacts that showcased a range of fine patterns and designs, reaching a broad audience beyond the elite. They also exerted a strong impact on early design more broadly, particularly in the way that the decorative motifs that adorned their reverse sides were structured within banded spaces. Although bronze mirrors have been an important focal point in Chinese and Japanese scholarship, only article-length treatments of this subject exist in English. Bronze Mirrors in Ancient China: Artistry and Technique by Kin Sum Li, therefore, stands as the first full-length… Full Review

The stated goal of Ruth E. Iskin’s fascinating book is to “reenvision Cassatt’s life, career, and art in the context of her transatlantic friendships, networks, collecting activities, and politics” (1). In many respects, this aim of understanding an artist’s work within the context of their life is not a radical one. However, Mary Cassatt’s unique position as an American female Impressionist artist working and living in nineteenth-century Paris creates a complexity that has no doubt played a role in her relative marginalisation in studies of Impressionism. At the heart of this complexity is of course, her gender, and Iskin’s careful… Full Review

In the beginning of Trecento Pictoriality: Diagrammatic Painting in Late Medieval Italy, Karl Whittington invites us to step inside the Spanish Chapel, the chapter house of the Dominican friars of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Through descriptive language and carefully chosen photographs, he transports us to this gem of a medieval building and an oasis of quiet in a bustling city. Dwarfed by the towering murals that Andrea di Buonaiuto painted there in 1365–67, we stand with Whittington in the rectangular chapel. Wall by wall, he leads us through the fresco program and draws our attention to the variety… Full Review

Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images, an anthology by cultural historian and curator Maurice Berger, is the inaugural volume of the Vision & Justice Book Series, coedited by Drs. Sarah Lewis, Leigh Raiford, and Deborah Willis. Edited by Berger’s husband, curator and scholar Marvin Heiferman, the book collects Berger’s award-winning short essays on photography, originally published between 2012 and 2019 in his monthly New York Times column, “Race Stories.” Berger passed away in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and was not involved in the publication of Race Stories. Each essay explores a photograph or group… Full Review

Eyal Peretz is a Professor of Comparative Literature who has written books on subjects ranging from Moby Dick to Brian De Palma to Denis Diderot. This is Peretz’s first foray into Leonardo studies, and he is explicitly not writing as an art historian. Messengers of Infinity: On the Pictorial Logic of Leonardo da Vinci purports to be the “first philosophical engagement with the pictorial work of Leonardo, seen as a systematic whole” written from the viewpoint of contemporary continental philosophy and “theories of modern artistic media” (back cover). Peretz’s response to Leonardo’s paintings is a creative contribution to the literature… Full Review

In New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair, Jasmine Nichole Cobb sets an ambitious pair of goals: a) to write a new story about visual representations of Black hair and their role in shaping African American identity over the last two centuries and b) to invite her readers to reconsider their approaches to thinking and writing about Black hair by focusing on the ways in which that hair is not just represented but also lived and experienced. A key element of New Growth is Cobb’s interest in the “haptic” qualities of Black hair. The touch, texture, and… Full Review