War, Race and Imagery

Please join us right after Armistice Day for a talk by Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier, author of the new book Suffering and Sunset: World War I in the Art and Life of Horace Pippin. Bernier will talk about the self-made artist and soldier Horace Pippin, who served in an all-black infantry in World War I until he was wounded. War provided a formative experience that defined much of Pippin’s life and work. His ability to transform combat service into canvases of emotive power, psychological depth, and realism showed not only how he viewed the world but also his mastery as a painter. Bernier’s book painstakingly traces Pippin’s life story of art as a life story of war. It is also the first intellectual history and cultural biography of Pippin, revealing his many artful resistances to racism in a white-dominated art world.

We will also hear from James Brookes, a scholar of the American Civil War and its photographs, who will explore the role of imagery for Civil War soldiers themselves, including black soldiers, and from Rosemary Pearce, a scholar of World War Two and the civil rights era, who will explore race and imagery at mid-century.

Together, the scholars will debate the fusion of race and imagery across three major wars, marking both the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 100th anniversary of World War One.