Portraits of Resistance: Activating Art During Slavery

A highly original history of American portraiture that places the experiences of enslaved people at its center

“An argument for a new kind of American art history . . . a textbook for the future of the field.”—Mia L. Bagneris, caa.reviews

This timely and eloquent book tells a new history of American art: how enslaved people mobilized portraiture for acts of defiance. Revisiting the origins of portrait painting in the United States, Jennifer Van Horn reveals how mythologies of whiteness and...