The Smithsonian Institution

Framing America: A Social History of American ArtAuthor(s): Frances K. PohlSource: American Art, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2002), pp. 10-12Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art MuseumStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109381 .

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works and their owners. There were last-minute nightmares when I received proof pages and discovered that some of the images differed in varying degrees from what I had re- quested. This required quick modifications of the text, as I had to adjust visual analyses to match the unexpected examples. There were, of course, image reversals that nearly es-

caped authorial and editorial eyes but were soon corrected. The usual embarrassing proof- reading errors kept me up at night, since I knew that for all my corrections other pesky mistakes, editorial and otherwise, would undoubtedly slip through the net and be called to my attention after it was too late to correct them.

But the beauty of a survey, as opposed to an Allston monograph, is that in all likeli- hood there will be a second edition. So I take this opportunity to ask you, kind readers, to send letters and emails with corrections and suggested revisions. I've already received several, including valued comments from my students, and I warmly thank the thought- ful correspondents. More than anything, this survey has taught me that writing is a col- lective enterprise.

works and their owners. There were last-minute nightmares when I received proof pages and discovered that some of the images differed in varying degrees from what I had re- quested. This required quick modifications of the text, as I had to adjust visual analyses to match the unexpected examples. There were, of course, image reversals that nearly es-

caped authorial and editorial eyes but were soon corrected. The usual embarrassing proof- reading errors kept me up at night, since I knew that for all my corrections other pesky mistakes, editorial and otherwise, would undoubtedly slip through the net and be called to my attention after it was too late to correct them.

But the beauty of a survey, as opposed to an Allston monograph, is that in all likeli- hood there will be a second edition. So I take this opportunity to ask you, kind readers, to send letters and emails with corrections and suggested revisions. I've already received several, including valued comments from my students, and I warmly thank the thought- ful correspondents. More than anything, this survey has taught me that writing is a col- lective enterprise.

Frances K. Pohl Frances K. Pohl Framing America Framing America

A Social History of American Art A Social History of American Art

Frances Pohl at her home in Claremont, California Frances Pohl at her home in Claremont, California

Writing a survey text on American art at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first cen- turies has been both exciting and frustrating. While new scholarship over the past several decades has unearthed previously unknown artists and caused us to rethink the work of those who are well known, the sheer breadth and volume of this scholarship has chal-

lenged the format of a conventional survey. In addition, new questions have been posed about the very writing of art history. Some have asked whether one should even attempt

to create a text that claims to represent the history of American art when, in order to be manageable within the con- text of a college classroom or a publisher's budget, it has to leave out so much.

Despite the inevitable omissions, I be- lieve that survey texts are still valuable, for they function as effective vehicles not only for introducing a broad range of cre- ative expression, but also for addressing the complexity of historical change. I wrote Framing America because of my commitment to taking on this complexity in my classes and to helping others to do so through a text that synthesized as much of the new scholarship in the field as possible. My book is not intended to answer in any definitive manner questions students might have about the history of American art, but to provide what one hopes is an engaging entrance into the

Writing a survey text on American art at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first cen- turies has been both exciting and frustrating. While new scholarship over the past several decades has unearthed previously unknown artists and caused us to rethink the work of those who are well known, the sheer breadth and volume of this scholarship has chal-

lenged the format of a conventional survey. In addition, new questions have been posed about the very writing of art history. Some have asked whether one should even attempt

to create a text that claims to represent the history of American art when, in order to be manageable within the con- text of a college classroom or a publisher's budget, it has to leave out so much.

Despite the inevitable omissions, I be- lieve that survey texts are still valuable, for they function as effective vehicles not only for introducing a broad range of cre- ative expression, but also for addressing the complexity of historical change. I wrote Framing America because of my commitment to taking on this complexity in my classes and to helping others to do so through a text that synthesized as much of the new scholarship in the field as possible. My book is not intended to answer in any definitive manner questions students might have about the history of American art, but to provide what one hopes is an engaging entrance into the

10 Summer 2002 10 Summer 2002

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the field and to inspire more questions, to prompt students to explore American art

and *a haf years ws even further. One way I have attempted to do this is by acknowledging through- out the text the scholars upon whose work I have drawn, and by presenting, at times, differing points of view on a par- ticular work of art or artist. The writing of art history has been, and always will

_ the be, an ongoing process in which many individuals offer sometimes competing

arguments. For students of American art, the disagreement is often as instructive as any common ground that might be occupied.

It took me a little over six years to write this book. It was a long and diffi- cult process, but I was fortunate to be working with Thames and Hudson. The publisher's flexibility was much appreci-

ated as I failed to meet my initial deadline (that I thought I could finish the book in two and a half years was an indication of my own naivete) and as I submitted many more words than I had been contracted to write. They allowed me to expand the size of the book and to define the direction it would take without the endless focus groups and on- going outside reviews that often mark the textbook writing process (reviews were solicited when the manuscript was almost finished). Thames and Hudson was also willing to rene- gotiate the number of illustrations initially agreed upon (which resulted in an increase from 550 to 665, with 337 rather than 100 color plates) and readily complied with my wish to reproduce in color as many of the less well-known works in the book as possible. Finally, I was given an editor in the London office whose close and critical reading of the text helped me immeasurably in focusing my ideas and clarifying my writing.

While I have drawn on sources that exhibit a wide range of methodologies, I have cho- sen to call my text a "social history of art" because the social history of art, as I have come to understand it, is able to accommodate the many concerns I feel compelled to address: how the meaning of a work is a function not only of its content, but also of where it is produced, where it is displayed, the identity of the artist, and how this identity is affected by questions of race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, and sexuality; the place of art within struggles for power in both the public and private realms; and the rethinking of the category "art" itself. The best social history of art combines research on both individ- uals and the institutions of art-academies, galleries, museums, journals, community art programs-in order to achieve an understanding of the larger political and aesthetic processes at work and of the tensions these processes ultimately create as change occurs. The social history of art grounds creative practices firmly within social relations and the material conditions of history.

Like many of my contemporaries in the field of American art history, I have not limited my study to canonical works. While students will find many familiar names-

Benjamin West, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ben Shahn, Jackson Pollock, and Barbara Kruger-they will also find many new names and new media-Maria Marta (woven baskets), Cynthia Burr (needlework), Rufus Porter (wall paintings), Wo-Haw (ledger drawings), Laura Brey (WWI posters), and Simon Rodia (decorated towers). My

11 American Art

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intent is not to create a new canon of "great" American artists, but to allow the reader ac- cess to the multiplicity of creative processes through which individuals or groups grapple with ideas and transform them into art forms that speak powerfully to particular people at particular moments in history.

I have integrated works in a wide range of media, including architecture, into a single narrative, rather than isolating them in separate media-based sections, in order to convey the interconnectedness of what have been variously described as fine art, folk art, popular art and mass culture, and the built environment within which these cultural products cir- culate. I have also incorporated the work of Native American artists throughout the book within the context of a critical examination of the processes and effects of European colo- nization. The land claimed by Europeans on the North American continent was inhab- ited by many different peoples, all of whom had developed intricate systems of communication that drew heavily on images to express their identity, their place in the

world, and their political power. The relationships that grew out of these early encounters between Europeans and Native Americans are complex, and are central to an understand-

ing of the history of the United States-political, economic, and artistic. So, too, are those that developed as a result of the importation of vast numbers of slaves from Africa.

Through this book, I join many other scholars in calling for a broadening of our under-

standing of the multiple traditions that make up this country's cultural legacy. My own nationality and place of residence-I am a Canadian living in southern Cali-

fornia, close to the Mexican border-has also affected the shape of my book. Initially I had proposed a text on the social history of North American art (Canada, the United

States, and Mexico), patterned after the courses I had been teaching for the previous ten

years. While Thames and Hudson decided to focus on the United States, Framing Amer- ica is still informed by a North American perspective. For example, I examine the colo- nial practices of New France and New Spain, as well as New England, and discuss the cultural production of the American Southwest in the early nineteenth century as part of northern New Spain and northern Mexico.

I have attempted to present a paradigm or framework-hence the title of the book- for thinking in a broader, more complex, and comparative manner. Such an approach can

provide students in the United States (and beyond) with a sense not only of this country's uniqueness but also of its shared histories. It can lead to an understanding of common

patterns of exploitation and struggles for independence, of divisions and alliances, and of cultural consumption and creative expression. As such, it can function as a valuable tool for students and faculty alike as we begin to navigate an increasingly complicated, glob- ally connected, and image-laden twenty-first century.

Angela Miller Honoring a Range of Voices

I never thought that writing a survey text in American art would be where I would choose to put my energies. I can't imagine a more difficult period in which to undertake such a project, when older organizing narratives no longer hold our conviction, while newer ones are still "abirthing." It seems to me-teaching undergraduate courses in American art and talking with colleagues around the country-that both how and what we teach in our surveys are currently open to radical reconsideration. Approaches range from the hour-long class spent considering the formal structures and interpretive nuances

intent is not to create a new canon of "great" American artists, but to allow the reader ac- cess to the multiplicity of creative processes through which individuals or groups grapple with ideas and transform them into art forms that speak powerfully to particular people at particular moments in history.

I have integrated works in a wide range of media, including architecture, into a single narrative, rather than isolating them in separate media-based sections, in order to convey the interconnectedness of what have been variously described as fine art, folk art, popular art and mass culture, and the built environment within which these cultural products cir- culate. I have also incorporated the work of Native American artists throughout the book within the context of a critical examination of the processes and effects of European colo- nization. The land claimed by Europeans on the North American continent was inhab- ited by many different peoples, all of whom had developed intricate systems of communication that drew heavily on images to express their identity, their place in the

world, and their political power. The relationships that grew out of these early encounters between Europeans and Native Americans are complex, and are central to an understand-

ing of the history of the United States-political, economic, and artistic. So, too, are those that developed as a result of the importation of vast numbers of slaves from Africa.

Through this book, I join many other scholars in calling for a broadening of our under-

standing of the multiple traditions that make up this country's cultural legacy. My own nationality and place of residence-I am a Canadian living in southern Cali-

fornia, close to the Mexican border-has also affected the shape of my book. Initially I had proposed a text on the social history of North American art (Canada, the United

States, and Mexico), patterned after the courses I had been teaching for the previous ten

years. While Thames and Hudson decided to focus on the United States, Framing Amer- ica is still informed by a North American perspective. For example, I examine the colo- nial practices of New France and New Spain, as well as New England, and discuss the cultural production of the American Southwest in the early nineteenth century as part of northern New Spain and northern Mexico.

I have attempted to present a paradigm or framework-hence the title of the book- for thinking in a broader, more complex, and comparative manner. Such an approach can

provide students in the United States (and beyond) with a sense not only of this country's uniqueness but also of its shared histories. It can lead to an understanding of common

patterns of exploitation and struggles for independence, of divisions and alliances, and of cultural consumption and creative expression. As such, it can function as a valuable tool for students and faculty alike as we begin to navigate an increasingly complicated, glob- ally connected, and image-laden twenty-first century.

Angela Miller Honoring a Range of Voices

I never thought that writing a survey text in American art would be where I would choose to put my energies. I can't imagine a more difficult period in which to undertake such a project, when older organizing narratives no longer hold our conviction, while newer ones are still "abirthing." It seems to me-teaching undergraduate courses in American art and talking with colleagues around the country-that both how and what we teach in our surveys are currently open to radical reconsideration. Approaches range from the hour-long class spent considering the formal structures and interpretive nuances

12 Summer 2002 12 Summer 2002

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