Casting an Image of “The Other” in the Age of Imperialism: French Tradition and American Themes in Nineteenth-Century Ethnographic Sculpture
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | American artists flocked to Europe in the nineteenth century to receive academic training and expose themselves to the rich history of Western art. At the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts and the progressive Académie Julian, sculptors learned the techniques and visual strategies that they would take back to America, where the young country required their talents. Sculptural decoration was needed on the Nation’s growing number of government buildings, such as the U.S. Capitol Building. The narratives expressed in sculptural form projected the power of the young republic in conquering the New World. Overcoming the peoples of the First Nations was essential to the success of colonization and communicating that success in the plastic arts was one tool in popular education. The paper focuses on public sculpture representing Native Americans that was employed in the service of expansionism, ethnic relations and the century’s two great republics: the United States and France. |
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