Supernatural America : The Paranormal in American Art

'This exhibition catalogue covers more than 200 years of visualisations of paranormal phenomena and otherworldly contact, demonstrating a  search for healing from the country's violent past by embracing the uncanny' -  The Bookseller

A fascinating and scholarly book looking at two centuries of American art linked to the supernatural

America is haunted. Ghosts from its violent history-the genocide of Indigenous peoples, slavery, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and traumatic wars-are an inescapable and unsettled part of the nation's heritage. Not merely in the realm of metaphor but present and tangible, urgently calling for contact, these otherworldly visitors have been central to our national identity.

Through times of mourning and trauma, artists have been integral to visualizing ghosts, whether national or personal, and in doing so have embraced the uncanny and the inexplicable. This stunning catalog, accompanying the first major exhibition to assess the spectral in American art, explores the numerous ways American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Featuring artists from James McNeill Whistler and Kerry James Marshall to artist/mediums who made images with spirits during seances, this catalog covers more than two hundred years of the supernatural in American art.

Here we find works that explore haunting, UFO sightings, and a broad range of experiential responses to other worldly contact.

Details

• Author: Robert Cozzolino
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Date published: August 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-0226786827
• Product Dimensions: 36  x 29 cm