Visualizing Haiti in U.S. Culture 1910 1950

From the late 1910s through the 1950s particularly the Caribbean nation of Haiti drew the attention and imaginations of many key U.S. artists yet curiously while significant studies have been published on Haiti's history and inter-American exchanges none analyze visual representations with any depth. The author calls not only on the methodologies of art history but also on the interdisciplinary eye of visual culture studies anthropology literary theory and tourism studies to examine the fine arts in relation to popular arts media social beliefs and institutional structures. Twa emphasizes close visual readings of photographs illustrations paintings and theatre. Extensive textual and archival research also supports her visual analysis such as scrutinizing the personal papers of this study's artists writers and intellectuals. Among the literary and artistic luminaries of the twentieth century that Twa includes in her discussion are Richmond Barthé Eldzier Cortor Aaron Douglas Katherine Dunham Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston Alexander King Jacob Lawrence James Weldon Johnson Loïs Mailou Jones Eugene O'Neill and William Edouard Scott. Twa argues that their choice of Haiti as subject matter was a highly charged decision by these American artists to use their artwork to engage racial social and political issues.