Book Chapters by Earnestine Jenkins
Why did Ethiopian kings seek diplomatic contact with Latin Europe? Verena Krebs's Medieval Ethiop... more Why did Ethiopian kings seek diplomatic contact with Latin Europe? Verena Krebs's Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe challenges the established narratives concerning African-European encounters. Krebs argues that the desire for religious treasures and foreign artisans was linked to the political agenda of Ethiopian rulers. Like the biblical kings, they built monumental examples of religious architecture endowed with royal treasures from abroad. Krebs argues that the primary goal of the Ethiopian missions was not to gain access to European technology to strengthen the country's military capabilities. Most reviews of this volume discuss how effectively Krebs proves her thesis. This review focuses on the author's evaluation of varied sources for content about religious material culture. I consider the potential of the research in relation to art history and visual culture studies in Africa. Any exploration of the power attributed to objects made by skilled artisans from afar owes a debt to anthropologist Mary W. Helms's influential study, Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Trade, and Power (University of Texas Press, 1993). In the introduction, Krebs discusses the resources analyzed in Ge'ez, Arabic, Catalan, Latin, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Krebs's skilled comparative scrutiny is showcased in Chapter Two ("All the King's Treasures"), Chapter Three ("The Sons of Dawit"), and Chapter Four ("The Rule of the Regents"). A fascinating narrative emphasizing Ethiopian agency is exemplified in the description of the mission that was sent to Venice by Dawit II in 1402. Dawit II instructed his envoys to visit holy sites, seek religious treasures, and enlist skilled artists and craftsmen to assist in the construction and decoration of religious monuments in Ethiopia. Later delegations followed precedent, as observed in the Arabic, Catalan, and Italian sources regarding missions to King Alfonso V of Aragon in the 1420s. Ethiopian rulers desired relics, valuable religious objects, and skilled craftsmen, as opposed to participating in crusades.
Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights, 2022
Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights, 2022
Memphis: 200 Years Together, 2019
althy Memphis bus111essmnn Robert ure of Church's imposing residence he 300 block of South Lauder... more althy Memphis bus111essmnn Robert ure of Church's imposing residence he 300 block of South Lauderdale ntegrated neighborhoods developed aughter, Roberta Church, this was a e suburbs in objection to neighbors it leaders m the city lived W1U11n the The P/anttnjouma/published a lengthy 1906, proclaiming it "the finest and lored man m iliu coumry. " 1 the house in 1884 It wu a thrcc ccn Anne style residence erected in d a cellar, bathroom. butler's pantry. ie rooms on the first floor featured a ng room. recepuon and dining room, e length of a handsomely furmshed aly to paint murals on the wall�. omer lot w11h a command mg view of h completed the home in ume for his The Mtmphll Da,!JApptal ofj anunry I, tuled announcement ,owo in Memphis than Bob 1pt attention he has shown to in store for them, as he has 100,000, and lives in luxuno� -ch will occupy the magnificent b) him. and with his new wife �mly graduated at Oberlm.'. 1 r1or showcased the stables, uone �d the entire property. S1m1lar to American photographer Thomas found wealth, as symboliied in his :le range of experiences available to csentative of how African American Fig., J Lome of R.R. Church. 1890-1900. Vance and Lauderdale Dupl�ycd ill pan ofthc \merican "iegro cxb1b1t a11hc Par1� Expo\illon of 1900. Church Family Paper�. Special Collec11ons-Un1vcr\il) of Mcmphlll photographers were documenting middle clas� pro\pcntv and prominent race leaden of the ncw century around the country. The I look!. Brothers were the leading photographen doing um work in Memphis. In Brah• Stl'fel Whert the Bluel Bt gr m. (1934). author and political figu� George W. Lee. descnbcs the I loo� Bro1herutud10 as "The oldest of the artist's �1ud10�. on Beale near ThU"d," mdicatmg that it had seen ''the rise and decline of many amb1uouHenture�."• Robert and I lcnry llook!. opened their commercml photographv �tudio on Beale in 1907. In 1908. th ey were featured in C1-een P. lfam1lton's book ThtBnght,·r<i1dro/Mtmphu. Hamilton. a prommeni African American educator, wrotc his book to ch,11lenge the ncgauve stereotypei. about the Black commumty an Memph1�. H1� bool can be situated within the context of a growu,g. influential BLtck print culture (boo�. magazines. new�papers), during the New Negro movement that �ought 10 counteract the demoral171ng image\ that permeated Amencan culture. 8; Black print culture made extensive use of photographs including portraits and African Amencan owned homes, churches, and businesses. Hamilton's book likewise employed many photographs to make vmble Black success and achievements in Memphis. He described the Hooks Brothers studio as one of the best m the region.� Art ofStlJ-Rtpmtnlallon, Michael B1eze e.xplnmed how successful Washmgton was in manipulatmg his image by exploiting the photographic medium.' 3 Washington's interests m photography', potenual for reprcsentauon informed bi� early appreciation for the ans and visual culture. In 1900. Washington published A New N egro for o Ntu. Ctntury: An Accurate and Up-lo Dotr Ruord of tht Upuord Slrug{ti of tht N tgro Roct, a four hundred-page book that included sixty photographs of prominent Blacks in America.'• When Washington eSlablished the photography department at Tuske ge e lnstnute when he became leader there, 1t wa� the fust of its kind at a hlSlorical Black college. Tuskegee became an important center for the development of an aestheucally pleasing Myle of photography centered on imaging its international celebrny figure as a world-class leader of culture and innuence. Local African American photographers based in urban centers like Memphis were strongly impacted by the manner of representation validated by prominent race male leaders like Washington. In Memphis, the undisputed African American political leader was Robert Church Jr. Church wa� friends with Washington and was one of the fint to join Washington's Nauonal Negro Business League.'� Church first achieved prominence as the busine,sman who 1nher11ed the family wealth of hu father, Robert Church Sr. Durmg the early rwenueth century, he established himself ab one of lhe most influential African American Republican leaders tn the nauon.'b Church believed access to the ballot was the only hope minorities had for empowerment.His political career began when he served as a delegate from the Tenth Congressional Distract at the Republican National Convention in 1912. He served a delegate at the ne.xt 88 seven conventions until 1920s. Church conlrolle District during the ndm1 Harding. Calvin Coolidg from appotnung African appointments of White r Church was involved in West Tennessee. two Whi ensured that the Block vo mayoral elections during with Ku Klwc Klan memb predominantly Black wan The Hooks Brothl' "Bob" Church', evoluuor politicians of the earl) 11 circulated portrait create circulated an a number of, also published in books or as Thomas O. Fullers Prct length photograph. when angled toward the light SO\. profile his face aga1mt ad colored skin. Church's tu observed in almost every p without the immaculate• left breast pocket. The sti late nineteenth century F ar1stocra11c painung an or According lo Alan goal of photographic por the "soul of the subject represent nature simply portraits, therefore, reve essence of the subject t} and d1sc1plme. Much of t cultural refinement and I the pomion of the head.
This is the first chapter from Race, Representation and Photography in 19th Century Memphis. It e... more This is the first chapter from Race, Representation and Photography in 19th Century Memphis. It examines the slave trade and urban slavery in mid-19th century Memphis, focusing on the visualization of blacks and urban slave culture before African Americans acquired access to photography and more control over the representation of themselves after freedom was gained
chapter from Race, Representation and Photography in 19th Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow
Examines African Americans and the building of the freed community around the Beale Street area a... more Examines African Americans and the building of the freed community around the Beale Street area after emancipation and into the Reconstruction era. Focuses on Rev. Henderson as a model of spiritual leadership for former slaves
Race, Representation & Photography in 19th Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow, 2016
Robert Reed Church Sr., was the first African American millionaire in the South
Chapter from Race, Representation and Photography in 19th Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Cr... more Chapter from Race, Representation and Photography in 19th Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow. Examines the growth of the black middle class in the city during the years Ida B. Wells lived in Memphis. It focuses on the social role of photography and its relationship to black middle class aspirations.
Pictures and Power: Imaging and Imagining Frederick Douglas 1818-2018, 2017
Blacks and Blackness in European Art of the Long Nineteenth Century, 2014
The nineteenth century was an important era in reference to the representation of blacks and blac... more The nineteenth century was an important era in reference to the representation of blacks and blackness in western art and popular culture. Depictions of the “other” were strongly influenced by slavery, the anti-slavery movement, emancipation, and colonialism.
This chapter addresses how one early nineteenth century British artist approached the subject. It focuses on a painting by James Northcote the artist completed in 1826, entitled Head of a Negro in the Character of Othello. Northcote’s model was Ira Aldridge. It can be argued that the modern era in reference to the play Othello, began with the career of the first internationally known black actor, Ira Aldridge (1807-1867). The identifiable presence of Ira Aldridge as a black man in the role brought ‘race’ as we have come to understand it as socially constructed and burdened with complex and multiple meanings, to the foreground.
I am particularly interested in the relationship between European and American modes of representation. How did the novelty of a black actor in the role influence professional artists? In what ways did representation of an individual of African descent who began to achieve a certain level of fame affect the approach to the depiction of non-Europeans in the fine arts? And how did the foreign, specifically American identity of Ira Aldridge, the racial “baggage’ associated with slavery, as well as the new multi-faceted and complex black American culture born out of the “peculiar institution”, influence European visual culture during the long nineteenth century?
This paper interprets Northcote’s early portrait of Aldridge in character as Othello as a complex document of racial and political anxieties that fits within a pivotal historical moment in the depiction of blacks in western art on both sides of the Atlantic.
Books by Earnestine Jenkins
Dixon Galleries and Gardens, 2022
Catalogue for the exhibition James Little: Homecoming, Dixon Galleries and Gardens, April 17, 202... more Catalogue for the exhibition James Little: Homecoming, Dixon Galleries and Gardens, April 17, 2022-July 6, 2022.
Yale University Press, 2021
The book examines how African American artists responded to the political, social, economic and c... more The book examines how African American artists responded to the political, social, economic and cultural issues of the time in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Featured artists include Laura Wheeler Waring, Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Augusta Savage, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Norman Lewis, Walter Augustus Simon, Rose Piper, and Loïs Mailou Jones.
The book is the accompanying catalogue to the exhibition, Black Artists in America-from the Great Depression to Civil Rights, Dixon Galleries and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, October 17-January 2, 2022.
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Book Chapters by Earnestine Jenkins
This chapter addresses how one early nineteenth century British artist approached the subject. It focuses on a painting by James Northcote the artist completed in 1826, entitled Head of a Negro in the Character of Othello. Northcote’s model was Ira Aldridge. It can be argued that the modern era in reference to the play Othello, began with the career of the first internationally known black actor, Ira Aldridge (1807-1867). The identifiable presence of Ira Aldridge as a black man in the role brought ‘race’ as we have come to understand it as socially constructed and burdened with complex and multiple meanings, to the foreground.
I am particularly interested in the relationship between European and American modes of representation. How did the novelty of a black actor in the role influence professional artists? In what ways did representation of an individual of African descent who began to achieve a certain level of fame affect the approach to the depiction of non-Europeans in the fine arts? And how did the foreign, specifically American identity of Ira Aldridge, the racial “baggage’ associated with slavery, as well as the new multi-faceted and complex black American culture born out of the “peculiar institution”, influence European visual culture during the long nineteenth century?
This paper interprets Northcote’s early portrait of Aldridge in character as Othello as a complex document of racial and political anxieties that fits within a pivotal historical moment in the depiction of blacks in western art on both sides of the Atlantic.
Books by Earnestine Jenkins
The book is the accompanying catalogue to the exhibition, Black Artists in America-from the Great Depression to Civil Rights, Dixon Galleries and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, October 17-January 2, 2022.
This chapter addresses how one early nineteenth century British artist approached the subject. It focuses on a painting by James Northcote the artist completed in 1826, entitled Head of a Negro in the Character of Othello. Northcote’s model was Ira Aldridge. It can be argued that the modern era in reference to the play Othello, began with the career of the first internationally known black actor, Ira Aldridge (1807-1867). The identifiable presence of Ira Aldridge as a black man in the role brought ‘race’ as we have come to understand it as socially constructed and burdened with complex and multiple meanings, to the foreground.
I am particularly interested in the relationship between European and American modes of representation. How did the novelty of a black actor in the role influence professional artists? In what ways did representation of an individual of African descent who began to achieve a certain level of fame affect the approach to the depiction of non-Europeans in the fine arts? And how did the foreign, specifically American identity of Ira Aldridge, the racial “baggage’ associated with slavery, as well as the new multi-faceted and complex black American culture born out of the “peculiar institution”, influence European visual culture during the long nineteenth century?
This paper interprets Northcote’s early portrait of Aldridge in character as Othello as a complex document of racial and political anxieties that fits within a pivotal historical moment in the depiction of blacks in western art on both sides of the Atlantic.
The book is the accompanying catalogue to the exhibition, Black Artists in America-from the Great Depression to Civil Rights, Dixon Galleries and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, October 17-January 2, 2022.