Touched by the Mother
Black Men, American Art, Feminist Horizons
Will be published approx. on 28. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-0-226-58139-2 (ISBN)
Description
Writings on black men's cultural production and black masculinity by one of today's leading historians of modern and contemporary art.
Collecting twenty years of incisive essays, articles, and interviews-including four published here for the first time-by art historian Huey Copeland, this book affirms the extraordinary depth of black men's cultural production and the diversity of artistic practices that explore visual black masculinity in the United States. Part history, part memoir, part critical manifesto, Touched by the Mother offers a multi-faceted look at American art and discourse of the past fifty years, a personal meditation on navigating the world as a black gay man, and a feminist perspective on the ways transatlantic slavery continues to mark African and African diasporic men. Focusing on how the black maternal shapes black masculinity, Copeland confronts the dynamics that position African-American men-after their mothers-as sites of violence, creativity, and contestation in the cultural imagination.
Richly illustrated throughout, Touched by the Mother considers an exciting range of assemblage, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video works by more than twenty renowned practitioners, along with interviews featuring Hilton Als, Thelma Golden, Frank B. Wilderson, III, and other influential figures in contemporary art, culture, and criticism. Works by artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Howardena Pindell, Sun Ra, and Lorna Simpson represent modes of making and thinking that are uniquely "touched by the mother," Copeland argues, moving us toward the promise of black feminist futures.
Collecting twenty years of incisive essays, articles, and interviews-including four published here for the first time-by art historian Huey Copeland, this book affirms the extraordinary depth of black men's cultural production and the diversity of artistic practices that explore visual black masculinity in the United States. Part history, part memoir, part critical manifesto, Touched by the Mother offers a multi-faceted look at American art and discourse of the past fifty years, a personal meditation on navigating the world as a black gay man, and a feminist perspective on the ways transatlantic slavery continues to mark African and African diasporic men. Focusing on how the black maternal shapes black masculinity, Copeland confronts the dynamics that position African-American men-after their mothers-as sites of violence, creativity, and contestation in the cultural imagination.
Richly illustrated throughout, Touched by the Mother considers an exciting range of assemblage, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video works by more than twenty renowned practitioners, along with interviews featuring Hilton Als, Thelma Golden, Frank B. Wilderson, III, and other influential figures in contemporary art, culture, and criticism. Works by artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Howardena Pindell, Sun Ra, and Lorna Simpson represent modes of making and thinking that are uniquely "touched by the mother," Copeland argues, moving us toward the promise of black feminist futures.
Reviews / Votes
?"Copeland's Touched by the Mother inscribes a spectacular adventure in thought. Made up of his essays on various aspects of art, from assemblage to performance, this book defines an entire field of cultural achievement over the past fifty years. Do not miss it!" -- Hortense J. Spillers, Vanderbilt University "Authored by one of the leading voices in the field of art history and criticism, Touched by the Mother is a collection that exceeds expectations. The book is configured around two conceptual threads that have been central in Copeland's scholarship: the animating condition of possibility of the black maternal and its role in understanding black masculinity. Copeland unpacks this compelling frame of reference with characteristic erudition by carefully walking readers through its genesis within his work and illuminating an array of conversations and collaborations with artists, curators, scholars, and thinkers who have shaped his conception of this crucial intellectual formation." -- Tina Campt, Princeton University "Touched by the Mother is a beautifully written, deeply personal collection of essays that exists as a record of Copeland's groundbreaking intellectual journey and as a fierce account of art history's implication in antiblackness. Rooted in black feminist thought, this singular volume analyzes the complex and contradictory representation and experiences of black people while it gives us critical tools to imagine new ways of understanding art-making and being in the world." -- Steven Nelson, University of California, Los AngelesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Illustrations
149 color plates, 30 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 191 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-58139-2 (9780226581392)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Huey Copeland is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art and Black Study at the University of Pittsburgh. Copeland is an editor of the journal OCTOBER; coeditor of the award-winning essay collection Black Modernisms in the Transatlantic World; and author of Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Content
Introduction: Incidents in the Life of a Correcting Mirror
Part I: Post Black Male
1. Raw Life (with Jared Sexton) (2003)
2. Untitled (Jackpot!) (2005)
3. A Family Resemblance (2007)
4. Outtakes (2008)
5. The Blackness of Blackness (2008)
Part II: The Signifier's Work
6. Figures and Grounds: The Art of Barkley L. Hendricks (2009)
7. A Range of Convergences (2011)
8. Northern Soul (2011)
9. Babel Screened: On Race, Narcissism, and the Predication of American Video Art (2011/2013)
10. Mal d'Anthologie: Clifford Owens and the Crises of African American Performance Art (2012)
11. Dark Mirrors: Theaster Gates and Ebony (2013)
12. Photography, the Archive, and the Question of Feminist Form: A Conversation with Zoe Leonard (2013)
Part III: Refracting Memory
13. Unfinished Business as Usual: African American Artists, New York Museums, and the 1990s (2014)
14. "Looking Back at Black Male": In Conversation with Thelma Golden and Hilton Als (2014; unpublished)
15. Making Black Feminist Art Histories (2017)
16. Painting After All: A Conversation with Mark Bradford (2014)
17. Noah Purifoy: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015)
18. Solar Ethics (2018; unpublished)
19. Red, Black, and Blue: The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, with Frank B. Wilderson III (2017)
Part IV: Art History After Intersectionality
20. In the Wake of the Negress (2007/2010)
21. Flow and Arrest (2015)
22. Alreadymade: Black Visual Thought, Duchamp's Fountain, and the Ends of White Art History, Circa 2020 (2021; unpublished)
23. Necessary Abstractions, Or, How to Look at Art as a Black Feminist (2019/2023)
24. "I AM A Man" and the Writing of Afrotropic Art Histories (2025; unpublished)
25. Taking Care: Huey Copeland and Allison Glenn on "Promise, Witness, Remembrance," Introduction by Huey Copeland (2021)
Acknowledgments
Index
Part I: Post Black Male
1. Raw Life (with Jared Sexton) (2003)
2. Untitled (Jackpot!) (2005)
3. A Family Resemblance (2007)
4. Outtakes (2008)
5. The Blackness of Blackness (2008)
Part II: The Signifier's Work
6. Figures and Grounds: The Art of Barkley L. Hendricks (2009)
7. A Range of Convergences (2011)
8. Northern Soul (2011)
9. Babel Screened: On Race, Narcissism, and the Predication of American Video Art (2011/2013)
10. Mal d'Anthologie: Clifford Owens and the Crises of African American Performance Art (2012)
11. Dark Mirrors: Theaster Gates and Ebony (2013)
12. Photography, the Archive, and the Question of Feminist Form: A Conversation with Zoe Leonard (2013)
Part III: Refracting Memory
13. Unfinished Business as Usual: African American Artists, New York Museums, and the 1990s (2014)
14. "Looking Back at Black Male": In Conversation with Thelma Golden and Hilton Als (2014; unpublished)
15. Making Black Feminist Art Histories (2017)
16. Painting After All: A Conversation with Mark Bradford (2014)
17. Noah Purifoy: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015)
18. Solar Ethics (2018; unpublished)
19. Red, Black, and Blue: The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, with Frank B. Wilderson III (2017)
Part IV: Art History After Intersectionality
20. In the Wake of the Negress (2007/2010)
21. Flow and Arrest (2015)
22. Alreadymade: Black Visual Thought, Duchamp's Fountain, and the Ends of White Art History, Circa 2020 (2021; unpublished)
23. Necessary Abstractions, Or, How to Look at Art as a Black Feminist (2019/2023)
24. "I AM A Man" and the Writing of Afrotropic Art Histories (2025; unpublished)
25. Taking Care: Huey Copeland and Allison Glenn on "Promise, Witness, Remembrance," Introduction by Huey Copeland (2021)
Acknowledgments
Index