Picturing The Banjo
Softbound
2005 · University Park, Penna
by Mazow, Leo G. (editor)
University Park, Penna: Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania University Press, 2005. Softbound. VG (May have few marks from previous gallery owner.). Reddish-orange and color-illustrated wraps, French flaps, 224 pp., 120 BW & color illus. This is A PAPERBACK copy of this book. The history of the banjo is as haunting as its music. Made popular in minstrel shows of the nineteenth century, the "banjar" derives from the stringed gourd instrument African slaves brought with them to plantations in the Caribbean and American South. From minstrelsy to the folk music revival of the twentieth century, the banjo has continued to attract audiences and acquire meaning. The history of the banjo is as haunting as its music. Made popular in minstrel shows of the nineteenth century, the "banjar" derives from the stringed gourd instrument African slaves brought with them to plantations in the Caribbean and American South. From minstrelsy to the folk music revival of the twentieth century, the banjo has continued to attract audiences and acquire meaning. "Picturing the Banjo" gives this long history an entirely new dimension by tracing the instrument's representation in American visual culture from the eighteenth century to the present. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, "Picturing the Banjo" offers the first examination of the instrument's portrayal in images that range from anonymous photographs of performers to paintings by Thomas Eakins and prints by Dox Thrash. Leo G. Mazow, contributing editor of the volume, and his collaborators demonstrate that the banjo became an American icon that links popular music to fundamental issues of race, class, and gender. (Inventory #: 103763)