Legalectric

One Response to “tRump’s “1776 Commission””

1. Julie Risser Says:
   November 6th, 2020 at 11:26 am

   This order definitely needs to be undone. HOWEVER, people need to understand pervasive, racist, and misogynistic narratives course through educational textbooks. They are particularly bad in art history survey texts. I have started a blog about this – one Cengage product “Gardner’s Art Through the Ages” is particularly awful. Publishers printed a detail of a work by South Korean artist Song Su-nam UPSIDE DOWN on the COVER because editors were convinced he was following a white male artist’s technique… I also found the use of a stylized drawing of a Maori leader’s facial moko by 19th century French Anthropologist Leo Frobenius super problematic. The British forced Maori leaders to draw their moko on contracts that transferred huge amounts of land to the crown – these remain highly controversial. Frobenius copied one of these drawings – the editors of Gardner’s have been claiming this drawing is a “self-portrait” and using it for decades in a comparison with a detailed painting of the same leader by a European male artist. The comparison is even granted its own section in the Introduction and the section is called… “Different ways of seeing.” The content of the analysis is sooo bad including “a flat design separated from the body and even the head, is the Maori chieftain’s image of himself.” I wrote an email to the editor of the book, Fred S. Kleiner about my concerns. What happens? No changes are made to subsequent editions – and these are cranked out like every other year. BUT wait for it – my name is listed in the Acknowledgements Section implying I was actually working for Cengage and getting paid and bringing my knowledge to the text. I contacted Cengage and told them I wanted to be removed – it took way too much time – I also told Cengage I wanted the company to alert schools that were using the text about the problems with it – they did not even comment on this request and I have not seen any effort on their part to do this. The “History of Modern Art” by Arnason and Mansfield is also really crappy – total men of European ancestry invented modern art. If you or a loved one is enrolled in an art history course PLEASE read my blog!!! https://julierisser.wordpress.com/2020/10/23/considering-history-of-modern-art-by-h-h-arnason-and-elizabeth-c-mansfield-7th-edition-c-2013/

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