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An insightful study of the progressive politics animating a great work of modernist mural painting In 1936 the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project commissioned Stuart Davis (1892–1964) to paint a mural for the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City housing project. Though the mural, Swing Landscape, was never installed in its intended location, it survives as an impressive testament to Davis’s energetic, colorful brand of abstraction and the progressive politics that animated it. This study explores the painting, one of the greatest of twentieth-century America and arguably Davis’s most ambitious work. This book challenges the prevailing tendency to separate Davis’s leftist activism from his art and contextualizes Swing Landscape within 1930s abstract mural painting in New York, emphasizing the politics of abstraction. The book also offers the first comprehensive look at the Williamsburg mural commission, including works by Willem de Kooning, Ilya Bolotowsky, and others. The result is an indispensable resource on interwar modernism, mural painting, and urban development. Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Exhibition Schedule: Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University (February 5–May 22, 2022)

Felrath Hines (1913–1993), the first African American man to become a professional conservator for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, was born and raised in the segregated Midwest. Leaving their home in the South, Hines's parents migrated to Indianapolis with hopes for a better life. While growing up, Hines was encouraged by his seamstress mother to pursue his early passion for art by taking Saturday classes at Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. He moved to Chicago in 1937, where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago in pursuit of his dreams. The Life and Art of Felrath Hines: From Dark to Light chronicles the life of this exceptional artist who overcame numerous obstacles throughout his career and refused to be pigeonholed because of his race. Author Rachel Berenson Perry tracks Hines's determination and success as a contemporary artist on his own terms. She explores Hines's life in New York City in the 1950s and 60s, where he created a close friendship with jazz musician Billy Strayhorn and participated in the African American Spiral Group of New York and the equal rights movement. Hines's relationship with Georgia O'Keeffe, as her private paintings restorer, and a lifetime of creating increasingly esteemed Modernist artwork, all tell the story of one man's remarkable journey in 20th-century America. Featuring exquisite color photographs, The Life and Art of Felrath Hines explores the artist's life, work, and significance as an artist and as an art conservator.

A revelatory look at midcentury American artistic responses to the Holocaust, and the role of the Jewish experience in the development of modern art The profound effects of the Holocaust and the Jewish experience of World War II left an indelible mark on artists of the time. This insightful book delves into the impact of these events on American art and seeks answers to the questions that confronted artists as the mass deportation and murder of Europe's Jews came to light. Through paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, prints, and designs for memorials by Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko, Ben Shahn, Frank Stella, and many others, this volume highlights the intersection of Jewish experience and modern art, a subject that has been largely neglected in art historical studies. Jennifer McComas draws on the Jewish theological concepts of destruction, exile, memory, and repair to trace artistic responses and show how they helped define a transformative era of American art. Essays also explore how Jewish Americans memorialized the victims in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and how artists in the final decades of the twentieth century continued to confront its legacy. A timeline of events pertaining to World War II and Jewish communal life in the United States provides additional context for the choices made by artists as they addressed an unprecedented catastrophe in their work. Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Exhibition Schedule: Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University (September 4-December 15, 2025)

Highlights the life and accomplishments of the young actress known for her roles in "Winter's Bone" and "The Hunger Games."