Second Skin: Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface

Through the figure of Josephine Baker, Second Skin tells the story of an unexpected yet enduring intimacy between the invention of a modernist style and the theatricalization of black skin at the turn of the twentieth century. Stepping outside of the platitudes surrounding this iconic figure, Anne A. Cheng argues that Baker's famous nakedness must be understood within larger philosophic and aesthetic debates about, and desire for, 'pure surface' that crystallized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Through Cheng's analysis, Baker emerges as a central artist whose work engages with and impacts various modes of modernist display such as film, photography, art, and even the modern house.

Author: Anne Anlin Cheng
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/05/2023
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.80w x 1.40d
ISBN13: 9780197748381
ISBN10: 0197748384
BISAC Categories:
- Education | General
- Literary Criticism | American | African American & Black
- Art | General