Across the centuries, the acts and arts of black heroism have inspired a provocative, experimental, and self-reflexive intellectual, political, and aesthetic tradition. In Characters of Blood, Celeste-Marie Bernier illuminates the ways in which six iconic men and women--Toussaint Louverture, Nathaniel Turner, Sengbe Pieh, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman--challenged the dominant conceptualizations of their histories and played a key role in the construction of an alternative visual and textual archive.

While these figures have survived as symbolic...

For self-made artist and soldier Horace Pippin who served in the 369th all-black infantry in World War I until he was wounded war provided a formative experience that defined much of his life and work. His ability to transform combat service into canvases of emotive power, psychological depth, and realism showed not only how he viewed the world but also his mastery as a painter. In "Suffering and Sunset, "Celeste-Marie Bernier painstakingly traces Pippin s life story of art as a life story of war.

Illustrated with more than sixty photographs, including works in various mediums many in...

For self-made artist and soldier Horace Pippin--who served in the 369th all-black infantry in World War I until he was wounded--war provided a formative experience that defined much of his life and work. His ability to transform combat service into canvases of emotive power, psychological depth, and realism showed not only how he viewed the world but also his mastery as a painter. In Suffering and Sunset, Celeste-Marie Bernier painstakingly traces Pippin's life story of art as a life story of war.

Illustrated with more than sixty photographs, including works in various...