Reviews
"Kirsten Pai Buick's ambitions study of the nineteenth-century Afro-Native sculptor Mary Edmonia Lewis is in fact two books in one. On the one hand it is a critique of the discipline of art history for its lack of serious engagement with Lewis's art and for its facile, obscuring attention to the artist's biography. On the other Child of the Fire also succeeds as a detailed study of Lewis's art.... Thanks to Buick's smart and timely study, Lewis's art and career are with us, as we continue to give them the scrutiny they disserve. "--Jennifer DeVere Brody, Women's Review of Books " Child of the Fire marks a dramatic change in how scholars approach artists marginalized by race, ethnicity, or gender. In the field of American art, most studies of such artists have assumed that their art directly expresses or reflects their racial, ethnic, and gender identities, usually understood in terms of late-twentieth-century identity politics. While these heroic narratives of self-expression and cultural resistance are a necessary first step in recovering such artists from oblivion, the time has come for a more sophisticated analysis of how these artists actually worked and what they achieved. Kirsten Pai Buick provides that."--Kirk Savage, author of Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America " Child of the Fire is a tour de force. Kirsten Pai Buick has written a brilliant, historically and culturally grounded investigation into one of the most fascinating people of the nineteenth-century. Despite the challenge of a subject as elusive and enigmatic as Mary Edmonia Lewis, Buick brings Lewis's work back where it belongs: into the fold of nineteenth-century American art, albeit from the vantage point of a knowing, African American, female, expatriate, Catholic iconoclast."--Richard Powell, author of Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture "Rich in testimony to Lewis' impressive achievements as a 'facile manipulator of marble and white patrons,' Buick's rigorously argued and refreshingly forthright inquiry articulates the challenges inherent in the sculptures of an enigmatic, determined, and courageous American artist."--Donna Seaman, Booklist "Buick provides the most comprehensive history of Lewis to date and a critical assessment of the discipline through close readings of primary sources and the leading scholarship on Lewis. . . . This volume is a crucial model for multiple disciplines. Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers."--K. N. Pinder, Choice "This book is so tantalizing because, as Buick herself concludes, Lewis remains an enigma. . . . Despite the difficulties presented by the lack of archival materials, the quality of this study presents a challenge to art historians to avoid 'conversing with stereotype' by doing our cultural and contextual homework."--Jennifer Wingate, Woman's Art Journal "[A] thoughtful, groundbreaking study that should be a must-read for anyone interested in art of the United States and in a nuanced treatment of race, ethnicity, and gender."-- Katherine Manthorne, CAA Reviews "Buick's book is groundbreaking in its reinterpretation of Lewis and her art. . . . Child of the Fire is a significant book because it reminds us to consider cultural context over simpler readings that merge racial and gender identity with interpretation of an artist's work."-- Rene Ater, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, "This book is so tantalizing because, as Buick herself concludes, Lewis remains an enigma. . . . Despite the difficulties presented by the lack of archival materials, the quality of this study presents a challenge to art historians to avoid 'conversing with stereotype' by doing our cultural and contextual homework." - Jennifer Wingate, Woman's Art Journal, " Child of the Fire is a tour de force. Kirsten Pai Buick has written a brilliant, historically and culturally grounded investigation into one of the most fascinating people of the nineteenth century. Despite the challenge of a subject as elusive and enigmatic as Mary Edmonia Lewis, Buick brings Lewis's work back where it belongs: into the fold of nineteenth-century American art, albeit from the vantage point of a knowing, African American, female, expatriate, Catholic iconoclast."-- Richard J. Powell , author of Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, "Buick's book is groundbreaking in its reinterpretation of Lewis and her art. . . . Child of the Fire is a significant book because it reminds us to consider cultural context over simpler readings that merge racial and gender identity with interpretation of an artist's work." - Renée Ater, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Doing justice to the subject of Edmonia Lewis may be beyond the knowledge of any single scholar, as studying her 'differences' and the ways in which she was cast as anomalous requires one to search a myriad of shifting databases and intervene in the interstices of archives. Speaking generally, however, this book goes a long way toward providing a model of responsive, responsible art history., "In revisiting and revising the examination of Lewis and her art, Buick challenges earlier interpretations and sheds new light on Lewis and adds to the scholarship.... Buick concludes with a persuasive call for a more "responsive and responsible art history"… [Her] Child of the Fire helps move us forward." - Margaret Rose Vendryes, The Journal of African American History, "In revisiting and revising the examination of Lewis and her art, Buick challenges earlier interpretations and sheds new light on Lewis and adds to the scholarship.... Buick concludes with a persuasive call for a more 'responsive and responsible art history'... [Her] Child of the Fire helps move us forward." - Margaret Rose Vendryes, The Journal of African American History, " Child of the Fire marks a dramatic change in how scholars approach artists marginalized by race, ethnicity, or gender. In the field of American art, most studies of such artists have assumed that their art directly expresses or reflects their racial, ethnic, and gender identities, usually understood in terms of late-twentieth-century identity politics. While these heroic narratives of self-expression and cultural resistance are a necessary first step in recovering such artists from oblivion, the time has come for a more sophisticated analysis of how these artists actually worked and what they achieved. Kirsten Pai Buick provides that."- Kirk Savage , author of Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America, "[T]his fiercely intellectual study offers insightful, original readings of Edmonia Lewis's art. Buick gives these intriguing sculptures the serious attention they have long deserved." - Laura R. Prieto, Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, " Child of the Fire is a tour de force. Kirsten Pai Buick has written a brilliant, historically and culturally grounded investigation into one of the most fascinating people of the nineteenth century. Despite the challenge of a subject as elusive and enigmatic as Mary Edmonia Lewis, Buick brings Lewis's work back where it belongs: into the fold of nineteenth-century American art, albeit from the vantage point of a knowing, African American, female, expatriate, Catholic iconoclast."- Richard J. Powell , author of Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, "[A] thoughtful, groundbreaking study that should be a must-read for anyone interested in art of the United States and in a nuanced treatment of race, ethnicity, and gender." - Katherine Manthorne, CAA Reviews, "Buick's book is groundbreaking in its reinterpretation of Lewis and her art. . . . Child of the Fire is a significant book because it reminds us to consider cultural context over simpler readings that merge racial and gender identity with interpretation of an artist's work." - Rene Ater, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, "Buick provides the most comprehensive history of Lewis to date and a critical assessment of the discipline through close readings of primary sources and the leading scholarship on Lewis. . . . This volume is a crucial model for multiple disciplines. Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers." - K. N. Pinder, Choice, “ Child of the Fire marks a dramatic change in how scholars approach artists marginalized by race, ethnicity, or gender. In the field of American art, most studies of such artists have assumed that their art directly expresses or reflects their racial, ethnic, and gender identities, usually understood in terms of late-twentieth-century identity politics. While these heroic narratives of self-expression and cultural resistance are a necessary first step in recovering such artists from oblivion, the time has come for a more sophisticated analysis of how these artists actually worked and what they achieved. Kirsten Pai Buick provides that.â€�- Kirk Savage , author of Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America, "Child of the Firemarks a dramatic change in how scholars approach artists marginalized by race, ethnicity, or gender. In the field of American art, most studies of such artists have assumed that their art directly expresses or reflects their racial, ethnic, and gender identities, usually understood in terms of late-twentieth-century identity politics. While these heroic narratives of self-expression and cultural resistance are a necessary first step in recovering such artists from oblivion, the time has come for a more sophisticated analysis of how these artists actually worked and what they achieved. Kirsten Pai Buick provides that."-Kirk Savage, author ofStanding Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America"Child of the Fireis a tour de force. Kirsten Pai Buick has written a brilliant, historically and culturally grounded investigation into one of the most fascinating people of the nineteenth-century. Despite the challenge of a subject as elusive and enigmatic as Mary Edmonia Lewis, Buick brings Lewis's work back where it belongs: into the fold of nineteenth-century American art, albeit from the vantage point of a knowing, African American, female, expatriate, Catholic iconoclast."-Richard Powell, author ofCutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, "In revisiting and revising the examination of Lewis and her art, Buick challenges earlier interpretations and sheds new light on Lewis and adds to the scholarship.... Buick concludes with a persuasive call for a more 'responsive and responsible art history'… [Her] Child of the Fire helps move us forward." - Margaret Rose Vendryes, The Journal of African American History, Rich in testimony to Lewis' impressive achievements as a 'facile manipulator of marble and white patrons,' Buick's rigorously argued and refreshingly forthright inquiry articulates the challenges inherent in the sculptures of an enigmatic, determined, and courageous American artist., "[D]oing justice to the subject of Edmonia Lewis may be beyond the knowledge of any single scholar, as studying her 'differences' and the ways in which she was cast as anomalous requires one to search a myriad of shifting databases and intervene in the interstices of archives. Speaking generally, however, this book goes a long way toward providing a model of responsive, responsible art history." - Jennifer DeVere Brody, Women's Review of Books, “ Child of the Fire is a tour de force. Kirsten Pai Buick has written a brilliant, historically and culturally grounded investigation into one of the most fascinating people of the nineteenth century. Despite the challenge of a subject as elusive and enigmatic as Mary Edmonia Lewis, Buick brings Lewis’s work back where it belongs: into the fold of nineteenth-century American art, albeit from the vantage point of a knowing, African American, female, expatriate, Catholic iconoclast.â€�- Richard J. Powell , author of Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture
