Table of Contents

Introduction Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Irma Stern in a Global Context: Expressionist Influences Chapter 2 Cape Town Blues: Painting South Africa Chapter 3 Congo and Zanzibar Chapter 4 Modernism Under Apartheid: Art and Social Context Chapter 5 Irma Stern and Post-Apartheid South Africa Conclusion Biographical Timeline Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

Through both archives and interviews, this critical art history study explores the racial dimensions of South African modern painter Irma Stern’s life and art work.

About the Author

LaNitra M. Berger is Senior Director of Fellowships for the Office of Undergraduate Education and Affiliate Faculty in the African & African American Studies (AAAS) Program and the History and Art History Department at George Mason University, USA.

Reviews

LaNitra M. Berger’s subtle and very timely study brilliantly mines Stern’s story and her works’ imagery to extract from them essential insights into global modernism, art under apartheid, and Stern’s conflicted legacy.
*Peter Chametzky, Professor of Art History, University of South Carolina, USA*

Strikingly original and well-researched, Irma Stern and the Racial Paradox of South African Modern Art is the work of a pioneering scholar. Employing a powerful Black feminist and decolonial perspective, LaNitra M. Berger questions received ideas about what constitutes modern African art. She shows us that the life and work of a controversial white artist like Irma Stern, whose work was predicated on racial exploitation, is important to the formation of global modernism in South Africa and beyond.
*Prita Meier, Associate Professor of Art History, New York University, USA*