Supernatural America - The Paranormal in American Art

Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, edited by Robert Cozzolino / ISBN 9780226786827 / 320-page hardcover, 9.5 x 11.25 inches, published by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and University of Chicago Press / new copies but light bumps from inbound shipping

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Not merely in the realm of metaphor but present and tangible, urgently calling for contact, ghosts have been central to our national identity. Through times of mourning and trauma, artists have been integral to visualizing ghosts, whether national or personal, and in doing so have embraced the uncanny and the inexplicable. This stunning catalog, accompanying the first major exhibition to assess the spectral in American art, explores the numerous ways American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible.

Featuring artists from James McNeill Whistler and Kerry James Marshall to artist/mediums who made images with spirits during séances, this catalog covers more than two hundred years of the supernatural in American art. Here we find works that explore haunting, UFO sightings, and a broad range of experiential responses to other worldly contact.