Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s-1940s (review)

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 77 and civilization, should inspire African Americans with the belief and desire to tackle current challenges to the community. This is a personal book, as well as a chronicle of the boycott. Often Walker injects personal biography and reflections on recent events. He remembers as a child sometimes wanting to be white as he witnessed the material benefits that segregation allowed whites but denied African Americans. Initial chapters about ancient Egypt and the history of African Americans are consciously designed efforts to highlight black achievement and improve black self-esteem, and so are indicative of another aspect of the still unfinished struggle for racial equality. MARK NEWMAN University of Edinburgh Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s–1940s. By Lynn Barstis Williams. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007. x, 211 pp. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-8173-1560-3. There were two immediate challenges for Lynn Barstis Williams in writing Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s–1940s. She first had to define the South as a region and second to define southern printmakers as a group. Williams handles these issues with aplomb in the beginning of the book and moves on to the more interesting subject, an amazing group of artists who depicted the South—which she defines as all the states of the Confederacy plus Texas—during the turbulent years of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The book begins with a historical sketch of the appeal of southern locales to both local artists and “snowbirds.” Williams then divides southern imagery into categories of subject matter, each of which deserves a book of its own. In each there exists a tension between the mythological South and the reality of the South during this tumultuous period. From the flora and fauna that fascinated artists, particularly in the more tropical locations along the Gulf Coast; to the architectural vistas of Charleston and New Orleans; to racially charged images of African American workers in fields of white cotton and celebratory, rural church services; artists depicted the South as a regionally distinctive culture. At times these subjects can seem trite, particularly the nostalgic, romantic architectural views. Williams, however, situates this conservative tradition within the development of the preservation movement which has kept cities like New Orleans, Savannah, and Saint Augustine from T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 78 succumbing to the homogenization of suburban sprawl. Williams reminds viewers that artists emphasized entryways, gates, windows, and courtyards to convey different meanings and that these prints should be examined more carefully. The most interesting subjects are the genre scenes. The South remained less industrial and more agrarian than the North. The popular scenes of labor often masked the reality of poverty, difficult living and working conditions, and pervasive inequalities between whites and blacks. Williams addresses not only the relatively rare images of racial disharmony, most of which were executed by northern artists visiting the area, but also the striking absence of these references in the work of southern artists. She also notes the prominent place that imagery of religious celebration has in prints of this time, reflecting the special place of spirituality in southern culture. The variety of artists Williams chose to illustrate her volume underscores the great depth of artistic production in the South at the time. For instance, she shows that while the southern landscape has attracted artists since the Europeans first settled there, artists approached it in many different ways. Newcomb College artists in New Orleans, particularly Sadie Irvine and Henrietta Bailey, created prints as well as pottery decoration depicting romantic moonlit views of oak trees laden with Spanish moss. Victoria Hutson Huntley’s 1948 In the Everglades and Walter Anderson’s 1945 Horizontal Pelican both show typical, local birds but draw upon markedly different artistic traditions: hers more topographical and his paying homage to the Native American traditions of the region. Imprinting the South does not purport to be a scholarly exploration of the subject but is, rather, an overview of regional...