Mixed Media

"Few historians of American art have the archival skills or curiosity to uncover the trove of primary sources--from murals to magazines, pamphlets to posters--upon which John Ott builds his arguments. The product of this extraordinary research, Mixed Media sheds new light not only on the interrelations of popular visual culture and the fine arts, but also on the deep connections that emerged between art by African Americans and social discourses on (de)segregation in the 1930s and 1940s."--Tanya Sheehan, author of Study in Black and White: Photography, Race, Humor

"Ott provides a new cosmology for understanding the possibilities for and limitations on visual art's ability to make social change in twentieth-century America. Through examples from federally funded programs, Popular Front organizations, and labor unions, Mixed Media offers a well-researched analysis of the efforts to advance and contain visions of racial integration. Looking inside and outside of the fine art world, Ott shows how artists argued that national unity against a common enemy abroad could be achieved only through interracial unity at home."--Bridget R. Cooks, author of Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum