David Hartt

The Histories

Through lush, immersive imagery, this clothbound monograph reveals the fault lines of race, colonialism, and empire that haunt the present.

Borrowing its title from Herodotus’ foundational work, this publication documents a cycle of three works collectively titled The Histories by artist David Hartt. Focusing on the Americas and the Caribbean during the 19th century, Hartt explores real and imagined landscapes informed by Martin Johnson Heade, Robert S. Duncanson, Michel-Jean Cazabon, and Frederic Church. His contemporary interpretations use video, tapestries and sculpture alongside musical collaborations with Stefan Betke (Pole), Van Dyke Parks, and Girma Yifrashewa. The first work, Le Mancenillier, commissioned by and sited in the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Beth Sholom Synagogue, was filmed and photographed in Haiti and New Orleans. The second, Old Black Joe, in Trinidad and Ohio, and the final work Crépuscule, commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art was made in Jamaica and Newfoundland.

With an extended photo essay, documentation of the installations, and essays by Solveig Nelson, Michael Veal, and Mabel O. Wilson, The Histories reveals the complex entanglement of peoples and cultures as place is explored.

Inventory Press 2022

9 × 11 ¾ inches, 144 pages
ISBN 978-1-941753-43-9

Design by David Hartt & IN-FO.CO
Edited by Cole Akers