Art History

Back to Blog April 13, 2022

Dr. Alpesh Patel's new book

Author: Jane DeRose Evans
book cover

Storytellers of Art histories: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, edited by Alpesh Patel and Yasmeen Siddiqi (University of Chicago, 2022)

The book is an anthology amplifying the voices of the figures reshaping art histories across disciplines and a range of fluid practicesWith a focus on gender, race (including whiteness), class, sexuality, and transnationality—all of which are often marginalized in dominant art histories—each individual has provided short, often personal contributions detailing how they become passionate about their practice. The contributors’ offerings are varied and surprising, appealing equally to people enmeshed in the field through their work as well as those with a beginner’s interest. Their pieces take various forms—epistolary, children’s fable, interview, coauthored narrative, pastiche, memoir, manifesto, and apology—and a number of the essays perform in their structure or content the theories they explore about publishing, curating, and archival work.