Through a diverse collection of essays on the history of art of the Americas, this book explores the cultural, political, and environmental legacy of bananas from viceregal painting and nineteenth?century photography to contemporary Latinx and Caribbean Art.
Through sixteen original essays by leading art historians, this anthology traces the banana's remarkable journey from colonial still lifes to contemporary installations. The collection examines how artists have deployed this tropical fruit to challenge imperial narratives, visualize labor struggles, and reclaim cultural identities. Expanding on the award?winning digital humanities project Banana Craze, this volume presents a comprehensive analysis of banana imagery across diverse media-religious murals, archival photographs, avant?garde paintings, and performance art. Each chapter illuminates how artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas have transformed this ubiquitous commodity into a complex visual metaphor that speaks to histories of exploitation, ecological devastation, and artistic resistance.
This book will appeal to scholars of art history, visual culture, Latin American and Caribbean studies, postcolonial theory, and environmental humanities.
Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
| ISBN: | 9781041216506 |
| Publication date: | 1st June 2026 |
| Author: | Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano, Juanita Solano Roa |
| Publisher: | Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 262 pages |
| Series: | Routledge Research in Art History |
| Genres: |
Ethnic studies Theory of art History of art Regional / International studies |
Through a diverse collection of essays on the history of art of the Americas, this book explores the cultural, political, and environmental legacy of bananas from viceregal painting and nineteenth?century photography to contemporary Latinx and Caribbean Art.
Through sixteen original essays by leading art historians, this anthology traces the banana's remarkable journey from colonial still lifes to contemporary installations. The collection examines how artists have deployed this tropical fruit to challenge imperial narratives, visualize labor struggles, and reclaim cultural identities. Expanding on the award?winning digital humanities project Banana Craze, this volume presents a comprehensive analysis of banana imagery across diverse media-religious murals, archival photographs, avant?garde paintings, and performance art. Each chapter illuminates how artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas have transformed this ubiquitous commodity into a complex visual metaphor that speaks to histories of exploitation, ecological devastation, and artistic resistance.
This book will appeal to scholars of art history, visual culture, Latin American and Caribbean studies, postcolonial theory, and environmental humanities.
Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Bananas, Art, and Visual Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean features in the following genres: Ethnic studies, Theory of art, History of art, Regional / International studies
Bananas, Art, and Visual Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean is available in Hardback
Bananas, Art, and Visual Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean was written by Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano, Juanita Solano Roa and published by Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis
Bananas, Art, and Visual Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean has 262 pages
Yes it is part of Routledge Research in Art History series
£139.50