Not Now: Modernism, Nativism, and Fascism in American Art and Culture

Not Now examines the relationship between nativism, fascism, and modernism in American art and the writing of its histories. Grounded in the work of Black artists and writers of the 1930s, it takes seriously the implication that fascism is “native” to America. We aim to convene a program that contends with fascist tendencies in the racial regimes and historical traumas of a settler colony and the visual culture that buttressed it. With the current resurgence of fascism in mind, we ask: Has American fascist visual culture sought to institute its own form of temporality via concepts of origin, destiny, and nativity? How can art historians situate neo-fascism now within fascism’s origins then? And finally, what new forms of interdisciplinary analysis are needed to make sense of fascism’s entanglements with American cultural history?

The Boston College workshops is the first leg of a three-part, yearlong program. A second set of workshops will take place in February at UCL, and the program will culminate in an international symposium at UCL in June 2024.

All interested students from any department or discipline are welcome to join. If attending, please read the following short text in advance of our discussion: Alberto Toscano, "Notes on Late Fascism" (2017). 

Pizza and refreshments will be available for participants

Supported by The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Boston College and the Terra Foundation for American Art

Special thanks to the Art, Art History, and Film Department and the McMullen Museum