INVENTING
THE WORLD
HOW ART CREATES REALITY
Welcome to Inventing the World: How Art Creates Reality, an interactive e-book published by Cognella, that illuminates artists’ profound influence on society from pre-history to the present, including COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. Illustrated with 200+ photographs and enriched with videos, it is ideal for humanities and arts courses, enabling students to make cross-disciplinary connections.
A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, Kara Walker, 2014, photo Paul Solomon
Engraving of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, Description de l’Egypte, 1822
The chapter Spectacle is Power investigates how artist Kara Walker borrowed elements of the ancient Egyptian sphinx to tell the story of slavery, early American trade and industry, and the subjugation of Black women.
Photograph by Emilio Morenatti made in a nursing home in Barcelona, in June 2020
Demonstration in reaction to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. 2014. Photo Whitney Curtis.
Inventing the World: How Art Creates Reality discusses how pattern recognition helps one make connections between what may seem wildly different ideas, events, and people.
Emanuel Leutze’s painting, Washington Crossing, The Delaware, 1851
Robert Colescott’s painting, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware, 1975
The chapter Art as Identity highlights Robert Colescott’s extraordinary life and work that is often ignored. Colescott lived the first 40 years of his life as a white person. He became a Black artist after a painting fellowship in Egypt. Here, he satirizes a beloved iconic painting of George Washington, filling the boat with harsh caricatures of Black people surrounding the scientist George Washington Carver.
PAUL R. SOLOMON
Paul Solomon is a professor of art at Western Michigan University’s Gwen Frostic School of Art and an adjunct community professor in the Medical, Ethics, Humanities, and Law program at Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, where he teaches The Skilled Observer in Art and Science course and related topics for medical students. Professor Solomon holds an M.F.A. in media arts from Ohio State University and a B.F.A. in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Solomon is known for his virtuoso teaching on a wide variety of subjects. He was honored with the 2017 Innovative Teaching Award for developing outstanding online education and the Western Michigan University Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014. During the past five years, he presented at the International Health Humanities Consortium Conference, The Art Schools Network Conference, The Conference on Medicine and Religion, the Mayo Clinic, the College Art Association Conference, and the UCSF Medical Center.
Solomon grew up in New Jersey near Thomas Edison’s laboratories, that inspired him to become a photographer. He is well-known for his photographic work in Italy for clients including Smithsonian Magazine, European Travel and Life Magazine, The American Express Company, and Alitalia Airlines. He taught photojournalism as an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.