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The Apollo and Five Dollar
By - Xinze (Cecil) Xu


    This project is dedicated to tracing the colonial footprint of stolen artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum. In the tracing process, much forensic evidence led to a single collecting organization that was active during the antebellum period, the American Art Union. Thus, the lens of this project shifts from investigating the footprint of a single artifact, including 'The Filatrice' statue, Stuart Medal, and multiple Hudson River School paintings, to foregrounding and unveiling the hidden history of a constellation of artifacts and their collectors, as well as how they become active actors in a history imbued with racism, oppression, and genocide.



    The Art-union, existing from 1839 to 1851, exerted influence over artists in order to manipulate artistic preferences and promote a romanticized vision of Western Expansion, sometimes infused with racist and violent undertones. This was done under the guise of their philanthropic propaganda. The violence is not only embedded in that taste of art but also associated with the business of the union members. The majority of its members were political, commercial, and industrial leaders involved in land seizure and mineral exploitation. For instance, Marshall Roberts, a member of the committee of management of the Art-union, was engaged in railroad construction such as Erie Railroad, South Pacific Railroad, etc, and steamboat business, whose operation is related to racialized labor and dispossession of indigenous land. The contrived flavor and misappropriated art market bolster the validation of their enterprise.
    Despite the absence of the union in contemporary times, its enduring influence persists. The members continue to exert significant influence in their respective professions, and the artworks they acquire are still prominently shown in leading museums. These narratives align with the glorification of the establishment and growth of the United States, while also promoting the belief in the superiority of its culture over its European counterparts and all other cultures. However, they fail to acknowledge the alternative histories of Native Americans, Asians, and other communities. The artifacts effectively eliminate any trace of the Indigenous presence on the land or portray it as a savage entity, perpetuating the ongoing narrative of subjugation.
    The documentary utilized the Transaction of the American Art Union, a book containing the union's financial records and meeting reports, as a crucial tool for revealing the underlying violence within the art union's operations. The freeze-frame animation juxtaposes the fragments of the union's coercive actions, such as exerting influence on young artists, financing land deprivation, and promoting a romanticized image of the United States, with the flipping pages of a book. By employing this technique, various narratives and histories converge in a space permeating the frame constructed by the image of the Transaction book, thus contradicting and obscuring one another to reveal the absurdity of the prevailing story.

Bibliography
- Lett, A. (n.d.). Perfectly American: The Art-Union & Its Artists.
- Klein, R. N. (2020). Art wars: The Politics of Taste in Nineteenth-Century New York. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Nichols, A. K. (2003). Merchants and artists: The apollo association and the american art -union (Order No. 3083694). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305331584).
- Widmer, E. L. (1999). Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. Oxford University Press on Demand.
- Hemingway, A., & Vaughan, W. (1998). Art in Bourgeois Society, 1790-1850. Cambridge University Press.
- Anderson, N. K., Museum, D. A., & Museum, S. L. A. (1991). WEST AS AMER. Smithsonian Books (DC).
- Klein, R. N. (1995). Art and Authority in Antebellum New York City: The Rise and Fall of the American Art-Union. the Journal of American History, 81(4), 1534. https://doi.org/10.2307/2081648
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