Lecture: West and Central African Arts, Colonialism, and Pablo Picasso.
Venue: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at noon

Join ACASA member and Cleveland Museum of Art curator of African arts Kristen Windmuller-Luna for an in-person lunchtime lecture.

Talk description: Pablo Picasso created his art within the social context of French colonialism and the so-called “discovery” of African arts by Paris-based European modernist artists. Though he and his peers mistakenly believed the works whose aesthetics they appropriated were “ancient,” they were most often contemporary with their own creations. What art historians have defined as European modernism overlaps with a peak period of European imperialism, requiring us to ask why certain African arts became available to European artists and how they related to them. What follows is a brief discussion of the connections between Pablo Picasso, colonialism, and the works of West and Central African artists. The talk concludes by highlighting several named African contemporaries of Picasso whose works are in the CMA collection.

RSVP for free tickets here https://www.clevelandart.org/events/west-and-central-african-arts-colonialism-and-pablo-picasso