Opening August 7 at the University of Virginia Art Museum, more than 50 of Man Ray’s photographs from the 1920s and 1930s are featured in this exhibition, alongside works by his avant-garde contemporaries. For the first time, a number of these photographs are presented alongside the original African objects they feature. Books, avant-garde journals and popular magazines also on display illustrate the pivotal role of photography in changing the perception of African objects from artifacts to fine art.
Curated by photo historian and author Wendy Grossman and organized into four sections, the exhibition frames the objects and images within diverse contexts:
African Art, American-Style presents an overview of the embrace of African art in the United States in the first decades of the 20th century, shedding light on issues of identity, gender and colonialism influenced by the country’s history of slavery, segregation and disenfranchisement. African Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction demonstrates how advances in print technologies and the burgeoning of mass media played a critical role in transmitting the vogue for African art. Surrealism and Beyond explores how African and other non-Western objects functioned within the Surrealist world view. Fashioning a Popular Reception features the intersection of vanguard taste, fashion and interest in African art through works like the now-iconic photograph “Noire et blanche” (pictured here).
This exhibition will be on display through October 10, and will include a variety of related film screenings, lectures, and tours. All events are FREE and open to the public.
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
