LOS ANGELES, CA (PNAN) – Slated to open Sunday, December 11, 2022 at the Los Angeles Museum of Art/LACMA – “Afro-Atlantic Histories” charts the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African diaspora. This is the only presentation on the West Coast.
From a global perspective, the exhibition is organized around six groupings: Maps and Margins, Enslavements and Emancipations, Everyday Lives, Rites and Rhythms, Portraits, and Resistances and Activism. Each section considers the critical impact of the African diaspora reflected in historic and contemporary artworks will remain on view through September 2023.
“Histórias Afro-Atlânticas” originated at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil, in 2018. The show presented a selection of 450 works by 214 artists ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries and centered on the “ebbs and flows” among Africa, Americas, Caribbean and also Europe. Exhibited works at this initial show can be viewed here: https://masp.org.br/en/exhibitions/afro-atlantic-histories
Brazil is a central territory in the Afro-Atlantic histories, having received about 46% of the roughly 11 million Africans brought against their will to this side of the ocean throughout more than 300 years.
The country also was the last to end the slave trade with the so called Golden Law of 1888, which perversely did not include any social integration plan, setting the stage for enduring economic, political and racial inequalities. On the other hand, Brazil’s leading role in those histories also sowed here a rich and lasting legacy from African cultures.
More on LACMA current programming, see https://www.lacma.org