Moma To Exhibit African Modernism, Introduce“Emancipatory Art” Concept

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will open a major exhibition next year focusing on mid-century modernism in Africa. Titled“Freedom and Futures: Emancipatory Art in Africa, 1956–1982,” the show is scheduled to run from May 2 to August 14, 2027, and will feature approximately 250 objects, including 40 from MoMA's own collection.

The exhibition is curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, a painting and sculpture curator who also leads the Africa group for MoMA's Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) initiative, alongside Erica DiBenedetto, a former curatorial associate. Central to the exhibition is the concept of“emancipatory art” within the period of 1956 to 1982. Nzewi described this era in an interview as“a moment of great transformation and change around the world, especially in Africa” where discussions centered on“political independence-the argument of that period was around liberation or emancipation. Artists in Africa were making works that were in the spirit of the change that was in air.”

Nzewi further explained that critically examining this period of decolonization raises the question,“How might we understand the relationship between political change that was happening and artists who were also part of that change and how they were responding to that? In other words, how were artists creating an aesthetic that lent itself to decolonization? That's how we arrived at 'emancipatory art.'” He added,“This is an opportunity for us to find a visual and art historical language to help describe that moment.”

The 26-year timeframe of the exhibition is deliberate, Nzewi noted. While 1960 is commonly recognized as“The Year of Africa” due to 17 countries achieving independence, Nzewi pointed out that“political independence was not achieved in one fell swoop in Africa.” He cited Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan gaining independence in 1956, while Zimbabwe's independence from white rule did not occur until 1980. Among the featured works is Thomas Mukarobgwa's 1962 painting, Dying People in the Bush.

Nzewi began conceptualizing the exhibition shortly after joining MoMA in 2019. He recognized the museum's early engagement with African modernism, which started in the 1960s with the acquisition of Sam Ntiro's 1956 painting, Men Taking Banana Beer to Bride by Night. Nzewi stated,“MoMA was the first institution in the US, if not the Western world, that was really interested in modern African art, and at some point, we went along collecting this work.” He characterized MoMA's relationship with Africa as originating“from the moment of independence.”

The exhibition will also highlight significant conferences and festivals from the period. These include the Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956, established by Alioune Diop, publisher of the journal Présence Africaine, after attending the Bandung Conference. Attendees, in anticipation of African political independence, pondered Africa's cultural contribution to modernity, according to Nzewi. A second Congress in Rome in 1959 spurred similar events in Africa, five of which will be examined. These include the International Congress of African Culture in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) in 1962, attended by MoMA founding director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., who championed the acquisition of Ntiro's painting, as well as the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal in 1966 and the Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers in 1969.

Nzewi explained,“An important argument the show makes is that emancipatory art, especially in that moment, can be understood as emerging at the intersection of national aspiration and nation building and Black solidarity. Artists had a vision for new nations, but that vision artists had for their individual countries was also in dialog with the spirit of Pan-Africanism that was on the continent and beyond.”

A notable piece in the exhibition is Mozambican artist Malangatana Valente Ngwenya's 1973 painting, Cry for Freedom (O Grito da Liberdade), which was previously exhibited at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC '77) in Lagos. The painting, now part of MoMA's collection, depicts a diverse group of people, including soldiers, civilians, and field workers, alongside animals and daggers. Nzewi described it as“a very surrealistic picture” and one of the exhibition's central works, noting,“The language in the work is definitely political and very decolonial. It's speaking the vocabulary that describes artistic aspirations in Mozambique when Mozambique was under colonial domination. The rhetoric of emancipation, the rhetoric of liberation was something that [almost] every artist was interested in.” Also featured is Uche Okeke's 1965 work, Women Riot (Aba Revolt).

While the exhibition focuses on emancipatory art in relation to Africa and its diaspora, Nzewi believes the term has broader applications, extending to similar movements in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Artists in these regions often engaged with“the language of liberation, the language of colonization, the language of emancipation,” Nzewi observed. He noted that emancipatory art also seeks to define“the relationship between politics, aesthetics, and cultural aspirations that happened at that moment.... Emancipatory art takes into account the deep experiences and aspirations of artists in Africa but also beyond Africa-to artists in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.”

Nzewi hopes the exhibition will not only align with MoMA's recent efforts to present“a more global narrative of art history, and specifically Africa's participation in that narrative” but also redefine“our understanding mid-century modernism.” He concluded,“You realize that emancipatory art really is the most definitive way to understand modernism of the mid-century beyond movements that are well-established like Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Minimalism. I think the biggest art historical impact that I expect this exhibition to make is to help us further understand the different threads of modern art that we don't yet fully grasp [and] to find a different way of understanding mid-century modernism beyond the way is currently being discussed-but from the perspective of Africa.”

Source: ARTnews

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