'Afro-Atlantic Histories,' has been radically downsized at LACMA. Plus: In praise of Paul Mescal's acting and why 'Tár' is bad for classical music.
Christopher Knight, who is rumored to be out nailing down an exclusive interview withIf you’ve been looking for a concise overview of Modern and, especially,“Afro-Atlantic Histories”for the next seven months, includes just over 100 examples, all but a relatively small handful made since the start of World War II.
, the sprawling exhibition then featured around 450 works of art. A radical downsizing was undertaken by the, to bring a small segment of the lauded show to the United States. In the process, almost all the historical material, rarely seen in any depth in North America, has been excised. It’s a shadow of its former self. The exhibition’s introductory first room is emblematic. Of eight works, six are contemporary, one Modern and just one historical.Divided into such themes as “Emancipation,” “Everyday Lives,” “Portraits” and more, the show begins with “Maps and Margins,” which astutely locates Africa as integral to the development of Western art history since the Renaissance.
The centrality of seafaring skill to the proliferation of forced, free Black labor in European colonies to create massive stolen wealth is evoked in several works, starting with’ iconic 1936 painting “Into Bondage.” Silhouetted men and one woman in chains, manacles glowing red on their wrists, march to the sea, where ships bob on the horizon. Concentric circles of color radiate outward from beyond the horizon, linking past and future.
The painting is one of fewer than 20 historical works in the show, which severs an important thread of contrast, complexity and continuity in its themes. Morland was white, the other artists in the room are Black. That’s not surprising, given the legal constraints around work, language and image-making until the Modern era.
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