FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 1, 2009

Fall Brings African Art Exhibitions to DC

This fall, African-themed art exhibitions add depth to an already vibrant museum scene in DC.

Man Ray: African Art and the Modernist Lens
Phillips Collection (Oct. 10, 2009 – Jan. 10, 2010)
May Ray is well-known for revolutionizing the art of photography, and starting in October, his work will be on display at the Phillips Collection. The exhibition, Man Ray: African Art and the Modernist Lens, explores the pivotal role photographs played in changing the perception of African objects from artifacts to fine art. More than 60 photographs, many never before exhibited, along with 40 photographs by his contemporaries, will appear side-by-side with 20 of the African artifacts featured in the images. The exhibition is organized into four sections, and it unravels the various levels on which photographs of African art were created and circulated in the early decades of the 20th century.

The African Presence in Mexico
Anacostia Community Museum (Nov. 8, 2009 – Jul. 4, 2010)
This traveling exhibition (organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago), focuses on the overlooked history of African contributions to Mexican culture from 1519 to the present day. It tells the little-known story of Afro-descendants in Mexico during the past 500 years, including the story of Yanga, an enslaved African who escaped to found the first free town in the Americas, near Veracruz, Mexico, in 1610. Highlights of the exhibition include “casta” paintings (paintings used to delineate racial categories and the ever-increasing complexity of racial mixture); discussions of African slavery in Mexico and the hero/slave rebel Yanga; and artifacts related to the traditions and popular culture of the Afro-Mexicans.

Yinka Shonibare MBE
National Museum of African Art (Nov. 10, 2009 – Mar. 7, 2010)
Yinka Shonibare MBE, a mid-career exhibition of the Nigerian-born artist, combines a wide range of media including paintings, sculpture and installation, photography and moving images. The works encompass the last 12 years of Shonibare’s career with a focus on recent works juxtaposed with historical works.The National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the United States dedicated to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of traditional and contemporary African art. Founded as a small museum on Capitol Hill in 1964, it became part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1979, and in 1987 it moved to its current location on the National Mall.

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