African Arts — Global Conversations

How does a late nineteenth or early twentieth century Kuba mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo relate to Gilbert Stuart's 1796 portrait of George Washington? What ensues when we place vessels from twentieth and twenty-first century ceramicists working in Seoul, Nairobi, and Lagos in dialogue? African Arts—Global Conversations endeavored to answer these innovative queries. The exhibition cultivated a deeper understanding of African art through a global lens. While contemporary African art tends to be curated with transnational histories in mind, there has been less focus on situating classical and modern African art within a global canon. Kristen Windmuller-Luna, at the time the Sills Family Consulting Curator, African Arts, at the Brooklyn Museum, placed key works from the longue durée of African art history in other departments—American, European, Asian, Ancient Egyptian—as part of a multifloor installation. Global Conversations is a title apropos to the dialogue encouraged by experimental thematic...