Latest news with #BlackParis
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘The colour of my skin didn't matter': exhibition shines light on black artists in postwar Paris
For many black artists and intellectuals, postwar Paris was a cosmopolitan hub. While colonisation, racism and segregation cast a shadow over their countries of origin, the City of Light appeared then a more liberated place where they were free to mix, study, work and create. Now, a new exhibition – the last major event at Paris's Pompidou Centre before it closes for a five-year renovation in September – explores the 'unrecognised and fundamental' contribution these artists made to the French capital and how it influenced them. This vibrant final show brings together 350 works by 150 artists of African heritage, many of whom have been historically sidelined or forgotten and who the museum says are being given the recognition they deserve for the first time in France. The Pompidou, Paris's primary showcase for modern and contemporary art, describes it as an 'unusual project'. Paris Noir (Black Paris) 'celebrates artists who persisted in their commitment to create' despite being ignored by most cultural institutions at the time and for whom Paris was an essential part of their journey. Alicia Knock, the exhibition's lead curator, said: 'It is a story that hasn't been told and should be. The exhibition allows us to see the richness of these artists who came to Paris, many of whom were also philosophers and poets and whose works have not been seen before in France.' Paris had attracted African American artists even before the second world war. The celebrated Boston-born artist Loïs Mailou Jones arrived in the city on a fellowship in 1937 and marvelled at the positive response she received when painting was displayed outside on the streets. 'The French were so inspiring. The people would stand and watch me and say 'mademoiselle, you are so very talented. You are so wonderful.' In other words, the colour of my skin didn't matter in Paris …' she said of her time in the capital. Mailou Jones, who died in 1998 and whose work features in the exhibition, later returned to the US and set up the Little Paris Studio Group, a salon to provide local artists of colour with training and an outlet to show their work. Other artists featured include Chéri Samba, one of the most renowned contemporary African artists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, African American Sam Middleton and James Baldwin's close friend Beauford Delaney, as well as the Cuban Wifredo Lam and the Tanzanian-born, Edinburgh-based artist and writer Everlyn Nicodemus. After Delaney died in 1979, Baldwin wrote in a tribute that he was 'the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist'. But for decades his legacy was forgotten. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion For Knock, the exhibition is the culmination of a decade's work to fill what she discovered was a 'major gap' in the Pompidou's collection. Many of the artists featured remain unknown to a wider public. At least 50 of the works in the exhibition have been acquired by the Pompidou. Knock hopes they will be included in its permanent exhibition when the museum opens again in 2030 after an estimated €262m refit of the 50-year-old building. 'It's a way for the museum to be more global, more inclusive and also about honouring the artists. As a last exhibition before the museum closes for five years it is spectacular but it's part of a longer-term project,' Knock said.
Nahar Net
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Nahar Net
150 artists of African descent celebrated in 'Black Paris' exhibition at Pompidou Center
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 March 2025, 14:35 An unprecedented exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris explores the presence and influence of Black artists in the city from the 1950s to 2000, offering a vibrant immersion in France's cosmopolitan capital and a history of anti-colonial, civil rights struggles. The "Black Paris" exhibition features the works of about 150 major artists of African descent, many of whom have never or rarely been displayed in France before. Running from March 19 to June 30, it's one of the final shows before the museum closes for a five-year renovation later this year. Éva Barois De Caevel, associate curator, said that the exhibition is "unprecedented," with more than 300 paintings and sculptures by artists of various backgrounds. "Some are African Americans, some are Caribbeans, some are Africans, and some are Afro-descendants," said Barois De Caevel, adding that the focus of the exhibit is not geography or race, but rather "Black consciousness," shaped by the history of slavery and experience of racism shared by Black artists. After World War II, many African American painters, musicians, and intellectuals flocked to Paris, seeking a sense of freedom that they couldn't find in the United States at the time. Barois De Caevel pointed out that for many, Paris represented a break from the racial segregation that they faced back home. "Many enjoyed being free in the streets of Paris — being able to go out with white women, enter cafes, bars and restaurants, and be treated like white people," she said. "But they were not fooled," she added, noting that African American writer James Baldwin "wrote about this early on, that in France, racism is especially targeting Black Africans and Algerians, who were really extremely mistreated. So it's an ambivalent relationship with Paris." The exhibition also shows how many African artists from French colonies — and later former colonies — came to Paris to join a political and intellectual movement fighting for civil rights and racial justice, while others from the Caribbean were supporting independentist movements, which were gaining strength there. Alicia Knock, curator of the exhibition, praised the ambitious scope of the show, which she described as "an incredible epic of decolonization," highlighting how Paris city served as both a "lab for Pan-Africanism," the movement that encouraged solidarity between peoples of African descent, and an "anti-colonial workshop." Visitors "will see how these artists contributed to rewriting the history of modernism and postmodernism," Knock said, and how they "reframed abstraction and surrealism, and at the same time you will also see the Black solidarities that happened at the time." "Many of these artists were not only creators, but also cultural ambassadors, teachers, poets, and philosophers," she added. For some coming from the U.S., Paris was also "a gateway to Africa," Knock said, based on discussions she had with some of the artists' families: "They told us that, in fact, they had come to Paris to go to Africa, and in the end they found Africa in Paris." The exhibition also includes installations from four artists chosen to provide contemporary insights, including Shuck One, a Black graffiti and visual artist native of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. In addition, the Pompidou Center has acquired around 40 of the show's artworks, which will remain part of the museum's collection. "This is just the beginning," Knock said. "It's a baby step for many French institutions, French museums and French universities to start working on these artists, start collecting them, writing about them, preserving their works in their archives and hopefully dedicating a lot of solo shows to many of these artists, because they really deserve it."
Euronews
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Video. Shuck One pays tribute to Black history at Pompidou Centre in Paris
An installation by French street artist Shuck One is honouring Black historical figures and key moments in France's past as part of the 'Black Paris; exhibition at the Pompidou Centre.
