Afro-Atlantic Histories

(Los Angeles, CA—November 28, 2022) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Afro-Atlantic Histories, an exhibition that charts the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African diaspora. Through a series of dialogues across time, Afro-Atlantic Histories features artworks produced in Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the last four centuries to reexamine—from a global perspective—histories and stories of enslavement, resilience, and the struggle for liberation.

Afro-Atlantic Histories juxtaposes works to presenting evolving perspectives across time and geography through paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, time-based media, and ephemera, from historical paintings by Frans Post and Édouard Antoine Renard to contemporary works by Kerry James Marshall, Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kara Walker, among others.

The exhibition was initially presented as Histórias Afro-Atlânticas at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil, in 2018, with touring venues in the U.S., including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the National Gallery of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art. At the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, the exhibition was curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director, MASP; Ayrson Heráclito, Guest Curator; Hélio Menezes, Guest Curator; Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Adjunct Curator of Histories, MASP; and Tomás Toledo, Former Chief Curator, MASP. The North American tour is curated by Kanitra Fletcher, Associate Curator, African American and Afro-Diasporic Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. LACMA’s exhibition is co-curated by Rita Gonzalez, the Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head, Contemporary Art, and José Luis Blondet, Curator of Special Initiatives, Contemporary Art.