Afro modern: journeys through the black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy, has set the term Black Atlantic to refer to fusion black with other cultures around the Atlantic. His book, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, had an enormous influence on the perception and analysis of black culture in the field of cultural studies and critical debates that remain open. Afro Modern: Journey through the Black Atlantic takes this idea of the Atlantic Ocean as a continent negatively, as a network of connecting cultures in Africa, North America and South America, the Caribbean and Europe, and profile trails real and imaginary undertaken by artists from across the Atlantic since 1909 until today.

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic takes its inspiration from Paul Gilroy’s seminal book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993) and is the first exhibition to trace in depth the impact of different black cultures from around the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth century to today. From the influences of African art on the modernist forms of artists like Picasso, to the work of contemporary artists such as Ellen Gallagher, Chris Ofili and Kara Walker, the exhibition will reflect how artists around the Atlantic have claimed the language of Modernism in diverse ways, as a powerful tool to explore, formulate and assert their own identity.

“Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic”, was a special exhbition at Tate Liverpool exploring the connections between culture and continent. It travelled to Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain, as a study day and event convened by Michael Asbury.

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