29 Jan 2025
Negotiating Blackness, Modern Art and African Identities in Paris, 1920-1970
Aina Onabolu, Ernest Mancoba, Gerard Sekoto, Gazbia Sirry and Iba Ndiaye
Live Zoom
The École des modernités
In Paris, at the heart of the 20th century, modern African artists shaped their practice by negotiating blackness, modernism, and African identities within a global artistic framework. Among them, Aina Onabolu, Ernest Mancoba, Gerard Sekoto, Gazbia Sirry, and Iba Ndiaye redefined their place in the narratives of modern art, turning their time in Paris into pivotal moments for their careers and their contribution to art history.
Wednesday 29 January, 6:30pm
Live on Zoom
Lecture in English
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie is Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the University of California Santa Barbara and a 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. His research focuses on African and African Diaspora arts, modern and contemporary art, cultural informatics, and African cultural patrimony. Ogbechie is the author of Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (2008), and Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art Collection (2011). He is working on a book titled The Curator as Culture Broker: Representing Africa in Global Contemporary Art.
Image : Gazbia Sirry, Portrait of a Nubian Family, oil on canvas, 1962
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