Conversations

  • THEMES
    • Conversations Considered
    • Spiritualities
    • A Human Presence
    • Power and Politics
    • Memory, Family, and the Domestic Sphere
    • Nature as Metaphor
    • Music and Urban Culture
  • ABOUT
    • 50 Years – Looking Back, Looking Forward
    • Conversations Family Guide
    • Curriculum Resource Guide
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CONVERSATIONS

African and African American Artworks in Dialogue

From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

David C. Driskell, Benin Head, c. 1978, egg tempera on paper, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

Conversations brings together African and African American artworks in a visual and intellectual dialogue about particular crosscutting themes:

  • Conversations Considered
  • Spiritualities
  • A Human Presence
  • Power and Politics
  • Memory, Family, and the Domestic Sphere
  • Nature as Metaphor
  • Music and Urban Culture

A Message to Our Visitors about This Exhibition

Conversations Considered

The artworks on view offer multiple points of entry into the ways that artists explore complex ideas about the social, economic, political, and aesthetic roles of art in African and African American contexts.

Explore this Theme

Elizabeth Catlett, Maternity, 1980, marble, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

Since the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art on the National Mall in 1987, the museum has expanded its collection of outstanding works of African art, but it has also continued, through exhibitions and programs, to emphasize connections between Africa and the African diaspora. Thus Conversations looks both to the museum’s past and to its future in demonstrating the relevance of Africa and Africa’s arts to succeeding generations the world over.
—Johnnetta Betsch Cole

Spiritualities

In Conversations, selected works of African and African American art provide opportunities to examine the intentions and motivations of artists who creatively explore multiple understandings of the spiritual.

Explore this Theme

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Thankful Poor, 1894, oil on canvas, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

Crucifixion by Aaron Douglas makes a powerful statement about black spirituality and changing the dominant Western narrative of Christianity. . . . The Christ figure is one of the smallest figures in the whole composition. Simon of Cyrene, the African who bears the cross, is a much more powerfully rendered figure.
—David C. Driskell

A Human Presence

For millennia the image of the individual has been a vehicle in the visual arts for both reflecting and shaping human identities. African and African American artists employ the human form not to represent reality literally but to explore cultural values surrounding who one is and who one can be.

Explore this Theme

Aida Muluneh, Spirit of Sisterhood, 2000, Cibachrome print, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2004-3-1

As we were developing the themes for the exhibition, we were aware of the human presence in the artwork. In the months since Conversations opened, I have been struck by the human presence in the gallery—the knowledge, the interest, and the curiosity of our visitors as they engage with the art.
—Bryna Freyer

Power and Politics

The dynamics of power unite artworks in this section. African and African American artists employ a range of visual strategies—upended figures; blood seeping from wounds; poses and gestures denoting individual or collective strength, or its absence—in their explorations of power and its social and political implications.

Explore this Theme

Robert Colescott, Death of a Mulatto Woman (detail), 1991, Acrylic on canvas, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr. Photograph by Frank Stewart

What you have to remember about ‎[Robert] Colescott is that he is seminal in that kind of double consciousness of black imagery. In a way, Colescott was poking fun at the history of black imagery, but he was also telling us to read history, to learn from it.
—David C. Driskell

Memory, Family, and the Domestic Sphere

The domestic sphere comprises spaces where we live and nurture, and where we often become our most authentic selves. It defines a social place that engages the inner world of family and the outer, public world.

Explore this Theme

Eldzier Cortor, Homage to 466 Cherry Street, 1987, oil on Masonite, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

Artists have long represented domestic interiors, imagining them as spaces for reflection, family celebrations, aesthetic expression, and much more. African and African American artists and craftspeople have used domestic objects and environments to define powerful aspects of identity formation and to shape cultural practice.
—Christine Mullen Kreamer

Nature as Metaphor

African and African American artistic engagement with the natural world—from naturalism to abstraction to surrealist meditations—reveals how nature serves as a rich source of metaphor in the arts. Artworks on view here examine in distinctive ways the multifaceted, often flawed relationships that human beings have with one another and with the physical and intellectual environments in which we all live.

Explore this Theme

Hughie Lee-Smith, Festival’s End #2, 1987, oil on canvas, Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.

Bob Thompson’s compelling Bird with Nudes presents a vision of nature that is both simple and highly complex. I recommend entering into Thompson’s world trusting in what you see and freeing yourself to experience the beautiful and mysterious figures, animal-like forms, and strange landscapes.
—Adrienne L. Childs

Music and Urban Culture

Music serves as inspiration in selected African and African American works of art presented in Conversations. Transcending race, nationality, and culturally specific narratives, the artworks embody music as a universal language and consider the human relationships that form around its playing in urban and rural settings.

Explore this Theme

Iba N’Diaye, Hommage à Bessie Smith, 1987, oil on canvas, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2002-13-1

I love how Jazz Age Chicago comes to life in Motley’s Stomp. A diverse crowd of fashionable women in flapper styles and elegant men in suits comes together in this decidedly urban and modern milieu. Motley gives us a glimpse into an era when jazz music and dance were taking the urban centers by storm and, through the new and infectious sounds, suspending social barriers.
—Adrienne L. Childs

Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue was a major part of the museum’s 50th anniversary, celebrating its unique history and contributions toward furthering meaningful dialogue between Africa and the African diaspora.

Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue was supported by a major donation made to the museum by Dr. Camille O. Cosby.


Conversations ran from November 9, 2014 to January 24, 2016 at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

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