Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club

The first book to feature Jacob Lawrences Nigeria series, this richly illustrated volume also highlights Africas place as a global center of modernist art and culture
 
This revelatory book shines a light on the understudied but important influence of African Modernism on the work of Black American artist Jacob Lawrence (19172000). In 1965, a New York gallery displayed Lawrences Nigeria series: eight tempera paintings of Lagos and Ibadan marketplaces that were the culmination of an eight-month stay in Nigeria. Lawrences residency put him in touch with the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, an international consortium of artists and writers in post-independence Nigeria that published the arts journal Black Orpheus.
 
This volume and accompanying exhibition place the Nigeria series alongside issues of Black Orpheus and artwork created by Mbari Club artists, including Uche Okeke, Jacob Afolabi, Susanne Wenger, and Naoko Matsubara. Essayists explore the influence of Africas post-colonial movement on American modernists and developing African artists; the women of the Mbari group; and the importance of art publications in circulating knowledge globally.
 
Published in association with the Chrysler Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Chrysler Museum of Art
(October 7, 2022January 8, 2023)
 
New Orleans Museum of Art
(February 10May 7, 2023)
 
Toledo Museum of Art
(June 3September 3, 2023) See more