West and Central African Arts, Colonialism, and Pablo Picasso

Lunchtime Lecture

Lecture
Tickets Required

Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries.

Tuesday, January 7, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m.

Kristen Windmuller-Luna, Curator of African Art

Location: Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center

Free; Ticket Required

About The Event

Pablo Picasso created his art within the social context of French colonialism and the so-called “discovery” of African arts by Paris-based European modernist artists. Though he and his peers mistakenly believed the works whose aesthetics they appropriated were “ancient,” they were most often contemporary with their own creations. What art historians have defined as European modernism overlaps with a peak period of European imperialism, requiring us to ask why certain African arts became available to European artists and how they related to them. What follows is a brief discussion of the connections between Pablo Picasso, colonialism, and the works of West and Central African artists. The talk concludes by highlighting several named African contemporaries of Picasso whose works are in the CMA collection.

Sponsors

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, David and Robin Gunning, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.