Decolonizing African Art
Exhibit info
Exhibition: Decolonizing African Art
Dates: December 4th – January 24th
Opening Reception: December 4th at 5pm
Location: Dayton Memorial Library – Fireplace Gallery
About the exhibition:
In a course offered in the Fine and Performing Arts Department that shares the same name as the exhibit, students learned to be critical of the ways African art has historically been discussed, often described using derogatory terms such as "exotic" and "primitive", and frequently interpreted as inferior to art of the West, only significant in the context of Modern artists such as Pablo Picasso. Working with objects from the African Art Collection of the Dayton Memorial Library's Archives and Special Collections, students conducted formal, iconographic, and material analyses of the pieces, followed by in-depth, original, art historical research. Their research culminated in exhibit labels that support African cultural agency by representing and describing each piece in ways that are faithful to the cultures they represent.
Join us December 4th at 5pm for a talk with Dr. Paul J. Hamilton, a lifelong educator and collector of African art and cultural heritage collections, who generously donated numerous works to the Regis Archives and Special Collections.