On January 29, the exhibition Black Modernism - Africa and the Avant-Garde opens at the Pablo Picasso Art Museum in Münster, Germany. The exhibition explores the complex relationship between works of indigenous African art and the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. For greats such as Pablo Picasso, Man Ray or Henri Matisse were inspired at the beginning of the 20th century by precisely this African art and its formal language, which in the estimation of European art views had a revolutionary character. Therefore, movements such as Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism or contemporary art, in their form as such, would be inconceivable without the various stylistic elements of African art. Until May 01, 2022, visitors to the Pablo Picasso Art Museum will therefore have the opportunity to explore the uniqueness of African art and rediscover it as the basis of modernity.
Black Modernism - Africa and the Avant-Garde shows sculptures and masks by indigenous artists from a variety of different African ethnic groups as well as paintings, sculptures, graphics, films, and photographs from European Classical Modernism, including works by Hannah Höch, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Man Ray. At the same time, contemporary views by African artists such as the Congolese painters Chéri Samba and Maître Syms and the Mozambican artist Gonçalo Mabunda establish a link between the past and the present. In addition, prints by Picasso from the museum's own collection will also be on view. Some feature the Minotaur, a figure from ancient Greek mythology that Picasso uses as a stand-in for himself to address both his life as an artist and his relationships on a romantic level as well as sexual experiences.
