Afro-Atlantic Histories

Dalton Paula, Zeferina, 2018. João de Deus Nascimento, 2018.
"In the most violent and uncertain times of its recent history, Brazil is revisiting the origins of its racial frictions: the slave trade. 'Histórias afro-atlânticas' (Afro-Atlantic Histories) is a massive, 380-work survey of African, Latin American, and European art from the past five centuries, chronicling the largest diaspora in modern history. Nearly half of all Africans captured by slave traders were brought to Brazil, from the time the Portuguese arrived, in the sixteenth century, all the way through the nineteenth century. The show is a sequel to 'Histórias mestiças' (Mestizo Histories), staged four years ago at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, the cultural center that is also cohosting the current exhibition. Its scope is far-reaching, with pieces by colonial-era Dutch master Albert Eckhout and modern greats Théodore Géricault and Paul Cézanne, as well as contemporary art-world darlings Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, and Hank Willis Thomas. A fully illustrated catalogue and companion reader will help sharpen our perspective on it all."
ARTFORUM
NY Times: Brazil Enthralls With an Art Show of Afro-Atlantic History
Afro-Atlantic Histories by Juliana Dos Santos
e-flux: MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand

José Alves de Olinda, a Brazilian artist, created “Eshus’s Barge,” from wood, vegetal fiber and metal, at the Tomie Ohtake Institute. Figures of two dozen Yoruban divinities, armed, have taken charge of a miniature slave ship.