Through African Eyes: The European in African Art,
1500–Present

September 25, 2010—January 9, 2011Bookmark and Share
Location: Bloch Building, Gallery L14

The exhibition is FREE Thursday evenings, 5–9 p.m.


Museum members see it first and see it free! Click here for more information about membership.

Portuguese sailors landed on the shores of West Africa around 1450. Strangers at first, Europeans became trading partners, settlers and eventually colonizers.

Once African countries regained their independence in the 1950s and 1960s, their perceptions shifted once again. African artists addressed these changing relationships, incorporating, rejecting and transforming elements of European cultures. You can now experience this fascinating history—for the first time—Through African Eyes.

An Acoustiguide multimedia tour, included with the ticket, accompanies the extraordinary exhibition, organized in seven thematic areas:

Strangers and Spirits
Traders
Settlers
Spirituality and Technology
Education
Colonizers
Westerners

This exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In Kansas City the exhibition is supported by The Helzberg Fund for African Art.

 

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.