{"id":6050,"date":"2019-10-09T19:21:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=6050"},"modified":"2019-10-09T19:24:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:24:40","slug":"afrocosmologies-american-reflections-at-the-wadsworth-atheneum-museum-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=6050","title":{"rendered":"Afrocosmologies: American Reflections at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections <\/span><\/i>presents a window into a dynamic cosmos of influences that shape contemporary American art. This exhibition is a collaboration of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African- American Art. Drawing from over one hundred art objects, with the Petrucci Family Foundation contributing sixty-eight, these works of art span various media, present potent voices, and pose multiple questions. <\/span>Afrocosmologies <\/span><\/i>is an exhibition about presence, faith, authentic experiences, and representations of gender within a family of people born to many cosmological influences. With a predominant arc between the twentieth and twenty first century, the exhibition brings together the work of an incredible assortment of artists including Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Elizabeth Catlett, Willie Cole, Melvin Edwards, Titus Kaphar, Lois Mailou Jones, Kerry James Marshall, Alison Saar, Hale Woodruff, Shinique Smith, and Kehinde Wiley along with many additional artists of note.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Afrocosmologies <\/span><\/i>examines successive generations of African American artists expressing their unique and evolving worldviews. Those cosmologies illustrate particular aspects of American history but are informed by African philosophical, ritual, and cultural systems that migrated here in memory. It\u2019s human to look for order in the universe\u2014to develop a cosmology or system of belief. Art reflects this search for understanding. From the late\u00a0<\/span>nineteenth century to now African American artists have explored spirituality and culture by telling stories and when finally allowed, creating imagery that validated their connections to cosmology. Religion (faith), myth, inherent humanity, non-traditional colors and patterns are all themes emerging from the rich aesthetic traditions of West African and other cultures. <\/span>Afrocosmologies <\/span><\/i>examines these works of art through four themes: <\/span>Nature<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Gods and Humanity<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Ritual<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Origins<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n