Tue 1/7 @ noon
There’s more that’s free at the Cleveland Museum of Art besides admission. The museum also offers free Tuesday lectures where you can learn more about different aspects of its collection and its exhibits.
This week, you can gain more insight into its current blockbuster special exhibit, Picasso and Paper. Kristen Windmuller-Luna, the museum’s Curator of African Art, will share insights into the connection between Picasso, colonialism and West and Central African Arts. It’s well known that Picasso and many of his peers were in influenced by the objects being brought back from Africa by French colonists; many were even collectors. And one of Picasso’s best known paintings, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, depicts women in African-like masks.
“What art historians have defined as European modernism overlaps with a peak period of European imperialism, requiring us to ask why certain African arts became available to European artists and how they related to them,” they tell us. One of the most interesting aspects of the African art is that, contrary to widespread belief, these were not historic artifacts but were instead being created by contemporary Africans; the lecture will share information about several of those artists who are known by name and whose work is in CMA’s collection.
The lecture, which takes place in CMA’s Gartner Auditorium, is free, but registration is required. Go here.
Cleveland, OH 44106