NYAB Event - "The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art" Exhibition

Closes in 15 days
At Grey Art Gallery
Media: Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Fashion

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The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art juxtaposes a selection of the finest examples of modern and classic 19th-century textiles—from Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar—with works by a number of Africa’s leading contemporary artists. Comparing and contrasting tribal fabrics with contemporary paintings, sculpture, and photographs by African artists, the exhibition not only draws attention to textiles, a medium that has previously been overshadowed by traditional African sculpture, but also illuminates the connections and continuities between past and recent modes of expression. As El Anatsui, a contemporary Ghanaian artist based in Nigeria, has observed: “The scope of meaning associated with cloth is so wide…. [It] is to the African what monuments are to Westerners.”

The exhibition and its 112-page, illustrated catalogue demonstrate how African artists who come from different countries and diverse milieus share a common engagement with one of the most fundamental and traditional forms of African expression. A parallel exhibition will be presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design without End.

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