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Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic

Group show at Tate Liverpool. 2010
Date: 29 January, 2010 until 25 April, 2010
Curator: Tanya Barson
Organiser: Tate Liverpool

Afro Modern was a major exhibition that took place at Tate Liverpool in the spring of 2010. The exhibition was accompanied by a major catalogue. From the small gallery guide that also accompanied the exhibition:

“Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic explores the impact of different black cultures from around the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth-century to today. The exhibition takes its inspiration from Paul Gilroy’s influential book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness published in 1993. It features over 140 works by more than 60 artists.

Gilroy used the term ‘The Black Atlantic’ to describe the transmission of black cultures around the Atlantic, and the instances of cultural hybridity, that occurred as a result of transatlantic slavery and its legacy.

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic reflects Gilroy’s idea of the Atlantic Ocean as a ‘continent in negative’, offering a network connecting Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. It traces both real and imagined routes taken across the Atlantic, and highlights artistic links and dialogues from the early twentieth-century to today.

The exhibition is divided into seven chronological sections. Charting new forms of art arising from black culture and the work of black artists and intellectuals, it opens up an alternative, transatlantic reading of modernism and contemporary culture.”

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic was part of Liverpool and the Black Atlantic, described in the brochure as “a series of exhibitions and events that explores connections between cultures and continents. Partners include the Bluecoat, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), International Slavery Museum, Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Metal, Tate Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, and the University of Liverpool.”

The exhibition was presented in seven sections:

Black Atlantic Avant-Gardes
Maya Deren - Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
Black Orpheus
Dissident Identities
Reconstructing the Middle Passage
Exhibiting Bodies
From Post-Modern to Post-Black