Celebrate our recent acquisition of this compelling portrait of writer James Baldwin wearing a Mwana Pwo mask of the Chokwe.
Celebrate our recent acquisition of this compelling portrait of writer James Baldwin wearing a Mwana Pwo mask of the Chokwe.
1st floor, Nancy Newcomb New Acquisitions Niche
This installation celebrates The New York Historical’s recent acquisition of Chokwe James, African Divas by Margaret Vendryes.
Inspired by her research into artistic representations of the Black body as well as her own experiences as a queer Black woman, artist and scholar Margaret Vendryes created works that explore power, race, gender, and beauty. For her African Divas series, she placed African masks over the faces of Black cultural icons, tracing a diasporic line between African traditions and Western pop culture.
This portrait of American writer James Baldwin places him in front of an excerpt from his 1964 essay “Nothing Personal,” in which he critiques social isolation, racism, and American society at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He wears a Mwana Pwo mask of the Chokwe, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of Central and Southern Africa.
Exhibitions at The New York Historical are made possible by the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.
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