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| Portrait of an African Slave Woman, ~1580, attr. to Annibale Carracci |
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| Portrait of a Wealthy African, ~1540, Flemish or German |
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore currently has an exhibit titled Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe.There are sculptures, cameos, drawings, and paintings, including this one on the left, that show African people of all walks of life interacting with peers, servants, and masters in Europe.The book accompanying this exhibit is excellent and can be found at this link here.
Holland Cotter, art critic for the New York Times, has an abiding interest in African art. He recently reviewed three books published just in time for the holiday season. The fourth volume in the series The Image of the Black in Western Art, edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr.: this series is available for purchase: if the reader wishes to purchase it through this link, BlackPast.org will receive six percent of the purchase price.The second book reviewed by him is based on the exhibit at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution called African Cosmos:Stellar Arts. And finally, the catalogue for the exhibit In Extremis:Death and Life in 21st Century Haitian Art at UCLA’s Fowler Museum will provide a basis for plenty of thought and discussion. Both the above books are also available through this link.
And, of course, the children should not be neglected! A thorough selection is available for children and youth at this link and also here.