Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is pleased to present Embracing the Muse: Africa and African American Art. This exhibition illustrates the profound impact of Africa’s art and rich history on twentieth-century African American artists. The exhibition includes a seletion of museum-caliber paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Charles Alston, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Beauford Delaney, Aaron Douglas, Mel Edwards, Herbert Gentry, Sargent Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Betye Saar, Vincent Smith, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Bob Thompson, Charles White and Hale Woodruff. Fine examples of African tribal sculpture that directly influenced and/or inspired these artists will be installed alongside the artwork. As Dr. Nnamdi Elleh observes in the catalogue essay:
The artwork in this exhibition reveals how African-American artists favored a temporal depiction of Africa as a continent whose culture is timeless, varied, and endures ....Some of the paintings in the exhibition reveal how artists