In the wake of Europeâs imperial expansion, which included the colonization of North and South America and the Caribbean in the 16th and 17th centuries, extensive military and economic activity transformed the regions that border the Atlantic Ocean. A new worldâthe Atlantic Worldâ emerged, in which wars, competitive trade, and the enslavement of millions of Africans created new societies in Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
As ideas, knowledge, and beliefs moved together with people and materials across the ocean, shaping new mindsets and understandings of the world, European elite culture singled out certain objects as art, to be appreciated primarily for their beauty and emotional power. In that process, which also led to the creation of the first art museums, a rift opened between our understanding of these works of art and the political forces and transoceanic networks that made their creation possible. Acknowledging the fault lines of art history, this exhibition explores what can be imagined when works in the collection are brought in conversation with those made by artists who lived at the fluid boundaries of the Atlantic worldâs entangled empires.
The exhibition is organized by Marie-Stéphanie Delamaire, curator of European and American art.
