Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection is known for its strength in 18th-century European art. This period is traditionally associated with the Enlightenment, and its intellectual and cultural changes leading to increased individual happiness and freedom. Fault Lines: Art, Imperialism, and the Atlantic World questions the biased coherence of this concept seen from Europe only, foregrounding instead the Atlantic world.

Seen from an Atlantic perspective, the world was geopolitically connected by competitive trade, endemic violence, war, and European increased colonial presence in Africa and the Americas. This exhibition brings together the work of artists who lived within the fluid imperial boundaries of Spanish, Dutch, French, and British Empires to explore the way that art and artists contributed to, reinforced, or undermined European imperial projects.

The exhibition is organized by Marie-Stéphanie Delamaire, curator of European and American art.