# Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club - Hardcover

by **Kimberli Gant** (Editor), **Ndubuisi Ezeluomba** (Editor)

**The first book to feature Jacob Lawrence's _Nigeria_ series, this richly illustrated volume also highlights Africa's place as a global center of modernist art and culture**

This revelatory book shines a light on the understudied but important influence of African Modernism on the work of Black American artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). In 1965, a New York gallery displayed Lawrence's _Nigeria_ series: eight tempera paintings of Lagos and Ibadan marketplaces that were the culmination of an eight-month stay in Nigeria. Lawrence's residency put him in touch with the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, an international consortium of artists and writers in post-independence Nigeria that published the arts journal _Black Orpheus_.

This volume and accompanying exhibition place the _Nigeria_ series alongside issues of _Black Orpheus_ and artwork created by Mbari Club artists, including Uche Okeke, Jacob Afolabi, Susanne Wenger, and Naoko Matsubara. Essayists explore the influence of Africa's post-colonial movement on American modernists and developing African artists; the women of the Mbari group; and the importance of art publications in circulating knowledge globally.

Published in association with the Chrysler Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art

**Exhibition Schedule:**

**Chrysler Museum of Art**  
(October 7, 2022-January 8, 2023)

**New Orleans Museum of Art**  
(February 10-May 7, 2023)

**Toledo Museum of Art**  
(June 3-September 3, 2023)

### Author Biography

**Kimberli Gant** is curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum. She is formerly McKinnon Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. **Ndubuisi Ezeluomba** is the Françoise Billon Richardson Curator of African Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

**Number of Pages:** 228

**Dimensions:** 0.91 x 12.28 x 9.28 IN

**Publication Date:** November 15, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 50.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 50.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club - Hardcover

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