DRAPETOMANÍA: GRUPO ANTILLANO AND THE ART OF AFRO-CUBA
March 7 Through July 18, 2014
Manuel Couceiro, Sin título (Untitled), date unknown. [Image Description: An abstract rectangular painting composed in brown, green, red, and yellow, features a swirl of humanoid figures with distorted bodies and faces among green leaves. Between the figures are fruits including pineapples and bananas, while an owl, perched on a branch, peers outward from the top right corner.]
Drapetomanía explores the “forgotten” visual arts and cultural movement of Grupo Antillano, which thrived between 1978 and 1983. The group emphasized the centrality of African practices in Cuban national culture. The exhibition features works by artists who belonged to Grupo Antillano as well as contemporary Cuban artists.
Curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics and Professor of African and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, this exhibition is a collaboration between The 8th Floor and the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Christopher Reynolds Foundation.
Installation views of “Drapetomanía” at The 8th Floor, March 2014. Photos by Jean Vong. Courtesy of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.