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)

A groundbreaking analysis of one of the most significant collections of African art in the United States The collection of African art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is among the most comprehensive in the United States, featuring works in all media from across the continent dating from antiquity to today. This handsome volume, the product of a groundbreaking collaboration between the museum's curators and conservators, supported by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, presents highlights from the collection-some never before published-alongside new scientific analysis and imaging. Six chapters detail both the historiographical and technical concerns at play in collecting and conserving African art. The result promises to deepen our understanding of the art in the dynamics of their original communities and as they appear now in a museum context. Distributed for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts