MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0018

[underscored] Rationale [/underscored]

Given the significance of the act of Emancipation and its impact
on the issue of identity, we believe that 1988, the 100th
anniversary of Brazilian Emancipation, is the perfect opportunity
to mount a major exhibition that not only explores the present
thinking of Afro-Brazi1ian artists, but compares them with
contemporary Afro-American artists. This is the first time an
exhibit of this scope and focus has been attempted. Through the
art of both well-known and promising new artists, it will examine
the present situation of two peoples of African descent in the
New World.

The perspective of the exhibition is also novel. It may lead to
a re-evaluation of past approaches to art by persons of African
descent in the Americas by exploring [underscored] how [/underscored]
this art is to be defined. Art is the shape of thought as well as the shape of
time. As a construction, it reveals the ethos of a time and
place and the thinking of the artist. Like the individuals who
create it, art shapes, and is shaped by, culture and history.
With art as the focus, the exhibit examines artists' orientations
and intentions, their concerns as revealed in the artworks
themselves, as a way to consider the present state of American
and Brazilian societies and the recent past.

Since their ancestors were first brought to the New World,
Afro-Americans and Afro-Brazi1ians have been finding solutions to
their particular problems. They have been formulating ways of
living, not merely for survival, but for the affirmation of
self. As they had in Africa, they continued to invent traditions
in the New World, constructing and transforming themselves and,
in the process, American and Brazilian cultures as well. Their
art expresses these strategies.

[underscored] The Exhibition [/underscored]

Given this perspective, contemporary Afro-American and
Afro-Brazi1ian art may be grouped into three broad categories
based upon its primary focus:

1) [underscored] Constructions of Africa [/underscored]

This group includes works that range from re-creations of forms
presumed to have been used in Africa, whether sacred or secular;
re-formulations of presumed African art forms (eg Afro-American
and Afro-Brazi1ian altars for ancestral gods); and images of
Africa from a variety of points of view (whether idealized or
critical); to works that intentionally deny the existence or
impact of Africa.

2) [underscored] Constructions of Self as citizens in the Larger Society [/underscored]

These works comment primarily on issues of citizenship; heroism,
patriotism, oppression, etc., that is, national concerns. Some

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