Afro-Atlantic Histories

“Afro-Atlantic Histories” is an exhibition of more than 100 artworks spanning the 17th—21st centuries that offers a global perspective on the transatlantic slave trade and the African diasporic legacies that have prevailed in its devastating wake. On view in LACMA’s Resnick Pavilion, the poignant presentation (first seen at the Museo de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil) engages viewers through works from Africa, Europe, and the Americas, which illustrate the stories and histories of enslavement, resilience, and eventually liberation. Encompassing sculptures, drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, time-based media, and ephemera that have been organized into six thematic displays—Maps and Margins, Enslavement and Emancipation, Everyday Lives, Rites and Rhythms, Portraits, and Resistance and Activism—the dynamic presentation includes recognizable names both historic and contemporary, including Frans Post, Édouard Antoine Renard, Alison Saar, Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, and Hank Willis Thomas.