A Billion Brilliant Points Of Unity
Fridman Gallery is honored to announce A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity, a group exhibition curated by Maty Sall.
The belief that different cultures are not separate but rather inherently interconnected, sharing past and present influences, is generally known as polyculturalism. And, in as much as it is a belief, it is also an observation of perpetual flux that points us towards an obvious truth: human beings are engaged in an eternal process of cultural exchange. Our history is one of mutual influence, a constant migration and exchange of people, ideas, and objects.
The current popular understanding of how cultures interact has morphed into a simplified notion of cultural exchange as a system of top-down oppression that frames non-Western people and their art as "source material." This both denies non-Western people the dignity of being influential and casts the Western world into the role of "observer" while framing non-Westerners as, simply, the "observed." Moreover, it could not be further from the historical truth: a Hellenistic influence on Indian art and architecture is documented from the 4th century BC onwards. It was just as 17th century Chinese potters began to emulate Ottoman and Safavid ceramic designs that 17th century Europe developed a fascination with Chinoiserie. The distinct stylistic qualities of Byzantine art reveal centuries鈥� of influence from North and East Africa on the Eastern Mediterranean. And, famously, when seeking to reinvent the human figure Cubism looked straight towards African art.
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Fridman Gallery is honored to announce A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity, a group exhibition curated by Maty Sall.
The belief that different cultures are not separate but rather inherently interconnected, sharing past and present influences, is generally known as polyculturalism. And, in as much as it is a belief, it is also an observation of perpetual flux that points us towards an obvious truth: human beings are engaged in an eternal process of cultural exchange. Our history is one of mutual influence, a constant migration and exchange of people, ideas, and objects.
The current popular understanding of how cultures interact has morphed into a simplified notion of cultural exchange as a system of top-down oppression that frames non-Western people and their art as "source material." This both denies non-Western people the dignity of being influential and casts the Western world into the role of "observer" while framing non-Westerners as, simply, the "observed." Moreover, it could not be further from the historical truth: a Hellenistic influence on Indian art and architecture is documented from the 4th century BC onwards. It was just as 17th century Chinese potters began to emulate Ottoman and Safavid ceramic designs that 17th century Europe developed a fascination with Chinoiserie. The distinct stylistic qualities of Byzantine art reveal centuries鈥� of influence from North and East Africa on the Eastern Mediterranean. And, famously, when seeking to reinvent the human figure Cubism looked straight towards African art.
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Fridman Gallery opened A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity, a group exhibition curated by Maty Sall.
