黑料不打烊

Organized around a single object鈥攖he marble bust Why Born Enslaved! by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux鈥擣ictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast is the first exhibition at The Met to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire. Created in the wake of American emancipation and some twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the French Atlantic, Why Born Enslaved! was shaped by the enduring popularity of antislavery imagery, the development of nineteenth-century ethnographic theories of racial difference, and France鈥檚 colonialist fascination with Africa. The exhibition will explore the sculpture鈥檚 place within these contexts. Featuring more than thirty-five works of art in sections unfolding around Carpeaux鈥檚 sculpture, Fictions of Emancipation will offer an in-depth look at portrayals of Black enslavement, emancipation, and personhood with an aim toward challenging the notion that representation in the wake of abolition constitutes a clear moral or political stance. Important works by Josiah Wedgwood, Fr茅d茅ric Auguste Bartholdi, Charles Cordier, Edmonia Lewis, Louis-Simon Boizot, and others will show how Western artists of the nineteenth century engaged with the Black figure as a political symbol and site of exoticized beauty, while contemporary sculptures by Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley will connect the dialogue around Carpeaux鈥檚 bust to current conversations about the legacies of slavery in the Western world.