The Modern Art Museum presents pan-African surrealism in a large group show

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, the United States is currently presenting Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940, an expansive art exhibition featuring over 80 artworks by more than 60 artists. The exhibition is the first show of works by intergenerational artists of Caribbean and African diasporic descent at the museum and is on view until July 28, 2024. It is organised by María Elena Ortiz, curator at the Modern and the Pérez Art Museum in Miami (PAMM). Oritz joins STIR to shed light on the writing that inspired the exhibition and to connect it to the larger legacy of Black Resistance.

Since its beginnings in the early 20^th century, the Surrealist movement embraced Caribbean and African aesthetics and folklore and in the 1940s, artists from the Caribbean would in turn become enamoured by Surrealist art. The Martinican writer, scholar and activist Suzanne Césaire played a large role in sparking this interest through her essay 1943: Surrealism and Us, published in Tropiques, a cultural journal that she co-founded and edited alongside her husband Aimé Césaire. In the essay, she presented surrealism as a mode of resistance for artists from the region and wrote, “When Breton created Surrealism, the most urgent task was to free the mind from the shackles of absurd logic and so-called Western reason.” Artists across the Caribbean would take Césaire’s words to heart, sparking the Afrosurrealist movement.

The Césaires rose to great acclaim in their native Martinique for their activism, primarily conducted through Négritude, the anti-colonialist, pan-African political movement that Aimé Césaire co-founded as a student in Paris in the 1930s. Martinique is officially classified as an “overseas department of France” in the Caribbean, which differs from a colony in that it is considered to be a part of a nation that is far away from the political centre, diminishing the political autonomy of people in the region. The history of colonialism in Martinique led to significant pushback against the French government. From 1930-50, Négritude shaped a framework for the Martinicans—along with people from the wider Caribbean region—to articulate a shared cultural identity as well as their anti-colonial political objectives. More recently, Black Resistance has gained some ground in Martinique, with the island adopting its own flag in 2023 featuring the black, red and green colours associated with Pan-Africanism. Afrosurrealism, as inspired by Suzanne Césaire’s writing, would incorporate Négritude, manifesting itself with a close focus on pan-African spiritualism and cultural narratives within the work produced by Afrosurrealist artists.

A large selection of the works that these artists produced are on view at the art museum, offering audiences a compelling lens into the rich heritage that underpins them. For example, there is the painting Damballah la Flambeau (1946-48) by celebrated Haitian painter and third-generation Voudou priest (Houngan) Hector Hyppolite, which depicts one of the principal Ioa or spirits within the Voudou faith system. There is also the art installation Blue Chapel (2022) by Erick and Elliot Jiménez, who come from Cuban and Afro-Cuban heritage. The work fills a room of the exhibition, featuring blue walls and several highly stylised photographs depicting shadowy figures with piercing eyes. Erick and Elliot Jiménez have explained that these represent deities from the folklore of the Afro-Cuban Lucumi people.

Returning to Suzanne Césaire as a touchstone for the exhibition, while the author believed that André Breton’s evolution of Surrealism was rooted in a desire to break away from Western systems of logic, the Afrosurrealists effectively reinterpreted a Western artistic movement. Oritz responds to this interesting dichotomy saying, “I think that Surrealism afforded artists…visibility. In general, Breton is a complicated figure, but where I find him useful is…the fact that he considered these artists as equals, in contrast with other European modern avant-garde that borrowed from African art but did not honour artists in that region.” She also mentions that to break away from a system needn’t imply a direct challenge or confrontation to it.

In general, Breton is a complicated figure, but where I find him useful is the fact that he considered these artists as equals, in contrast with other European modern avant-garde that borrowed from African motifs but did not honour artists in that region.
– María Elena Ortiz, Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

While the objectives of Black Resistance have evolved over the decades, certain themes have persisted through the paintings, drawings, sculpture art and other mediums used by the Afrosurrealists. Oritz tells STIR, “In the works in the exhibition, there are references to colonialism, beauty, resistance and spirituality among others. All of these themes appear in historical and contemporary works.” The wealth of expression in Surrealism and Us highlights how Afrosurrealist artists articulated these ideas, making for an important moment in art history focusing on Africa.

‘Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940’ is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth from March 10 – July 28, 2024.