BRUSSELS SHOW OFFERS DIVERSE VIEW OF ART HISTORY

It’s like walking through several psychedelic halls of history, where bold colours, electrifying compositions and contagious rhythms hit the senses all at once.

This is When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting – a momentous exhibition running at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, until Aug. 10, 2025. 

The show places African diasporic art firmly within the global sphere of art history, bringing together some 150 luminous artworks from the past 120 years, by Black artists worldwide who explore daily life and other topics.

“One of the most enduring features of the human condition is the inexhaustible desire to see oneself through visual culture and storytelling,” said Koyo Kouoh, co-curator of the exhibition with Tandazani Dhlakama, and executive director and chief curator of Cape Town’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) – which conceived and organized the exhibition.

“Whether living on the continent or within the vast, impressive African diaspora, Black artists have invested in a spectrum of narratives that encompass the experience of blackness, intentionally rejecting limiting tropes of representation,” Kouoh told journalists as the exhibition opened this month.

According to Zoë Gray, Bozar’s director of exhibitions, When We See Us demonstrates how art history is “plural, diverse, and always intertwined”. She said that when she first saw the exhibition in South Africa, she immediately wanted Bozar to host it as well. (The show has now travelled from MOCAA to Basel, to Brussels. It will move on to Stockholm in October for a 10-month stint in the Swedish capital.)

The paintings – from a timely “insider” perspective – are grouped into sections titled “The Everyday”, “Repose”, “Triumph and Emancipation”, “Sensuality”, “Spirituality”, and “Joy and Revelry”. As visitors wander through these sections, they stroll to an accompaniment of global rhythms (arranged by musician and sound artist Neo Muyanga); and the overall effect is of a lively, panoptic world. 

A feature of the display is the “interconnectedness”, or “inter-generational similarities”, among artists and art styles across the African diaspora. The organizers highlight, for instance, the commonalities between an iconic African American artist such as Romare Bearden (1911-1988) and a South African artist like Katlego Tlabela (born in 1993), by placing their works in juxtaposition.

But this is just one noteworthy element. When We See Us can be viewed as an historic art journey, a parade of artistry, a different way of seeing, an explosion of joy.

The curators say the show’s title is “inspired and derived” from the 2019 miniseries directed by US filmmaker Ava DuVernay, When They See Us, which depicts systemic racial prejudice and violence.

“I like shifting things and flipping things … as a way to continue the conversation,” Kouoh said. “So, flipping ‘they' to ‘we’ allows for a dialectical shift that centres the conversation in a comparative perspective of self-writing, as theorized by Cameroonian political scientist, Professor Achille Mbembe.”

She said it was important for the organizers to show a plurality of experiences and to avoid “reductive” and “myopic” narratives. Pain and injustice are not at the forefront of this exhibition, as black experiences can also be seen “through the lens of joy”. 

As for the choice of figurative painting, this reflects the history of the genre throughout the world and especially amid Black artistic practice, she remarked. 

When We See Us naturally represents a range of countries and regions, with paintings from the African continent, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The canvases include a gamut of large-scale paintings – work by Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Cornelius Annor among them – as well as smaller creations such as the introspective “The Reader” by William H. Johnson. 

Many of the artists have lived in different places and reflect an array of influences or associations; Cuban-born Wifredo Lam, for example, was a long-term resident of Paris, and died there in 1982. He was friends with Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, associated with other European artists including Henri Matisse and Joan Miró, and knew Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In the exhibition, visitors get to see Lam’s striking 1938 work “Femme Violette” up close.

Meanwhile, works by the “kings of Kinshasha” – Congolese artists Chéri Samba and Moké – stand out for their audacious, animated canvases, as well as their satirical themes. 

“They were both pivotal protagonists in the political provocative Zaire School of Popular Painting, a style that developed in Kiinshasha in the 1970s, a decade after Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960,” state the curators. “The work of both artists was focused on the daily life in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

(For a profile of Chéri Samba: https://www.globalissues.org/news/2020/09/28/26874)

Emerging artists are shown with established painters too, and several young artists were present alongside their work at the exhibition’s opening.

In the section “Joy and Revelry”, Netherlands-based British-Nigerian artist Esiri Erherienne-Essi said she wanted to show a different side of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. Her painting “The Birthday Party” depicts a group posing for a photograph at a joyful event. Here, she centres a happy-looking Biko, celebrating his niece’s birthday.

In her work, Erherienne-Essi uses photographs from historical archives as a starting point to create her paintings, according to the curators. She brings to the fore “archives and moments from Black people’s lives with vibrant depth, colour and detail, countering the flatness of the Black figures in the Western art historical narratives,” they added.

This idea of reversing the gaze is central to When We See Us – especially in the section “Sensuality”, where artists explore “various levels of pleasure, leisure and desire” with works in a variety of media. Among these, the remarkable “Never Change Lovers in the Middle of the Night”, by American artist Mickalene Thomas, employs acrylic paint, enamel and rhinestones to depict sexuality.

All the artworks are arranged in such a way as to make visitors feel fully connected to the paintings, said Ilze Wolff, of Cape Town design firm Wolff Architects, responsible for the exhibition’s scenography. Visitors can sit in some sections and become immersed in a particular set of paintings.

Then, emerging from this universe, they are invited to explore further, as the exhibition also offers a timeline, a video archive, and a documentarian area, with a wide selection of books. (The timeline’s starting point is 1805, just after the Haitian Revolution, and it details other important events that have shaped black art history, including the Négritude movement and the Harlem Renaissance.) 

“MOCAA calls this the ‘brain’ of the exhibition,” said Maïté Smeyers, Bozar’s Curatorial Project Coordinator. “In association with the timeline, the curators wanted to have this documentation room, where they’ve put all the important writings on Black art and on the artists that are in the show. We’ve also included some literature, poetry, and other work by African diaspora writers because this has a role in the Black arts consciousness, and it contributes to the Black art movement, the history and the shaping of the fields.”

Visitors can freely browse some 80 books, loaned by Belgian institutions including the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), local library Muntpunt, and art galleries.

"The books on display give a glimpse of the history of research into Black art, as well as of Black literary writing, philosophy, and political thought," said Eva Ulrike Pirker, VUB professor of English and comparative literature. "While the exhibition is temporary, the books, including the beautiful catalogue, which offers reproductions of all the artworks, are in Brussels to stay and available at the partner libraries free of charge."

Pirker said she liked the idea that the exhibition will have a "concrete, lasting impact" on the collections of libraries that have partnered with the show, as it prompted librarians to look into their holdings and acquire new books to fill existing gaps.

Showing the richness of African diasporic art, the documentation section may even spur viewers to seek out more information, as well as related artwork.

“When We See Us is about a historical continuum of Black expression, Black consciousness and joy, and we hope (audiences) will enjoy it,” said co-curator Dhlakama. – AM/SWAN

Photos from top: An Evening in Mazowe by Kudzanai-Violet Hwami; paintings by Romare Bearden - Jazz Rhapsody - and Katlego Tlabela - Upper East Side, New York (Study); The Conversation by Cornelius Annor; Esiri Erheriene-Essi and her painting The Birthday Party; books in the documentation section of the exhibition; a composite picture of members of the curatorial and organization team: (top, L-R) Koyo Kouoh, Zoë Gray, and Tandazani Dhlakama; (bottom row): Maïté Smeyers and Ilze Wolff. Photos by AM/SWAN.

THE CARIBBEAN MOURNS LOSS OF A SINGULAR WRITER

By A. McKenzie and S. Scafe

Jamaican writer Velma Pollard provided a special kind of sunlight in the Caribbean literary space. Known across the region for her warm personality and welcoming nature, she also defied simple classification as she shone beyond genre. The work she has left behind encompasses short stories, poetry, academic writing, and novellas. She was also a keen naturalist photographer. 

An early poem, “A Case for Pause”, reflects on the interconnections between all the forms she used: “Arrest the sense / and let the fancy flow / Without design / collecting cloud and air / petal and leaf … Rein in the fancy now / unleash the sense … constructs and theories not yet pursued / rush in perfected, whole,” she wrote. 

Her sudden death earlier this month, on Feb. 1, has created a huge gap in the lives of those who loved and admired her as a person and poet and who must now draw solace from reading or revisiting her work. Her generosity to other writers, scholars, and artists was legendary in the Caribbean and internationally. In the days and weeks before her passing, and despite her incapacity from a fall and subsequent operation, she took pains to read and comment on work that young writers sent her, carefully and unsparingly collating her responses. 

As fellow Jamaican author and academic Earl McKenzie said after her funeral service on Feb. 21: Dr Pollard “was a friend and supporter of her fellow writers, and we all miss her”. Her long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Elizabeth “Betty” Wilson, added that the service was “an outpouring of love”.

Born in 1937, in the parish of St. Mary on the north-eastern Jamaican coast, Dr Pollard spent her early years in a rural setting along with siblings that include her equally renowned sister Erna Brodber. 

She later attended Excelsior High School in the capital Kingston, where she won several elocution contests, and she gained a scholarship to continue her studies at the University College of the West Indies, focusing on languages. 

Afterward, she earned a Master's degree in English at New York’s Columbia University, and another Master’s – in education – from McGill in Canada, followed by a PhD in language education at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She would go on to become dean of the education faculty at UWI, inspiring numerous students, while also raising her three treasured children - one of whom has said she was the strongest woman he knew, with the largest circle of faithful friends.

Dr Pollard lent her presence and expertise to important scholarly and literary conferences around the world, often writing about her experiences. She once joked that a self-important critic had remarked that every time she attended a conference, she “just had to write a poem”. But that talent for acute observation and for recording the places she visited and the people she met forms part of the richness of her work. In the poem "Bridgetown", she writes for instance: Because the sea / walks here / this city / hands you heaven. 

She addressed myriad issues in her work: family relationships, gender, colonialism (and its legacies), history, love, injustice. Many of her poems are tributes to the everyday struggles of ordinary women, the unlettered makers of “hot lunches and hot clothes / cooking and stitching miracles / with equal hand”.

Her landmark scholarly publication Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari remains a must-read for linguists and others, while her distinctive fiction - including Considering Woman I & II - places her among the Caribbean’s best short story writers. In 1992, she won the Casa de las Americas Prize for Karl and Other Stories (which is being relaunched this year as a Caribbean Modern Classic by a British-based publisher); and, with Jean D’Costa, she also edited anthologies for young readers, including the essential Over Our Way.

Her poetry stands out for its imagery, symbolism and use of Jamaican Creole, or nation language, with collections such as Crown Point and Other Poems, Shame Trees Don’t Grow Here, The Best Philosophers I Know Can’t Read and Write, and Leaving Traces.

Her work has likewise appeared in a range of international anthologies, including Give the Ball to the Poet, which sought to “represent the past, the present and the future of Caribbean poetry”, as Morag Styles, Professor of Children’s Poetry at Cambridge University and one of the editors of the anthology, said when it was published in 2014.

Years before that, Dr Pollard's writing was included in the ground-breaking 1989 collection Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women’s Writing from the Caribbean, edited by Wilson and her sister Pamela Mordecai, and including other acclaimed authors such as Maryse Condé and Merle Hodge.

Then in 2018, one of her stories was translated into Chinese and included in the compilation Queen's Case: A Collection of Contemporary Jamaican Short Stories / 女王案 当代牙买加短篇小说集, among the first such publications in China.

Dr Pollard was perhaps foremost a poet, but she was equally a scholar, editor, educator… an overall literary star. When she contracted meningitis several years ago, messages flowed in from all over the globe (as tributes are now doing upon her passing). 

Following her recovery from that bout with meningitis, she told friends she felt the need to do “something worthwhile every day”, as a way of giving thanks for her survival. Part of this naturally included writing, but it also involved taking care of her extended family and being there for her friends and community.

As her sister Erna said at the farewell service, Dr Pollard got “10 out of 10 out of 10 out of 10” for following the commandment: love thy neighbour as thyself. The work she has left behind may be considered a testament of that love, and light, too. - SWAN

Photos , top to bottom: Dr Velma Pollard at her Kingston home (photo AM/SWAN); the cover of Considering Woman; the cover of Crown Point and Other Poems.

ART OF WEST AFRICA CUTS THROUGH GREY PARIS WINTER

The Cecile Fakhoury art gallery in Paris sits on one of the fanciest streets in the French capital, sharing a neighbourhood with the Élysée Palace – the official residence of the country's president – and Le Bristol hotel, the five-star haunt of film stars and other celebrities.

When you step inside the gallery, however, you quickly forget the ostentatious atmosphere of the area, as the artwork pulls you into another world. Vibrant canvases depicting a range of characters and topics take visitors on a trip to Western Africa, at least as seen through the eyes of the region’s established and emerging artists. 

The Paris gallery is one of three entities set up to showcase art from countries including Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and others. The first Galerie Cecile Fakhoury, which bears the name of its French founder, was launched in Abidjan in 2012, and some six years later, a second space in Dakar, Senegal, was inaugurated, with a showroom in Paris following soon afterward. 

That showroom has now transitioned into the Paris gallery on the "luxury-themed" rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The current exhibition, Le pays de Cocagne, features the work of 10 artists and provides an antidote to the greyness of the French winter, according to gallery director and curator Francis Coraboeuf. 

He says the show is meant to evoke the spirit of “Western Africa”, and to spark reflection, with works ranging from the sunlight-filled canvas of young multicultural French artist Rachel Marsil, to the introspective and iconic creations of the late Senegalese painter Souleymane Keïta (1947-2014).

Other artists featured are Thibaud Bouedjoro-Camus, Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, Yo-Yo Gonthier, Carl-Edouard Keïta, Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Vincent Michéa, Kassou Seydou and Ouattara Watts.

SWAN spoke with Càraboeuf about the exhibition and about the role of the Cecile Fakhoury galleries in highlighting contemporary African art globally. The edited interview, conducted in person in Paris, follows.

SWAN: Please tell us about the artists and paintings on display.

FRANCIS CORABOEUF: All of the artists represented by the gallery have something in common, which is Western Africa – as a geographical, human, cultural common ground. Many of the artists live in different places, or have a background that is diverse, so you have all the situations that you can imagine, and that reflects the complexity of today’s world. When you go to Abidjan, or to Dakar, those are cities that are cosmopolitan, with people coming from everywhere in the world, and they reflect colonial history and colonization, but also pre-colonial history and recent history, which is one of circulation, migration. 

The artist Rachel Marsil, for instance, was born in France, of a French mother and a father originally from Western Africa (she doesn’t know her father). But her work is a kind of identity research, and that is why she was attracted by Western Africa and why her work is oriented towards this region of the world. She and the gallery wanted to work together because those subjects of identity, history, geography, what are we doing here and where are we going - these are questions that the artists of the gallery are constantly raising.

SWAN: What else is notable about this exhibition? Can you expand on the focus?

FC: This is a group exhibition, and I wanted to present the work of different artists that have a presence right now in Paris, to create an echo, and also to gather some works that are all channelling an idea of warmth, of happiness, of positivity. It’s a response to this time of the year; it’s a response also to how can we create an echo to what’s happening in Dakar and in Abidjan and how do we take people from here and orient their gaze towards Western Africa. 

“Pays de Cocagne” refers to an imaginary land, which is a land filled with abundance and dreams, and it’s a utopic place. This is a more subtle approach to the evocation of Western Africa, which is often exoticized. At the gallery, when we present the works of the artists in France, we often confront the clichés that people have toward Westen African countries. So, there’s a kind of deconstruction.  

SWAN: How did you go about choosing the works?

FC: The idea was to create a group where the works would echo one another. The exhibition gathers work from very young artists (for example, Rachel Marsil is under 30) and also from artists such as Souleyman Keïta, who died in 2014 and is considered to be someone at the intersection between the modern art scene and the contemporary art scene. 

The title of his work here is “Voyage au Mali”, and I wanted to include this work because I thought it was important to show some works by Souleymane Keïta in Paris, as we’re in this process of reevaluating, revalorising his work - on conceptual, historical and art-market levels. This painting is interesting because it was created between 1980 and 1985, in New York where he was living at the time, and he was evoking his roots which are in Mali, although he was born on the island of Gorée (off the coast of Senegal).

SWAN: There is also another Keïta in the exhibition, Carl-Edouard Keïta, the Ivorian-born, New York-based artist who is influenced by Cubism and portrays a fantastical world in his art…?

FC: Yes, Carl-Edouard Keïta is represented in this exhibition, and he will also have his first solo show in Abidjan at the Cecile Fakhoury gallery there - titled Goumbé, from 13 February to 12 April. The works in that show draw inspiration from cultural associations that were founded by migrants of the Ivorian interior and other areas during the post-independence years. (More info about Goumbé: https://cecilefakhoury.com/exhibitions/117-goumbe-carl-edouard-keita-abidjan/overview/)

SWAN: What do you hope visitors will take away from “Pays de Cocagne”?

FC: It’s important for people to understand where these artists stand in the history of art. When I went to university and studied art history, what I studied didn’t give me the tools to understand how things are interconnected. So, this is what we do, or try to do as gallerists.

Pays de Cocagne runs until March 29 in Paris.

Photos (by AM/SWAN), from top: Paintings by Ouattara Watts and Rachel Marsil; Paris gallery director Francis Coraboeuf, with artwork by Rachel Marsil and Souleymane Keïta; artwork by Kassou Seydou; Voyage au Mali by Souleymane Keïta; Le dormeur du sable by Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, 2024 (below).