Sections
  • News & Politics
    • Washingtonian Today
  • Things to Do
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • This Week
    • 100 Best Things to Do in DC
    • Neighborhood Guides
    • DC-Area Events Calender
    • Washingtonian Events
  • Food & Drink
    • 100 Very Best Restaurants
    • The Hot List
    • Brunch
    • New Restaurants
    • Restaurant Finder
  • Home & Style
    • Health
    • Parenting
  • Shopping
    • Gift Guides
  • Real Estate
    • Top Realtors
    • Listings We Love
    • Rave Worthy Rentals
  • Weddings
    • Real Weddings
    • Wedding Vendor Finder
    • Submit Your Wedding
  • Travel
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • Best Airbnbs Around DC
    • 3 Days in DC
  • Best of DC
    • Doctors
    • Apartment Rentals
    • Dentists
    • Financial Advisors
    • Industry Leaders
    • Lawyers
    • Mortgage Pros
    • Pet Care
    • Private Schools
    • Realtors
    • Wedding Vendors
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • The 1965 Club
    • Manage Subscription
    • Current & Past Issues
    • Features and Longreads
    • Newsletters
    • Newsstand Locations
Reader Favorites
  • 100 Very Best Restaurants
  • DC-Area Events Calendar
  • Brunch
  • Neighborhoods
  • Newsletters
  • Directories
  • Washingtonian Events
Washington’s Best
  • Apartment Rentals
  • DC Travel Guide
  • Dentists
  • Doctors
  • Financial Advisers
  • Health Experts
  • Home Improvement Experts
  • Industry Leaders
  • Lawyers
  • Mortgage Professionals
  • Pet Care
  • Private Schools
  • Real Estate Agents
  • Restaurants
  • Retirement Communities
  • Wedding Vendors
Privacy Policy |  Rss
© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Skip to content
Washingtonian.com
  • Search
  • Subscribe
  • Menu
Washingtonian.com
  • Subscribe
Reader Favorites
  • 100 Very Best Restaurants
  • DC-Area Events Calendar
  • Brunch
  • Neighborhoods
  • Newsletters
  • Directories
  • Washingtonian Events
More
  • Subscribe
  • Manage My Subscription
  • Digital Edition
  • Shop
  • Contests
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Sections
  • News & Politics
  • Food
  • Things to Do
  • Washingtonian Events
  • Home & Style
  • Editors’ Picks
  • Events Calendar
  • Health
  • Longreads
  • Parenting
  • Real Estate
  • Shopping
  • Travel
  • Weddings
  • News & Politics
    • Washingtonian Today
  • Things to Do
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • This Week
    • 100 Best Things to Do in DC
    • Neighborhood Guides
    • DC-Area Events Calender
    • Washingtonian Events
  • Food & Drink
    • 100 Very Best Restaurants
    • The Hot List
    • Brunch
    • New Restaurants
    • Restaurant Finder
  • Home & Style
    • Health
    • Parenting
  • Shopping
    • Gift Guides
  • Real Estate
    • Top Realtors
    • Listings We Love
    • Rave Worthy Rentals
  • Weddings
    • Real Weddings
    • Wedding Vendor Finder
    • Submit Your Wedding
  • Travel
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • Best Airbnbs Around DC
    • 3 Days in DC
  • Best of DC
    • Doctors
    • Apartment Rentals
    • Dentists
    • Financial Advisors
    • Industry Leaders
    • Lawyers
    • Mortgage Pros
    • Pet Care
    • Private Schools
    • Realtors
    • Wedding Vendors
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • The 1965 Club
    • Manage Subscription
    • Current & Past Issues
    • Features and Longreads
    • Newsletters
    • Newsstand Locations
News & Politics

An Afro-Atlantic History Exhibition Is Coming to the National Gallery of Art Next Year

"Afro-Atlantic Histories" marks a departure for the gallery.

Written by Daniella Byck
| Published on August 18, 2021
Tweet Share
Aaron Douglas' Into Bondage, 1936. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Aaron Douglas' Into Bondage, 1936. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Art.

The National Gallery of Art, which began life as a vast collection of Impressionist and other Europe-centric artists, has spent the last few years looking at ways to shift its approach and become a more diverse place that’s less constrained by the classics. A multimedia show set to open next year may be the most striking step yet.

Opening at the gallery on April 10, 2022, Afro-Atlantic Histories will depict the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade across the African diaspora. The exhibition first appeared in Brazil’s Museu de Arte de São Paulo. It features 130 paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and documents from artists representing 24 countries on both sides of the Atlantic. Works of art span 500 years, dating back to the onset of the transatlantic slave trade in the 1600s.

Rather than arranging the exhibition by chronology, geography, or artist, the pieces are grouped into six themes: Maps and Margins, Enslavements and Emancipations, Everyday Lives, Rites and Rhythms, Portraits, and Resistances and Activism. The concept-oriented design is intended to create a visual discussion between images across history and perspectives, challenging the idea of a singular narrative that defines the African diaspora.

It’s a departure from older museum tradition—rather than focusing on a single artist or school, Afro-Atlantic Histories contrasts a variety of viewpoints across genre, time, and geography, with creators like French painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, Ghanaian installation artist Ibrahim Mahama, and American silhouette artist Kara Walker.

“We’re really putting all these different voices in conversation—transhistorical, transnational conversations—to create this dialogue,” says Kanitra Fletcher, who in January became the gallery’s first-ever curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic art.

Dalton Paula's Zeferina, 2018. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Dalton Paula’s Zeferina, 2018. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Art.

Even the location of the display in the museum’s West Building is intended to rethink conventions. In the past, the West Building, which houses the gallery’s European paintings and sculpture, has housed the more traditional visiting shows, while many of the edgier ones have been in the modernist East wing. Putting this show in the same building as original benefactor Paul Mellon’s Monets and Seurats is intended to send a message.

“It’s creating space for the presence of Black and African people and how they have been integral to the development of so-called Western civilization,” says Fletcher.

In addition to the exhibition, NGA is organizing a slate of lectures, performances and digital programs to accompany the artistic display. Afro-Atlantic Histories will be open from April 10, 2022 until July 17, 2022.

 

 

More: Afro-Atlantic HistoriesNational Gallery of Art
Join the conversation!
Share Tweet
Daniella Byck
Daniella Byck
Lifestyle Editor

Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Takoma.

Most Popular in News & Politics

1

Sandwich Guy Has Become DC’s Hero

2

Pirro’s Office Fails to Get Indictment Against Sandwich Guy

3

How Washingtonians Can Run, March, and Rally Against the Trump Administration Takeover

4

Fiona Apple Wrote a Song About This Maryland Court-Watching Effort

5

DC’s Police Union Head Is the Biggest Cheerleader of Trump’s DC Police Takeover

Washingtonian Magazine

September Issue: Style Setters

September Issue: Style Setters

View Issue
Subscribe

Follow Us on Social

We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day

Follow Us on Social

We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day

Related

National Gallery Nights—and the Lottery for Tickets—Will Return This Fall

DC’s Jazz in the Garden Returns With Seven Concerts This Summer

How the National Gallery of Art Is Experimenting With the Science of Lines

How a Great Lost Painting Ended Up at a DC Museum

More from News & Politics

Photograph by Andrew Leyden/Stringer/Getty Images.

We’re Calling It Now: Sandwich Guy Is the DC Halloween Costume of the Year

No Phones Allowed at This New DC Bar. Seriously.

Trump Defies Internet Sleuths by Posting Furiously About Hulk Hogan and Other Stuff, Rudy Giuliani to Receive Nation’s Highest Civilian Honor, and Chester the Toucan Got Rescued in Arlington

These Confusing Bands Aren’t Actually From DC

How Washingtonians Can Run, March, and Rally Against the Trump Administration Takeover

Sandwich Guy Is Now Charged With a Misdemeanor, Trump Wants to Keep DC Safe From Brutalist Architecture, and Summer Is Officially Over

Guest List: 5 People We’d Love to Hang Out With This September

DC’s Police Union Head Is the Biggest Cheerleader of Trump’s DC Police Takeover

© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Washingtonian is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Privacy Policy and Opt-Out
 Rss
Get the best news, delivered weekly.
By signing up, you agree to our terms.
  • Subscribe
  • Manage My Subscription
  • Digital Edition
  • Shop
  • Contests
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs