Black out

Black out

Afro Modern at Tate Liverpool traces the journey of black culture across the Atlantic through a series of striking and often subversive images from Man Ray’s Noir et Blanche (1926) and a jazz age Josephine Baker nude save a banana skirt in Paul Colin’s Le Tumulte Noir (1929), to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s symbolic nod to western colonialism, Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari (1982).

We felt that the contemporary works on show were the more predictable – like Kara Walker’ short film and Chris Ofili’s Captain Shit (though the latter never ceases to amaze). Our favourite works were either odder, older or lesser known – namely experimental films on voodoo rituals by Maya Deren or Langston Hughes blues inspired poetry. The bold and brilliant output of black culture is oft overlooked but this Tate show helps redress the balance.

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic is at Tate Liverpool until 25 April.

Top image:
Isaac Julien
Cast No Shadow (Western Union Series no. 1), 2007
Duratrans image in lightbox
120 x 120cm
© Isaac Julien
Jochen Zeitz Collection

Below:
Man Ray
Noire et Blanche 1926 (reprint 1982)
Gelatine Silver Print
21.9 x 29.4 cm
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2009
“Archivo Fotográfico Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía”, Madrid.

Chris Ofili
Double Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars, 1997
Acrylic, oil, polyester resin, paper collage, glitter, map pins and elephant dung on linen
243.8 x 182.8 cm
© Chris Ofili
Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Glenn Ligon
Malcolm X (version 2) #1, 2000
Vinyl paint, oil based printed ink on canvas
122.4 x 91.5 cm
© Glenn Ligon
Courtesy of Regen Projects LA and the Thomas Dane Gallery London