Art Speaks: Matisse’s Caribbean and the French Négritude Movement

Art historian Kathryn Brown will discuss Matisse’s posthumously published artist’s book based on poems by the Franco-American writer John-Antoine Nau, Poésies Antillaises (1972). Although the book depicted and celebrated Caribbean people, landscapes and seascapes, it also perpetuated romantic myths of a tropical paradise. Matisse’s book is examined and contextualized against the rise of the Négritude movement in France, including the challenges made by Black writers and artists to the histories and legacies of colonialism. Brown is a reader in art histories, markets, and digital culture at the United Kingdom’s Loughborough University.

Participants will receive Zoom information after registering. This event will have automated closed captions. A recording of the program may be posted on SLAM’s YouTube channel and at slam.org at a later date.