The painter Fahamu Pecou’s diptych “IBEJI TAIWO AND IBEJI KEHINDE” is on display in Clarinda.
A dynamic collection of contemporary artwork by Black artists from Africa, Europe and North America are on display through Nov. 12 at the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum in southwest Iowa. The paintings, photographs and sculptures in “Beautiful Black” vary widely in style and subject, but they all come from the private collections of two couples — Kathryn and Marc LeBaron and the museum’s founders, Karen and Robert Duncan — and they’re all worth a visit.
Some of the artwork by leading artists like Nick Cave, Gordon Parks and Zanele Muholi explore the ripple effects of systemic racism, from the era of European colonialism in Africa on through the struggle for full civil rights here in the United States. But there are lighthearted notes, too.
“One need only to look to Oliver Jackson and Willie Birch’s musical references to feel joy, or the bubbly pinup girl in Wanda Ewing’s work to feel flee, or to the grace and dignity of Whitfield Lovell’s figures to feel optimism,” curator Anne Pagel wrote in a photo-filled introduction on the museum’s website.
