Viewing Inside the Invisible: African Atlantic visual arts in the 1990s

Abstract

This article examines work by a variety of African Atlantic artists who investigated slavery and memory in the 1990s. They range from the maverick African-American artists and interventionists, Kara Walker and Fred Wilson, through the Cuban artist, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, to the Black British artist, Lubaina Himid. The article will discuss thematic and compositional synergies around the circum-Atlantic and illustrate the currency of what we might call a diaspora aesthetic amongst many of the best African-descended artists working in the 1990s. The article will argue that engagement with art from different geographical regions in the diaspora is key to a full understanding of African Atlantic art praxis in this period.