Wangechi Mutu from Kenya is one of the most important African artists of the day. She uses her collages to create a bizarre world centred on the role of the woman, especially the African woman. Read on

Drawing on 103 in-depth interviews with middle-class blacks in the New York and Atlanta metropolitan areas, and photographs of art displayed in their homes, this paper provides the first systematic examination of black consumption of visual art and racial identity. This paper also extends theory on cultural consumption and black middle-class racial identity by showing how elite blacks use “black” visual art to construct specific dimensions of their racial identity. Read on

Western museums still display little interest in contemporary art of Africans. Yet some artists do manage to break through. How? Read on

Op het terras van beeldend kunstenaar Nola Hatterman (1899-1984) is vaker als illustratie gebruikt. Nu siert het de kaft van het boekje Etniciteit, criminaliteit en het strafrecht: de afscheidsrede van criminoloog Frank Bovenkerk. De man die ervoor model stond was de Surinaamse Jimmy van der Lak (1903-1990). (With English abstract) Read on

There is a risk in asking 20th-century questions of earlier times because today's terms of discourse may not find a meaningful context there. It is likewise problematic to project onto European history social and cultural constructs that have evolved in the United States, and perhaps nowhere else, in quite the same form. Such is the dilemma we face in considering the influence of blacks in European history for a primarily American audience. Read on

Dankzij een royale bijdrage van de Vereniging Rembrandt en verschillende andere fondsen slaagde het Rijksmuseum er in om in juni 2005 het eerste en enige zelfstandige geschilderde portret van een zwarte Afrikaan uit de renaissanceperiode te verwerven. Het portret door Jan Mostaert was onder de titel Portret van een Moor uit afbeeldingen wel bekend bij specialisten, maar nauwelijks bij een breder publiek. Onderzoek naar de toeschrijving, de betekenis van het schilderij en de identiteit van de geportretteerde heeft het afgelopen jaar al wel plaats gevonden, maar nog steeds zijn niet alle vragen beantwoord. Read on

François Le Vaillant (1753-1828) est l’écrivain le plus célèbre du Surinam. Il est né dans la capitale, Paramaribo, et y vécut jusqu’à l’âge de dix ans; sa famille s’est ensuite installée en France. Dans ses écrits Le Vaillant met l’accent sur ses origines en se présentant comme ‘créole américain’. Read on

The Dutch History Department of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam acquired an intriguing portrait of a wounded African soldier a few years ago, by Isaac Israëls (1865-1934). This article describes the search for the identity of the soldier. Read on

This etching of Rembrandt is known as ‘Negress lying down’. This name certainly raises some questions. Who is she? Is she actually asleep? And - is she black? In the last few centuries this has been the subject of much controversy in literature. Read on

By means of a few examples, we can see how ‘exotic people’ put on display in the Netherlands are treated in the period between 1850 and 1900. Read on

It is likely that Barack Obama’s election as president will do more good for the image of black people than all the attempts to ‘show the other side’ put together. One of these attempts was the exhibition Black is Beautiful which was held in De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam until the end of October. Read on

The black population in Europe has finally achieved a size and visibility that invites comparison with the involuntary definition of community that shaped the concept of African-American among the descendants of enslaved Africans in North America. Read on

This article investigates the arrival and experience of black Africans in the Netherlands, and in particular in Amsterdam. Read on

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