Museum of Fine Arts hosts African American artists tour

This past February, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, displayed works of art by 10 African American artists in honor of Black History Month.  Edmund Barry Gaither, the director of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, hosted the African American Artists Tour.  To see an online tour of the exhibit visit: http://www.mfa.org/explore/multimedia-guide/african-american-artists
The exhibit included artistic works from the early 19th century to the present.  The artwork was spread out across different sections of the museum.  I was able to locate all of the works in the exhibit through a self-guided tour.   
Some of the artists represented were Norman Lewis, Archibald Motley, Art Smith, and Kara Walker.
In 1963, Lewis was a co-founder of Spiral – an artists’ discussion group that was involved in the Civil Rights Movement. 
Smith (1917 – 1982) created jewelry “characterized by flowing organic forms that show the influence of surrealism, but has its own distinctive sense of scale, balance, and movement.”
Motley was one of the first artists to portray the urban life of African Americans in Chicago, Illinois.
My favorite part of the collection was Fred Wilson’s Iago’s Mirror (2009).  This piece depicts several mirrors layered on top of one another.  Wilson’s “mirrors” represent the dilemma of Shakespeare’s classic character Othello. 

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