The Nasher's new tagalong exhibition Africa and Picasso presents a simulation of Pablo Picasso's African art collection-with a didactic aftertaste.
The masks and figures on display are not in fact from Picasso's collection, but rather examples of pieces he is known to have owned. Replete in all the works are the angular, rough shapes that famously inspired Picasso to break from European painting traditions.
Politically charged documents comprise an unexpected addition to the exhibition. For example, a 1908 cartoon of Belgium's King Leopold II reclining amidst a crowd of mutilated Africans is simultaneously anti-colonialist and pseudo-racist. The variant combination of works is, in the end, opaquely thought-provoking. Nevertheless, it provides an essential criticism of Picasso's fascination with African art.
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