Africa & Byzantium, organized in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art, is a joy in many respects. Africa & Byzantium sheds light on an underrepresented area of art history and showcases a new field of interdisciplinary studies on medieval Africa, a period nearly unexplored by major galleries and museums. Although Byzantium was a vast empire that spanned parts of Africa, Europe and Asia, its close connections with Africa have been the subject of little study. “Through spectacular and widely unknown works of art, Africa & Byzantium illuminates the development, continuity, and adaptation of Byzantine art and culture in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, recentering African artistic contributions to the pre-modern period.”Africa & Byzantium traces the three stages of exchange between the two shores of the empire. The exhibition will travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art after it closes in New York on March 3.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 11, 2024 01:21 UTC