Culture and Aesthetics at the Museum of Black Art

The text ‘Culture and Aesthetics at the Museum of Black Art’ explores the creation of the Museu de Arte Negra (MAN) by its founder, Abdias do Nascimento. In its introduction, Nascimento briefly contextualizes the Black arts field, emphasizing the lack of interest in acknowledging the contribution of Black people to Brazilian cultural formations. By highlighting the role of the Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN) in rescuing “the true image of the Afro-Brazilian,” Nascimento introduces the MAN, an offshoot of the TEN. The Museum is related to the theory of Négritude and brings together works that evoke “Black values” by artists of different ethnicities and nationalities. Finally, Nascimento explains how the Museum’s collection was created despite the lack of support from public authorities and celebrates the organization of an exhibition with 140 works from the MAN held by Museu da Imagem e do Som in 1968, the eightieth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil.