The exhibition reveals the untold stories of African American visual and performing artists who sought new possibilities and inspiration in the Nordic countries.
Walter Williams, Sunflowers, n.d.. Mixed media. Loan courtesy of The Johnson Collection. Courtesy of the National Nordic Museum.
The National Nordic Museum announces the premiere of ‘Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the Twentieth Century’ (March 23 – July 21, 2024). The groundbreaking exhibition offers a new lens through which to view African American art and history in the context of Nordic culture.
‘Nordic Utopia?’ explores the significance of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden as destinations for black cultural figures in the 20th century. Seeking to escape racial segregation and discrimination while pursuing professional opportunities and creative freedom, visual and performing artists, scholars and writers, diplomats and political activists visited, worked, and relocated to the Nordic countries.
This exhibition contributes new scholarship to trace the journeys of singers Josephine Baker and Anne Wiggins Brown, jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, dancer and choreographer Doug Crutchfield, painters Herb Gentry, William Henry Johnson, and Walter Williams, and multimedia artist and designer Howard Smith, among others.
In search of inspiration, these individuals found an environment conducive to creative expression in the Nordic countries, as well as an alternative to Paris’ cultural scene. While the Nordic countries may have held the promise of a beacon of progressive politics and racial equality, the exhibition will show that the reality was more complex.
‘Nordic Utopia?’ assembles a range of artefacts, artworks (music, paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles), and documentary evidence (photography, film, and journalistic writing) from private and public holdings throughout the Nordic countries and the United States, including the National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen.
The exhibition is the first comprehensive, pan-Scandinavian examination of this subject and presents years of research conducted by Dr. Ethelene Whitmire, Professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
National Nordic Museum Chief Curator Leslie Anne Anderson has collaborated with Whitmire to transform that research into a large-scale touring exhibition with significant loans.
“Dr. Whitmire’s important research on African American visual and performing artists in the Nordic counties presents an alternative and complementary narrative to the allure of Paris in the 20th century. This story will be brought to life through iconic and rarely-seen examples of the artists’ works,” said Anderson.
The exhibition also draws from the National Nordic Museum’s permanent collection, which has made strategic acquisitions in recent years. Nordic Utopia? will open at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle on March 23rd and close on July 21st. It will then travel to the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin, and Scandinavia House in New York City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue, co-edited by Whitmire and Anderson and featuring essays by Dr. Temi Odumosu (University of Washington) and Dr. Ryan Thomas Skinner (Ohio State University). It will be published by the National Nordic Museum and distributed by University of Washington Press.
The National Nordic Museum has organised a rich calendar of programming that will provide more insight into the key individuals and themes of the exhibition.
A screening of Bruce Baker’s 1971 documentary Dancing Prophet about Doug Crutchfield will be shown with a selection of short films directed by Amir George about the legendary performance artist. The screening will be followed by a conversation with George and Dr. Davia Crutchfield, the dancer’s great niece.
In collaboration with Spectrum Dance Theater, the Museum will present an original performance choreographed by Spectrum’s Artistic Director Donald Byrd that responds to the posthumously released album HOME.S. by Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson and is inspired by the exhibition.
The exhibition will be on view from the 23rd of March until the 21st of July, 2024. For more information, please visit the National Nordic Museum.
