The Centre Pompidou in Paris has opened "Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance 1950–2000," a landmark exhibition featuring 350 works by 150 largely underrecognized Black artists active in postwar Paris. The show includes paintings, sculptures, films, photographs, and archival materials, highlighting artists such as Georges Coran, Ed Clark, Beauford Delaney, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, and Ming Smith, and explores themes of Afro-Atlantic abstraction, Surrealism, anti-colonial activism, and jazz's influence on visual art.
This exhibition matters because it is the first time a major French museum has comprehensively surveyed artists of African descent from the postwar era, correcting a long-standing gap in art history. By showcasing the vibrant community of Black artists who formed their own ecosystems in Paris—despite racism and colonial contexts—the show asserts their significant contributions and challenges the traditional Eurocentric narrative of 20th-century art.