The Musée Picasso in Paris is hosting a retrospective of African American artist Henry Taylor, running until September 6. The exhibition centers on Taylor's 2007 painting *From Congo to the Capital, and Black Again*, a bold reimagining of Picasso's *Les Demoiselles d'Avignon* that replaces the original figures with darker-skinned women and introduces Josephine Baker and a white man's arm. The show follows the museum's series on African American painting, after Faith Ringgold in 2023 and ahead of a Harlem Renaissance exhibition in 2027.
This exhibition matters because it reframes a canonical work of European modernism through a Black American perspective, challenging art history's traditional narratives of influence and appropriation. Taylor's work, rooted in his family's experience of segregation and racism, uses painting as a quiet political act—giving presence to Black subjects without overt militancy. By placing Taylor in dialogue with Picasso, the museum continues its effort to diversify the story of modern art and acknowledge the complex legacies of colonialism and cultural borrowing.