"African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde"

Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (inspired in part by tribal artifacts in Paris's anthropological museum) undoubtedly sparked modernism's fascination with all things African, a craze that spread to the avant-garde on these shores in the first few decades of the last century. African artworks were collected by key figures of the period—including Alfred Stieglitz, Marius de Zayas, and Louise and Walter Arensberg—and they served as tinder for various creative fires. Some of these objects are presented here, along with paintings, sculpture and photographs informed by them.