The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists

ABSTRACT

This review of Simon Njami's seminal exhibition, The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists investigates the curator's effort to globalize contemporary art through cross-cultural interaction. It argues that the reinterpretation of Dante's canonical poem by contemporary African artists creates an exhibition that is less about art or Africa and more about meanings.

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/rcin.

References

• Balser, M. (2014). African artists bring ‘The Divine Comedy’ to SCAD Museum of Art. Retrieved from http://scaddistrict.com/2014/10/17/african-artists-bring-the-divine-comedy-to-the-scad-museum-of-art/
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• Lopiccolo, E. (2014). Simon Njami on ‘The Divine Comedy’ at SCAD Museum of Art. Retrieved from http://www.whitewallmag.com/art/simon-njami-on-the-divine-comedy-at-scad-museum-of-art.
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• Njami, S. (Ed.). (2014). The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell revisited by contemporary African artists. Berlin, Germany: Kerber Verlag.
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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Allison Moore

Allison Moore ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of SouthFlorida, where she teaches courses on contemporary African art and photography and critical theory. She is writing a book on Malian photography and the Bamako Biennale. She has published in History of Photography, Artforum, Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Art and Culture, and co-curated an exhibition titled Photographing the Social Body: Malian Portraiture from the Studio to the Street, at Carleton College (2012) and Maison Africaine de la Photographie, Bamako, Mali (2015).

Thanks to Josh Rayman, Sylvester Ogbechie, Esra Akin-Kivanç and Ben Galaday for contributions to this review; thanks to Karen Milbourne, Nathan Sowry, Edward Burke, and Colleen Foran at NMAfA for technical assistance with images.