Carpeaux's Why Born Enslaved! Reconsidered

Interesting online lecture from London Art Week looking at a sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux which is featuring in a current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum.

Elyse Nelson, co-curator of the exhibition “Fictions of Emancipation” introduced us to the sculpture “Why Born a Slave” from 1868-73 which is in the show in both a terracotta version and a marble one. She placed it in the context of France at the time which had abolished slavery for a second time in 1848. She discussed whether this could therefore be a called an abolitionist work and whether it was influenced by works which were. She also likened it to ethnographic sculptures of the time.

She talked about how the image had become part of popular culture even appearing in a Beyonce video and about works it influence which are also in the exhibition including contemporary images by Kehinda Wiley and Kara Walker.

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