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Moses Myers House

323 E. Freemason St.
Open Saturday and Sunday

Noon–5 p.m.

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

Reading Room
Wednesday-Friday
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed May 17-19, 2024

About the Myers House

The oldest Jewish home in America open to the public as a museum offers a glimpse of the life of an early 19th century merchant family.
More about the house

About the Library

With an extensive collection of more than 106,000 rare and unique volumes relating to the history of art, the Jean Outland Chrysler Art Library is one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the library

Located in Norfolk

One Memorial Place,
Norfolk, VA
Get Directions

While You're Here

Visit our Museum Shop
and Zinnia Cafe.

Perry Glass Studio

A state-of-art facility on the Museum’s campus. See a free glassmaking demo Tuesdays–Sunday at noon. Like what you see? Take a class with us! More about the Studio

The Myers House

The home of the first permanent Jewish residents of Norfolk, this historic house offers a glimpse of the life of a wealthy early 19th-century merchant family.
More about the house

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

With an extensive collection of more than 106,000 rare and unique volumes relating to the history of art, the Jean Outland Chrysler Library is one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the Library

Wedding & Event Rentals

The perfect place for your big day or special event. Get the details

Field Trips

Field trips are available for groups of 60 or fewer. More about field trips

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

Visit one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the library

About the Chrysler

Our story spans well over 100 years. See where we began, how we grew, and where we're going. Explore our history

News and Announcements

See what's happening at the Museum, read Chrysler Magazine, and find our Media Center. Read now

Location

One Memorial Place
Norfolk, VA 23510

Location

245 Grace Street
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-333-6299

Always Free Parking

Get Directions

Visiting Artist Series

Bringing the world’s top glass art talent to Hampton Roads
Find out more

Studio Team

Meet the brilliant minds behind the Studio.
See the team

Give the Chrysler Experience

Share everything you love about the Chrysler Museum with a gift membership. Perfect for everyone on your list.

The Masterpiece Society

Learn about this innovative group of museum supporters.
Meet the Masterpiece Society

Planned Giving

Help ensure the long-term success of the Museum.
Learn about planned giving

Moses Myers House

323 E. Freemason St.
Open Saturday and Sunday

Noon–5 p.m.

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

Reading Room
Wednesday-Friday
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed May 17-19, 2024

About the Myers House

The oldest Jewish home in America open to the public as a museum offers a glimpse of the life of an early 19th century merchant family.
More about the house

About the Library

With an extensive collection of more than 106,000 rare and unique volumes relating to the history of art, the Jean Outland Chrysler Art Library is one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the library

Located in Norfolk

One Memorial Place,
Norfolk, VA
Get Directions

While You're Here

Visit our Museum Shop
and Zinnia Cafe.

Perry Glass Studio

A state-of-art facility on the Museum’s campus. See a free glassmaking demo Tuesdays–Sunday at noon. Like what you see? Take a class with us! More about the Studio

The Myers House

The home of the first permanent Jewish residents of Norfolk, this historic house offers a glimpse of the life of a wealthy early 19th-century merchant family.
More about the house

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

With an extensive collection of more than 106,000 rare and unique volumes relating to the history of art, the Jean Outland Chrysler Library is one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the Library

Wedding & Event Rentals

The perfect place for your big day or special event. Get the details

Field Trips

Field trips are available for groups of 60 or fewer. More about field trips

Jean Outland Chrysler Library

Visit one of the most significant art libraries in the South. More about the library

About the Chrysler

Our story spans well over 100 years. See where we began, how we grew, and where we're going. Explore our history

News and Announcements

See what's happening at the Museum, read Chrysler Magazine, and find our Media Center. Read now

Location

One Memorial Place
Norfolk, VA 23510

Location

245 Grace Street
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-333-6299

Always Free Parking

Get Directions

Visiting Artist Series

Bringing the world’s top glass art talent to Hampton Roads
Find out more

Studio Team

Meet the brilliant minds behind the Studio.
See the team

Give the Chrysler Experience

Share everything you love about the Chrysler Museum with a gift membership. Perfect for everyone on your list.

The Masterpiece Society

Learn about this innovative group of museum supporters.
Meet the Masterpiece Society

Planned Giving

Help ensure the long-term success of the Museum.
Learn about planned giving

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July 23, 2021

Chrysler Museum of Art Receives $225,000 in Grants to Support Upcoming Exhibition Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club

Jacob Lawrence, Market Scene

NORFOLK, Va. (July 22, 2021) The Chrysler Museum of Art was awarded three grants totaling $225,000 from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Getty Foundation, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. The funding will support the major exhibition Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club, co-curated by Kimberli Gant, Ph.D., the Chrysler Museum of Art’s McKinnon curator of modern & contemporary art, and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Ph.D., the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Françoise Billion Richardson curator of African art. The show will debut at the Chrysler Museum of Art in fall 2022 and then travel to the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art in 2023.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Getty Foundation each awarded the Chrysler $100,000 in support of the exhibition. Getty’s grant is part of The Paper Project, an initiative supporting early and mid-career curators of prints and drawings. The Chrysler received $25,000 from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art supporting the exhibition catalogue. The full-color Yale University Press publication will include essays by the exhibition curators and leading interdisciplinary scholars.

“These significant grants are an acknowledgment of the quality of the ideas and expertise of the curatorial team as well as the commitment of the organizing institutions to promote bold new ideas about the history of art. Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club is an ambitious exhibition that will expand our understanding of Lawrence and introduce many visitors to important artists that may be less well known in America.”said Erik Neil, the Chrysler Museum of Art’s director.  “The show will bring Lawrence’s Nigeria series together for the first time in more than five decades. It is also the first museum exhibition of the Nigeria series and the international artists associated with the Mbari Artists and Writers Club. We are honored to have the support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Getty Foundation, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art in this endeavor.”

On the 65th anniversary of the creation of Nigerian-based culture and arts publication Black Orpheus and the 60th anniversary of Jacob Lawrence’s first exhibition in Nigeria, Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club will explore the connection between Lawrence and his West African-based contemporaries during a period of artistic innovation emerging from socio-political upheaval. In 1965, Lawrence presented thirteen tempera and gouache paintings and nine crayon and ink drawings of Lagos and Ibadan marketplaces at the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in New York. These images were the culmination of a nine-month stay in Nigeria hosted by German cultural critic Ulli Beier, one of the founders of the Mbari Artists & Writers Club.

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club will be the first in-depth investigation of Lawrence’s little-known time in Nigeria and the works he created there. In addition to presenting the larger interwoven artistic shifts happening in Nigeria during the first decade of independence, the project will explore the importance of international exchange between African American and African artists, an area that also needs further research. We are grateful to receive such generous support for this exhibition,” said Gant.

Lawrence’s residency in Nigeria placed him and his practice in conversation with Mbari Club members, an international consortium of artists, dramatists and writers in post-Independence Nigeria, including prominent figures within modern African art and literature such as Bruce Onobrakpeya, Vincent Kofi, Wole Soyinka, and Chinua Achebe. They created the arts journal Black Orpheus (1957–75) and several other small literary publications to “encourage and discuss contemporary African writing,” and soon after, the visual arts. In 1961, the Mbari Club founded a gallery space in Ibadan where they met, socialized, and presented exhibitions. Black Orpheus and this gallery space led to numerous artists having their first published art reviews and their first art exhibitions in Nigeria. Most of these artists, including Lawrence, William H. Johnson, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Vincent Kofi, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Francis Newton Souza, Suzanne Wenger, and Naoko Matsubara are now iconic modernist artists.

The exhibition will feature approximately 139 works, including Lawrence’s Nigeria series, a collection of 22 works on paper – tempera-and-gouache, crayon and ink – paintings and drawings, as well as 40 other lithographs, wood block prints, etchings, linocuts, and watercolors. Also included will be 25 original letters, Black Orpheus issues, two archival videos featuring Mbari Club artists, and several paintings, sculptures, reliefs, and textiles.

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club exhibition will be organized with five themes that highlight Lawrence’s images and those of the artists featured in the Black Orpheus publication: Lawrence’s Nigeria, Artists of Osogbo, Zaria Art Society, Across the African Continent and Beyond the African Continent.

The show will debut at the Chrysler Oct. 7, 2022–Jan. 8, 2023. It will be on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art Feb. 10–May 7, 2023 before closing at the Toledo Museum of Art June 3–Sept. 3, 2023.

ABOUT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART

The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of the Chrysler’s collection comes from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of objects from his private collection to the Museum. The Museum has growing collections in many areas and mounts an ambitious schedule of visiting exhibitions and educational programs each season. The Chrysler has also been recognized nationally for its unique commitment to hospitality with its innovative gallery host program.

 

The Perry Glass Studio is a state-of-the-art facility on the Museum’s campus. The studio offers programming for aspiring and master artists alike in a variety of processes including glassblowing, fusing, flameworking, coldworking and neon.

 

In addition, the Chrysler Museum of Art administers the Moses Myers House, a historic house in downtown Norfolk, as well as the Jean Outland Chrysler Library. For more information on the Chrysler Museum of Art, visit chrysler.org.

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For more information, interview assistance, or a high-resolution image suitable for publication, please contact Marcella Nicotra at The Meridian Group at (757) 340-7425 or Marcella@themeridiangroup.com.