Henry Ossawa Tanner at the Musée d’Orsay

Henry Ossawa Tanner
1907 Photographer: Frederick Gutekunst
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia is planning the first-ever retrospective of African-American artist Henry O. Tanner’s work, an event that will be held in 2012. Tanner lived in France from 1893 to 1937 and achieved considerable renown as a painter. The French government purchased three of his works (The Resurrection of Lazarus, Christ and His Disciples on the Road to Bethany, and The Pilgrims of Emmaus), which are now on reserve at the Musée d’Orsay. The museum will loan the paintings to the Academy for the show in Pennsylvania and is hosting a two-day event on November 9-10 in Paris in honor of the occasion.

The Resurrection of Lazarus
Henry Ossawa Tanner
1896 Oil on canvas
On November 9, 2011, Professor Richard Powell of Duke University will speak on the "Valorization, Effacement & Rupture in the History of Black American Art in France." The lecture will be held in the auditorium of the museum (Level -2) at 6:30 PM. No reservations are necessary. The presentation will be delivered in English with simultaneous translation into French. A recital by pianist Sodi Braide will follow.

Sodi Braide
Photo by the Van Cliburn Foundation
On the following day, curator Anna Marley of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts will moderate a series of lectures on the question of the representation of African-American artists in Europe – from Tanner to Basquiat. For the first half of the conference, presentations will be held in the Musée d’Orsay auditorium. Renee Ater (University of Maryland), Anne Lafont (Institute National d’Histoire d’Art, Paris), and Marc Simpson (Williams College, Massachusetts) will speak beginning at 9:30 AM. The second half will take place at the National Institute of Art History, beginning at 3 PM. Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute, London), Elvan Zabunyan, (University of Rennes 2) and Huey Copeland (Northwestern University, Chicago) will present here.

This is a long overdue event that art and history lovers won’t want to miss!

For information about the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exposition, click here.

Musée d’Orsay
62 rue de Lille
75007 Paris
Telephone: 01 40 49 48 14
Metro : Solférino (Line 12)

Institut National d’Histoire d’Art (INHA)
Galerie Colbert
6 rue des Petits Champs
2 rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
Telephone: 01 47 03 89 00
Metro: Palais Royal/Musée du Louvre (Line 1), Bourse (Line 3), Pyramides (Lines 7 and 14)

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