Black Art: Treasures from the Schomburg * Thru Dec. 31, 2007

The “Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture” is giving us a chance to see works, like the painting here, not always included in gallery or museum collections.  

From the Schomburg web page:

“These works eloquently attest to the fact that African peoples, like all members of the human family, have been actively and creatively involved in producing art of extraordinary beauty, meaning, and power, regardless of where and under what circumstances they have lived.” 

The Schomburg Library was the vision of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Of African/ Puerto Rican descent, he recognized the need to consolidate the culture, history, and art of people of color.  His collection was absorbed into the New York Public Library system after his death in 1938. It became a part of the then  “Division of Negro History” at the 135th St. Branch.   Still at the same Harlem location, the center has evolved into a major world resource for scholarship and art.

**Image: Dance Composition, 1976, by Eldzier Cortor