“Afrocosmologies,” a new exhibit at Wadsworth Atheneum, features 130 artworks by African Americans who seek to present themselves, their world and their histories in their own way, liberated from interpretations foisted upon them by non-blacks throughout the centuries.
The exhibit, which fills galleries on the second and third floors of the Hartford museum, is a dazzling array of works created from 1885 to the present day. A few reflect the sense of anger and sorrow that one would expect considering African Americans’ history of oppression. But most of the works are more celebratory, with artists glorying in their blackness and their freedom to tell the truth as they see it.