Petrine Archer [.com]

Welcome to this gateway to my past, present and future work as an art historian, exhibition curator, writer and lecturer. Explore the site to find information about my research interests such as Negrophilia – the avant garde fascination with black culture – and Diaspora Dialogs, my current teaching at Cornell that looks at global art practice through conversations with artists worldwide. I hope my work online can become a useful resource, especially for those interested in alternative ways of looking at images and art history. The site offers an archive of material related to artists from the Caribbean as well as information about my past exhibitions (complete with articles and reviews) and those in development. Feel free to comment on what you see in the Weblogs or simply use the site as a way of linking to artists or other sites that I have found useful.

About me

Petrine Archer-Straw is currently a visiting lecturer and research fellow at Cornell University. Born in Britain to Jamaican parents, she was educated at the University of the West Indies B.A. (Theology History Sociology, 1975-78) and an M.Phil (Cultural History, 1983-87), and also trained as an artist at the Jamaica School of Art (Diploma. Painting,1979-82). She gained her M.A. Art History and Ph.D (Modern) from the Courtauld Institute, University of London, where she subsequently taught (1994-95). Read more».

Negrophilia.com.jm

Negrophilia [the book] describes the craze for black culture that was popular among avant-garde artists and bohemian types in 20s Paris. The Parisian avant garde adopted Negrophilia and its taboos to enhance their outsider status. Their flirtation with aspects of African-American popular forms such as jazz, Josephine Baker etc, was a way to rekindle their own primitive states. Black culture facilitated their regression to the primitive within. Negrophilia [the blog] considers how this love of black culture has persisted into the present day. more..»

 

 

Diaspora Dialogs

Diaspora Dialogs initiates a conversation about artistic practice amongst artists scattered around the globe. That dispersal has come to be labeled as a 'diaspora' a term originally exclusive to those of Jewish descent, but in the last century used increasingly with reference to the new world experience of blacks in post-slavery and more recently post-colonial communities. Diaspora dialogs attempts a conversation between such scattered voices in real time as a way of articulating, defining and exploring how the experience of cultural dislocation has impacted cultural production. Visit Diaspora Dialogs.

Black Magic

My reading of Black Magic is to do with links between European and African diaspora thought structures as applied to Western art history and as such it brings a new and different meaning to the term Black Magic with little historical precedent. It is a theoretical approach and collective title for a series of essays that discuss the relationship between two cultures; their shared superstitions and imagery.more..»