Flight into Egypt

For generations, ancient Egypt has inspired peoples of the African diaspora. Flight into Egypt examines how Black artists and other cultural figures have engaged with ancient Egypt through visual, literary, musical, scientific, scholarly, religious, political, and performative pursuits. The exhibition explores nearly 150 years of artistic and cultural production in a range of media. While most of the work presented here is by Black Americans, works by artists from the Caribbean and by Egyptian and other African-born artists active in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere indicate the global diasporic resonance of ancient Egypt.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Black communities started to look to Egypt as evidence of an undeniably great ancient African culture. This served the imperative to reclaim identities that were systematically stripped through the transatlantic slave trade, generational enslavement, and continued dehumanization in American and colonial societies. It also opposed the prevailing view of Egyptology at the time, which characterized the civilization as proto-European and distinct from “Black Africa.”
Unfolding across ten sections, this exhibition traces themes such as how Black agents of culture have employed ancient Egyptian imagery to craft a unifying identity; the contributions of Black scholars to the study of ancient Egypt; and modern and contemporary Egyptian artists’ engagement with ancient Egypt. The Performance Pyramid, organized in collaboration with MetLiveArts, presents a documentary history and serves as the locus for live performances on select days throughout the exhibition’s run.
Selected Artworks
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Egyptology and the Color Line

In the early history of the study of ancient Egypt, or Egyptology, claims that the civilization was proto-European were prevalent. While present-day Egyptology acknowledges the heterogeneity of Egyptian culture, that early identification with Europe is contentious—and this tension is premised on questions of race. Who gets to claim an ancient culture with a heralded history?
In 1887 formerly enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass described the color line—his term for the racial barrier—in the study of ancient Egypt: “It has been the fashion of American writers, to deny that the Egyptians were Negroes and claim that they are of the same race as themselves. This has, I have no doubt, been largely due to a wish to deprive the Negro of the moral support of Ancient Greatness and to appropriate the same to the white race.”
This gallery foregrounds Black scholarship and counternarratives that emerged in defiance of the Eurocentric institutional and academic Egyptology that began in the late 1700s. Even as Black scholars were excluded, developments in archaeology catalyzed curiosity. George Washington Carver, for example, submitted the patent application for his “Egyptian Blue” pigment in 1923, a year after the rediscovery of the richly painted tomb of Tutankhamun.
Selected Artworks
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Awakening and Ascent

This gallery celebrates the birth of Afrocentric visual art at the beginning of the twentieth century—a birth often characterized as a rebirth, namely the Harlem Renaissance. A biblical prophecy from Psalm 68:31 declares, “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” Pan-Africanists interpreted this as foretelling a new era of self-determination for the global population of African descent after the catastrophic dispersion of the transatlantic slave trade, generational enslavement, and continued dehumanization in American and colonial societies. Some heralded the 1930 ascension of Haile Selassie I to emperor of Ethiopia as corroboration. Linked via the Nile, Ethiopia and Egypt sometimes were conflated in religious and political significance. Ethiopia is personified as an ancient Egyptian queen in both Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s sculpture and Loïs Mailou Jones’s painting. Printed and painted visions of racial uplift by Aaron Douglas and Laura Wheeler Waring incorporate pharaonic motifs, as does the sculpture by Jamaican artist Ronald Moody.
In the adjacent gallery, issues of The Crisis, a magazine founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois, and other rare illustrated Black American publications are tangibly accessible in Steffani Jemison’s and Jamal Cyrus’s interactive installation Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet (2011).
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Heritage Studies

Too often, the perspectives of modern Egyptians have been omitted from discourse about ancient Egypt in Western museums. The works of art on view in this gallery highlight modern and contemporary Egyptian artists’ engagement with ancient Egypt—a topic complex and compelling enough for dedicated exhibitions and book-length studies. Exceptional works by Mahmoud Mokhtar and Mahmoud Saïd, the foundational sculptor and painter, respectively, of Egyptian modernism, revive ancient motifs to promote a national self-image free from colonial interlopers.
Contemporary Egyptian artists engage in both transgressive and traditional forms of appropriation. Iman Issa’s elegant sculpture Heritage Studies #7 (2017) provokes inquiry about the stakes and stewardship of ancient Egyptian artifacts and history. Maha Maamoun’s video and Ghada Amer’s painting convey the resonance of ancient Egyptian icons in popular culture. Two magazine covers separated by decades but similarly featuring women in the guise of Nefertiti raise questions about the intersection of cultural property and identity, as does a new wood sculpture by artist and Met security officer Armia Malak Khalil.
Selected Artworks
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Kings and Queens

The works in this gallery reflect the tremendous impact of pharaonic statuary and mural decoration on the figurative expression of Black artists from the 1940s to today. Royalty connotes power and cultural value. Modern Black artists appropriated regal motifs, recognizing that ancient Egyptian artists depicted their kings and queens possessing the same brown skin tones demeaned in European and American societies. Works such as Fred Wilson’s serial sculpture Grey Area (Brown version) (1993) powerfully visualize the stakes of the color line in the reception of ancient Egypt. His five replicas of the famed bust of Nefertiti, in hues ranging from beige to dark brown, convey her tremendous significance as a symbol of beauty and empowerment, while raising, but not settling, debates around the racial identity of the dynastic rulers of ancient Egypt.
A number of contemporary works attest to the prevalence of pharaonic imagery in urban Black communities, including Lauren Halsey’s new squared gypsum columns with painted, collaged, and carved surfaces; the photographic cityscape of Genevieve Gaignard’s Kings and Queens (2017); garments from Denim Tears’ 2023 streetwear collection by designer Tremaine Emory; and a selection of volumes commonly available from Afrocentric booksellers.
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Pilgrimage and Fellowship

This gallery explores how people of the African diaspora have sought to bridge their distance from the continent through travel and within community. Photographs and video document some of the significant journeys of Black cultural figures to Egypt, which represent powerful acts of reclamation. Religious and political leader Malcolm X visited Egypt three times; his subsequent speeches relate his experience of brotherhood with Egyptian nationals and express his conviction that ancient Egypt was proof of a noble ancient Black civilization.
The importance of ancient Egypt in the construction of modern Black identity is evident in the naming, heraldry, ceremonial traditions, and rich material culture of numerous social and religious organizations. Derek Fordjour’s painting is laced with the sphinx-head motifs adopted by Alpha Phi Alpha (est. 1906), the oldest intercollegiate Black fraternity. Pharaonic logos embellish the garments of Black American masonic organizations, including the red fez of the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine (est. 1872) and the white gloves of the Daughters of Isis (est. 1910). A hand-forged ceremonial ankh by Baaba Heru Ankh Ra Semahj Se Ptah, meanwhile, exemplifies the revival of ancient Egyptian spiritual practice within the African diaspora.
Selected Artworks
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Nu Nile Abstraction

The eclectic group of geometric and gestural paintings, sculptures, and works on paper in this gallery, from the 1960s to the present, connect formal and conceptual references to ancient Egypt with facets of contemporary Black experience. Generations of Black artists have been inspired by the sacred sites and unique terrain of Egypt, from the north-flowing Nile to archetypes of ancient Egyptian architecture and monumental sculpture: the obelisk, pyramid, stele, and sarcophagus. William T. Williams’s shimmering silver painting Nu Nile (1973) refers to a popular Black hair product, Murray’s Nu Nile Hair Slick Dressing Pomade, whose name and promise of sleekness evoke diasporic affiliation with the Egyptian river. Works on paper by Sam Gilliam and Houston Conwill also pay homage to the Nile. Among works that revisit the pyramidal form are Maren Hassinger’s vibrant pink installation, Rashid Johnson’s shelf-laden painting, and Sam Gilliam’s plywood and aluminum sculpture. David Hammons’s untitled works of paper laid with Black hair arranged into pyramids merge the modernist grid with essentialist politics. Mildred Thompson’s colorful stacked stele, Terry Adkins’s relief in blue, and Eric Mack’s textile assemblage respond to the minimalism, symmetry, and distinctive palette of ancient Egyptian aesthetics.
Selected Artworks
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Performance Pyramid

This gallery displays documentation of works of performance art—an integral aspect of creative expression throughout the African diaspora—animated by ancient Egyptian themes.
The Performance Pyramid also serves as the stage for the following series of live restagings and presentations of new sonic, choreographic, and dramatic works:
Rashida Bumbray
Way Down
Friday, November 15, 2024
3 pm; 7 pm
Kaneza Schaal
GO FORTH
Friday, November 22, 2024
3 pm; 7 pm
Kamau Amu Patton
SEKHET HETEPU
Friday, December 6, 2024
3 pm; 7 pm
Luke Stewart
Blacks’ Myths–“Kemetic Hymns”
Friday, December 13, 2024
3 pm; 7 pm
Clifford Owens
Luxor Solo (Mystical Score for the Ghost of Bud Powell)
Friday, December 20, 2024
3 pm; 7 pm
Steffani Jemison
Recitatif: Perfect Mind
Friday, January 10, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
Karon Davis
The Resurrection of Osiris
Friday, January 17, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
Zekkereya El-magharbel
Landscapes of the North East
Friday, January 24, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
Rashid Johnson with Kahil El’Zabar
Pharaoh’s Song
Friday, January 31, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
Sidra Bell
G R A P H
Friday, February 7, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
M. Lamar and The Living Earth Show
Machines & Other Intergalactic Technologies of The Spirit
Friday, February 14, 2025
3 pm; 7 pm
Selected Artworks
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A New Song

This gallery traces a history, from the 1930s to now, of Black musical engagement with ancient Egypt. From cover art to lyrical content, the thirty-three selected albums on view here evince its enduring allure. Some designs depict key sites, while others, such as Nas’s I am . . . (1999), portray the musical protagonist in ancient Egyptian guise. Music has been not only a source of entertainment but also a vehicle for the empowerment of Black performers and audiences. A captivating poster for the 1934 Chicago theatrical production “O, Sing a New Song” promises a spectacular musical journey set in ancient Egypt, with an all-Black cast—a feature reflecting Black solidarity during an era of both legal and de facto racial segregation. In 1957 Black American soprano Leontyne Price broke barriers when she, rather than a white woman in blackface, as is traditional, debuted in the operatic role of the Egyptian princess Aida.
The adjacent gallery is immersed in light and sound by Awol Erizku’s dazzling disco bust of Nefertiti and features screened excerpts of music-related videos, including Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s award-winning documentary film.
Selected Artworks
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Space Is the Place

The artworks on view in this gallery meld ancient Egyptian myth, modern science, and science fiction. In the epic and influential 1974 film Space Is the Place, artist, musician, and poet Sun Ra stars as a messianic extraterrestrial recruiting Black Americans to join a utopian space community inspired by the aesthetics of ancient Egypt.
Sun Ra recognized and amplified the inherently cosmic characteristics of ancient Egyptian art in his creative visions, as have many artists in his wake. Ancient obelisks emblematized the projection of the sun’s rays toward earth; Dream The Combine’s inverted obelisk here connotes movement from the earth to the stars. Works by Jeff Donaldson, Julie Mehretu, and Lauren Halsey evoke the advanced, code-like system of hieroglyphs. Former NASA engineer Fred Eversley’s lens-grade plexiglass pyramid and Tavares Strachan’s gilded satellite manifest ancient astral aspirations. In a photomontage, the time-traveling Afrocentric superheroine alter-ego of artist Renee Cox soars protectively over the Giza monuments. Photographs of murals by Ayé Aton, a percussionist in Sun Ra’s Arkestra, and an elaborate print by Ellen Gallagher extend Sun Ra’s creative universe.
Selected Artworks
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Exeunt

Selected Artworks
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