Flight into Egypt : Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876-Now

The first publication to examine the symbolic importance of ancient Egypt to Black artists and other cultural figures, from the nineteenth century through the Harlem Renaissance to the present   Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Black Americans looked to ancient Egypt as evidence of a preeminent ancient culture from the African continent.

Flight into Egypt traces ancient Egypt’s influence on artists, from Edmonia Lewis’s sculpture The Death of Cleopatra (1876) to the efflorescence of Afrocentric visual art during the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and artistic tendencies of the ensuing decades.

Featuring more than 200 works that span nearly 150 years, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, posters, prints, video, photographs, and record album covers, this volume explores how Black artists, writers, and musicians—and modern and contemporary Egyptian artists—have employed ancient Egyptian imagery to craft a unifying identity.

Authors bring to light the overlooked (often intentionally obscured) contributions of Black scholars to the study of ancient Egypt, while statements by contemporary Black and Egyptian artists illuminate ancient Egypt’s continued hold on the creative imagination.   Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press  Exhibition Schedule:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (November 17, 2024–February 17, 2025)