‘The colour of my skin didn’t matter’: exhibition shines light on black artists in postwar Paris

Pompidou Centre show featuring 150 artists of African heritage is the last before the gallery shuts for five years

For many black artists and intellectuals, postwar Paris was a cosmopolitan hub. While colonisation, racism and segregation cast a shadow over their countries of origin, the City of Light appeared then a more liberated place where they were free to mix, study, work and create.

Now, a new exhibition – the last major event at Paris’s Pompidou Centre before it closes for a five-year renovation in September – explores the “unrecognised and fundamental” contribution these artists made to the French capital and how it influenced them.

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‘The colour of my skin didn’t matter’: exhibition shines light on black artists in postwar Paris

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