Companion to the Arts of Africa at the Denver Art Museum

This guide offers readers an overview of the permanent collection of art from Africa and the diaspora as well as African American art from the Denver Art Museum. The arts of Africa collection, which was established in the 1920s, totals slightly over seven hundred artworks, mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the collection is substantial in West African art, particularly Yoruba works, it also features masterpieces from the southern, eastern, central, and northern regions of the continent. It focuses on the diverse artistic traditions of Africa and includes rare and exquisite works in sculpture, textiles, brass, painting, printmaking, and jewelry, with quite strong holdings of gold weights and combs. The book offers comparison and analysis of cultures within the continent, the cross-cultural currents across regions, and links from further afield that influenced and were influenced by African art.

Contemporary artworks, including painting, mixed-media works, drawing, and sculpture, celebrate the radical acts of Black artists, such as Mark Bradord, Fred Wilson, and Kerry James Marshall, who have invented and reinvented themselves through their art in ways that resist erasure. The text also touches on contemporary issues such as repatriation, such as the recent return of the museum's Benin bronze to the Nigeria Commission for Monuments and Museums.

Syokau Mutonga and the other contributors explore the contribution of African art to world history and culture as well as its relevance to the Denver region, the importance and impact of African American art in the United States, and the wide reach of colonization and African artists in regions across the globe.

• Publication date: 11 August 2026
• Page count: 96
• Dimensions: Height 229 mm; Width 152 mm
• Publisher: Denver Art Museum
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781945483226