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Reframing Blackness

What’s Black about “History of Art”?
By Alayo Akinkugbe
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Brief Description
An original and wide-ranging riposte to the current understanding of Blackness in Western art and museums, from an upcoming curator and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt. Akinkugbe is a brilliant new writer and thinker challenging art history. This book is urgent, essential, accessible and it needs to be... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3500
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Releases 24th November 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "Reframing Blackness" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

An original and wide-ranging riposte to the current understanding of Blackness in Western art and museums, from an upcoming curator and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt.

Akinkugbe is a brilliant new writer and thinker challenging art history. This book is urgent, essential, accessible and it needs to be on every art history reading list. — Bernardine Evaristo

Since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been distinctly ignored.

In Reframing Blackness, art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void.

Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history.

Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529186420

Publisher: Cornerstone

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 October 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Merky Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 11.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 308g

Pages: 176

Collections

Alayo Akinkugbe Arts & Culture Non-Fiction Non-Fiction Pre-Orders Penguin Books Pre-order Books Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date

About the Author

Alayo Akinkugbe graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in History of Art in 2021 and graduated with an MA in Curating the Art Museum from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2023. She runs the Instagram platform @ABlackHistoryofArt, which highlights Black artists, sitters, curators and thinkers from art history and the present day; and hosts the podcast A Shared Gaze. Alayo is a contributing editor and writes the column 'Black Gazes' for AnOther Magazine. She was awarded a curatorial research grant by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for the exhibition Entangled Pasts: Art Colonialism and Change at the Royal Academy of Arts. Alayo was on the advisory panel and contributed to the book African Artists: From 1882 to Now, published by Phaidon in 2021, and has written for publications including Dazed, Tate Etc. and The World of Interiors. Reframing Blackness is her first book.

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