This book follows my first, Misrepresenting Black Africa in US Museums (Mullins, 2019), which looked at how Black African objects first came into the US in the late 1800s. Looking at what happened when Black African objects became part of the US art world in the early 1900s. We will explore several dimensions concerning Black African objects and white western aesthetics, and the interpretation and appropriation of these objects by western artists for public consumption after WWI. The chapters trace how western intellectuals understood Black African objects. The objective is to explore how both Black and white collectors and artists regard Black African objects in the US in the early 1900s up to the present day.

To ground the preceding chapters, it is essential to understand what beauty means in a white western context. This requires some understanding of western philosophy, the history of colonialism, and the history of Europe. This book will argue that the theft of Black African objects by white western Europeans has had a lasting effect on white western art, Black artists, and the conception of Black Africa that remains today. Furthermore, the white western understanding of Black Africa that pervades in western discourse, media, and art is a profoundly distorted understanding. Finally, to understand Black African objects or art, one must know the history of the continent that is not white mythology centred around primitivism, the area the objects or art come from, but the history of the people the artists or artesian lives within and the language of the artist or artesian who created the work.

To do this, we will do several things. (1) Explore white western aesthetic ideas and contrast them with Black African aesthetic ideas. (2) Explore the history of the use of Black African objects by white western collectors, and artists, in and around the Harlem Renaissance. (3) Explore the history of the influence of white western aesthetics on Black collectors, artists, and groups in and around the Harlem Renaissance. (4) Explore how Black African aesthetics became a white mythology, which impacts aesthetics beyond the art world through advertising, commercial popularisation with the Black Power movement, and today with films such as Black Panther and videos starring Beyonce.

As noted by Ajume Wingo, western aesthetic thought is concerned with several ideas, forms, content, and meanings which are to be contemplated by the singular, detached observer.