In conversation with elyse nelson:
CARPEAUX'S WHY BORN ENSLAVED! RECONSIDERED
Organised around a single object - the marble bust Why Born Enslaved! by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux - Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast, running March 10, 2022 - March 5, 2023, is the first exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire.
We speak with exhibition co-curator Elyse Nelson, to find out more about the place of Carpeaux's sculpture within antislavery imagery, the development of nineteenth-century ethnographic theories of racial difference, and France's colonialist fascination with Africa.
Register for this unmissable online talk!
The exhibition catalogue Fictions of Emancipation Carpeaux's Why Born Enslaved! Reconsidered is available here.
Assistant Curator, Sculpture and Decorative Arts,
The Met, NYC
Elyse Nelson is assistant curator in the department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is responsible for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European sculpture and cameos. Previously she held fellowships at The Met and at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and taught art history at Berklee College of Music. Prior to her curatorial appointment in 2019, Elyse assisted in the organization of Rodin at The Met (2017) and Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (2018). She is the co-organizing curator of Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast (2022) and co-editor of the accompanying publication. She studied art history at Yale University (BA), received an MA with distinction from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and is completing her PhD thesis on Canova's British patronage at the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU).
Art Historian, Vice-Chair of LAW Board
Emanuela Tarizzo is an Art Historian, and Vice-Chair of the Board of London Art Week. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and specialises in European Paintings and Sculpture from the 15th to the early 19th centuries. Between 2014 and 2021 she was Gallery Director at renowned art dealers Tomasso in London, where she organised exhibitions, including joint shows with fellow art dealers and contemporary artists, authored exhibition catalogues, and regularly hosted talks and gallery tours.
