For press information, contact Simone Notter Wilson (901) 678-4164

Visiting scholar John Nunley, a specialist in the art of Africa, will present the Dorothy K. Hohenberg spring lecture in art history Thursday, February 19, at 7 p.m. in the Fogelman Executive Center, Room 123.  A reception will follow. Both events are free and open to the public.

“Many Rivers to Cross” will consider the relationships of traditional and contemporary African art to global trade and the African diaspora. The art of the Asante, Yoruba, Grebo, Benin, and tribal peoples south of the Sahara will be considered, as well as contemporary Caribbean artists such as Wayne Berkeley and Peter Minshall.

Nunley was awarded a 2008-09 Guggenheim Fellowship for African Art and the Experience of Slavery. He recently retired as the Morton D. May Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the St. Louis Art Museum.

His publications include Masks: Faces of Culture, Moving with the Face of the Devil: Art and Politics in Urban West Africa, and Caribbean Festival Arts: Each and Every Bit of Difference.

Nunley is a candidate for the University of Memphis’ Dorothy K. Hohenberg Chair of Excellence in Art History in the Department of Art for 2009-10.

For more information, call 901-678-2224.