This exhibition represents a new beginning for the National Museum of African Art. In its scope and its purpose, Encounters with the Contemporary,a selection from our permanent collection, is ambitious. It is a reminder of where we have been and a preview of things to come.

The individual artists included in this exhibition represent but a small portion of the history of modernist art and its contemporary productions. Many artists featured are well traveled, well educated and conversant in discussions of modernism and contemporary global artistic expressions. As artists and as individuals they work with multiple, shifting and constantly expanding understandings of their identity and their artistry.

In 1974 the museum (then a private institution) mounted one of the first exhibitions in this country on contemporary African art. With the installation of Sokari Douglas Camp's kinetic sculptures in 1988, the museum (as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution) began actively to exhibit and collect modern African art. This exhibition was followed by others highlighting the works of individual artists, art schools and pivotal periods of production.

Given the strength, diversity and sheer volume of contemporary art in Africa and its diaspora, these shows have been able only to offer a foray into understanding these arts. It is our hope that Encounters with the Contemporarywill usher in an era in which contemporary African art acquires a greater permanence in our galleries and in the eyes of our public.

The exhibition revolves around the themes of education, techniques and socio-political contexts in which these art forms developed. Because works on paper are very sensitive to exposure to light, they will be on view for limited amounts of time. The dates for those with limited viewing are noted.