Paris Noir

While in Paris for the French Open, my husband and I received a quiet but passionate recommendation: “You must see the Paris Noir exhibit.” We expected something thoughtful—maybe even beautiful. What we didn’t expect was to be cracked open by a collection so profound that words almost fail.

Paris Noir is not just an art exhibit—it’s a pilgrimage through the souls of Black artists who shaped, challenged, and redefined the global art landscape. Many of these masters found not only refuge in France, but also their creative rebirths. To walk through the exhibit was to walk through history, emotion, resistance, and truth.

Names like Buford Delaney, Skunder Boghossian, Wifredo Lam, Avel de Knight, Agustin Cárdenas, George’s Coran, and William Adjété Wilson greeted us like ancestors—some familiar, some new—but all commanding presence. Their stories, lives, and works sprawled across time and medium: vibrant canvases, haunting sculptures, tender sketches, and powerful spoken word that left no heart untouched.

There were moments I couldn't even speak. I simply stood in front of a piece—lost, overwhelmed, reverent. The emotional weight of their collective voice felt ancestral, as if the walls of the exhibit were holding centuries of joy, pain, exile, and triumph. It wasn’t just about art—it was about identity, displacement, belonging. It was about being seen.

What moved me most was realizing how many of these artists lived—and died—in France. Paris was more than a backdrop; it was a haven. The city became a thread that wove together creatives from Haiti, the U.S., Cuba, Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond. Perhaps this exhibit is a timely honoring, a gathering of spirits who left us in recent decades. A final tribute in the very place they called home.

And what an inclusive exhibit it was—not only in geography but in form. Sculpture, painting, the written word, and spoken word all breathed in the same space. The curators didn’t just display the art—they created an ecosystem for it to live, to speak, to grieve, and to rejoice.

You don’t just see Paris Noir—you feel it. You leave changed.

Plan Your Visit to Paris Noir

If you're in Paris or planning to be before June 30, 2025, make sure to experience this transformative exhibition:

• Location: Centre Pompidou, Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris

• Exhibition Dates: March 19 – June 30, 2025