'Murphy provides fresh perspectives on Senegalese modern art through archival sources. In clear, persuasive language, she explores decolonization that transcends reductive binaries of Europe versus Africa.' -Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, The Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 'This fascinating book provides a fresh look at the cultural politics shaping the postwar relations between Senegal and France. With her compelling transhistorical approach and careful archival work, Murphy deepens and complicates our knowledge of Senegalese modernism, anticolonial politics, and the networked histories of modernisms from the global south.' -Elizabeth Harney, University of Toronto The art of decolonisation examines how artists challenged colonial legacies and reconfigured power through transnational networks of art and diplomacy. Adopting a global and transhistorical perspective, it explores artistic, political, and institutional relations between France and Senegal during decolonisation and the Cold War. From the emergence of a national modern art in Senegal to contested cultural policies and high-profile exhibitions-such as those featuring Picasso and Soulages in Dakar, or contemporary Senegalese art in Paris-this book traces the circulation of artworks, ideas, and influence across borders.

It reveals how visual artists and filmmakers shaped a new artistic geopolitics between 1950 and 1970. Reconsidering the accepted chronology of the 'global turn', The art of decolonisation shows that the roots of global art discourse run deeper than the 1990s, and were already forming during the era of independence struggles.