Josephine Baker

Starting in Paris in the early 20th century, a passion for all things ‘African’ spread across Europe during the 1920s and 30s. This interest in Black culture found commercial success in the Art Deco style which frequently borrowed aspects of African design to create ‘exotic’ objects for European consumers. In 1925 the African-American dancer Josephine Baker escaped the restrictions of the racially-divided United States to become a sensation in Paris. Her erotic dances and risqué costumes, which included a skirt made of bananas, found instant success amongst Parisian audiences enraptured with all things exotic, as too did her menagerie of pet animals which included Chiquita the cheetah. Baker

Figure · England · ca. 1940s. Lampworked glass. By Lampl, Fritz. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.