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Carte Blanche: Arthur Jafa
November 20, 2025 – November 25, 2025
The Museum of Modern Art
Across his artistic practice, Arthur Jafa offers fresh combinations of images from contemporary art and culture in montage, collage, and other juxtapositions. A multidisciplinary maker whose oeuvre includes video, film, cinematography, sculpture, and artist’s books, Jafa’s preoccupation with the moving image is longstanding. Jafa began his career working on Black cinema classics, including serving as cinematographer on Daughters of the Dust and Crooklyn, and film techniques have been foundational for Jafa across years of art-making.
In conjunction with his exhibition Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid, Jafa has organized a Carte Blanche film program, a nonlinear survey of his cinematic influences and interests. Presented in pairs, the films’ unexpected juxtapositions of style and content allow audiences to see each work in surprising new ways. Film pairings include Oscar Micheaux’s Ten Minutes to Live with Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood For Love, Jean Rouch’s Moi, un noir with Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep with Michael Roemer’s Nothing but a Man, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II with Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror.
Organized by Arthur Jafa, with Thomas Lax, Curator, and Lilia Rocio Taboada, former Curatorial Associate, Department of Media and Performance. With thanks to Cam McEwen, Studio Museum/MoMA Fellow, and Kennedy Hollins Jones, former Black Arts Council 12-Month Intern, Department of Media and Performance.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
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