Modernism, Villalongo argues, is not a break from colonialism, but a continuation. In Villalongo’s words, “That outward look was squarely focused on the plunder from distant lands which was detained in ethnographic museums and on exotic postcards by the turn of the 20th century... This gaze would give the West a new visual language in the form of Abstraction. It seems convenient that we never speak of the birth of Western Abstraction as an extension of colonial power and desire.”

Here the exotism of the Other takes the form of Josephine Baker, Jazz Age performer and Belle of Paris. Baker wears a Modernist abstract painting as a mask turning the tables on the French women of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon with their African masks. Baker reminds us of the importance of outside influences as a source of inspiration, the arts of Africa playing a pivotal role in the development of the art and culture of the West.