The most surprising thing about the Phillips Collection’s “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” is learning just how common it was for major photographers of the 1920s and 1930s to dabble in African art. Works not just by Man Ray but by Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Charles Sheeler, Josef Sudek, Andre Kertesz, and more than a dozen others punctuate the exhibit, raising the question of whether the trend is a dynamic mash-up of cultures, a regrettable phase of cultural imperialism, or just a passing fad. —-Louis Jacobson

Read the full City Lights pick here; exhibition details after the jump:

THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW TUESDAY TO SATURDAY 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. AND SUNDAY 11 A.M. TO 6 P.M. TO JAN. 10 AT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, 1600 21ST ST. NW. WEEKDAYS FREE; WEEKENDS $10–12. (202) 387-2436.