Contemporary African art

Contemporary African art is commonly understood as art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field. All three terms of this “wide-reaching noncategory [sic]”[1] are problematic in themselves: What exactly is ‘contemporary’, what makes art ‘African’, and when are we talking about art and not any other kind of creative expression? Western scholars and curators have made numerous attempts at defining contemporary African art in the 1990s and early 2000s and proposed a range of categories and genres. They triggered heated debates and controversies especially on the foundations of postcolonial critique. Recent trends indicate a far more relaxed engagement with definitions and identity ascriptions. The global presence and entanglement of Africa and its contemporary artists have become a widely acknowledged fact that still requires and provokes critical reflection but finds itself beyond the pressure of self-justification.

Scope

Although African art has always been contemporary to its producers, the term ‘contemporary African art’ implies a particular kind of art that has conquered, or, as some would say, has been absorbed by the international art world and art market since the 1980s. It is in that decade when Europe and the US became aware of art made in Africa by individual artists, thus breaking with the colonial tradition of assuming collective ‘ethnic’ origins of so-called ‘tribal art’ as found in most ethnographic collections.[2] The exhibition Magiciens de la terre by Jean-Hubert Martin in 1989 is widely considered (but also challenged as) a key exhibition in this very recent history of international reception of African and other non-western art. However, this reception, too, has its roots in an exotizing and mystifying view on African culture from a dominant western position, as Rasheed Araeen argued in his response to Magiciens de la terre.[3][4]

Therefore, although this exhibition and many that followed had a strong influence in creating a kind of a common understanding of what constitutes contemporary African art, it is true that it has been and still is subject to discussions and controversies. Almost every exhibition following Magiciens de la terre offered a taxonomy or system of categorization that helped to reflect the very notion of contemporary African art, but they failed to recognize the postcolonial need of giving up the Eurocentric epistemology.[5][2][6]

Contemporary African art is believed to feature particularities typical to African aesthetics while at the same time it shares properties with other international contemporary arts. Therefore, it is both, shaped by and feeding into the globalizing art worlds and art markets, like any other contemporary arts. At the same time, there are a lot of contemporary art practices and forms in African regions and cities that are almost exclusively locally known. While meeting all three requirements of being contemporary, art, and African, they fail to fit into a certain type of art production that has been spreading on the international art market in the last 30 years.

Exhibitions variously showed work by artists based in Africa; by artists using aesthetics typical to African traditions; by African artists living in the West but including aesthetics and topics related to their “roots”;[3] traditional artworks related to customary practices such as rituals; and urban African art that reflects the modern experience of cultural pluralism and hybridity. Modernity as a colonial and postcolonial experience appears as an intrinsic and significant attribute in most conceptions of contemporary African art. Scholars and curators therefore have proposed a wide range of taxonomies that tried firstly to define what is African about this art, and secondly, the range of genres it covers. Diverse attempts to define particular genres of contemporary African art however mirrored the fascination of art scholars and curators for the appropriation of cultural elements assumed ‘Western’ into ‘African’ modes of expression and traditions. One example is Marshall W. Mount[7] who proposed four categories: first, “survivals of traditional styles” which show continuities in traditional working material and methods such as bronze casting or wood carving; secondly, art inspired by Christian missions; thirdly souvenir art in the sense of tourist or airport art as defined later by Jules-Rossette;[8] and finally, an emerging art requiring “techniques that were unknown or rare in traditional African art”.[9] Valentin Y. Mudimbe in turn proposes to think of three currents rather than categories, namely a “tradition-inspired” one, a “modernist” trend, and “a popular art”[10] whereby Mount’s categories would be situated somewhere “between the tradition-inspired and the modernist trend”.[10] Similar to other categorizations, this proposal considers the education of the artists as well as the envisaged clientele/patrons as important factors for the respective “currents”. In the exhibition catalogue of Africa Explores (1991), curator Susan Vogel distinguished between “traditional art”, “new functional art”, “urban art”, “international art”, and “extinct art”.[11] Rejecting these categories, collector André Magnin proposed to group similar works into sections named “territory”, “frontier” and “world” in his survey book Contemporary African Art, thus placing them into “imaginary maps”.[12] However, this approach was also criticized by Dele Jegede with convincing arguments against its ethnocentric perspective.[13] Amongst other, he pointed to the hubris of attempts to talk about art of a whole continent, but also to the common reflex to exclude Northern Africa in such considerations and to follow a global rather than “particularistic focus on the study of the art of the continent” that would provide more specific and deeper bodies of knowledge. In the 1990 exhibition Contemporary African Artists: Changing Tradition, the Studio Museum in Harlem tried to take the perspective of the presented artists and distinguished between African artists who refuse outside influences; African artists who adopt modes of Western art; and African artists who fuse both strategies.[14]

A commonality to all these categorizations is their reliance on dichotomies between art and craft, Europe and Africa, urban and rural, and traditional and contemporary. These dichotomies tend to consider mutual influences in African and European art as an exception rather than the norm. Even more, they fail to think of African art independent from Europe as its counterpart or ‘influence’, resulting in a frequent reproach of African artists ‘copycatting’ or ‘mimicking’ European achievements of modernism.[15][6][16][17] Such Eurocentric attitudes have been revealingly criticized by theorists like Olu Oguibe,[15] Rasheed Araeen,[3] Nkiru Nzegwu,[6] Okwui Enwezor or Salah Hassan.[18] This problem is not easy to solve, and in some cases it is tackled by simply subverting any attempt of categorization. Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, directed by Clémentine Deliss and curated by Chika Okeke-Agulu, Salah Hassan, David Koloane, Wanjiku Nyachae and El Hadji Sy (London 1995) is a case in point.[19] Rather than grafting binary taxonomies, it narrated seven modern art histories in different parts of Africa by invited curators and artists who were familiar with these recent histories and their respective art scenes. The exhibition proved to offer a highly complex, historically informed and well-researched presentation. Another example for subverting binary taxonomies is the book Contemporary African Art after 1980 by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu.[20] Rather than putting contemporary African art in relation to Western traditions, they contrast it with modern African art, in that it defies linear grand narratives of modernism and is radically postcolonial. “[F]irst, within categories of time, it is neither belated nor does it exist out of time; second, because it is post-historical, it did not emerge out of a succession of historical styles; third, because it is critical of colonial valorization of an authentic past, it is postcolonial; and fourth, in relation to its postcoloniality, it seeks, according to Hans Belting’s thesis, to be post-ethnic […]. Neither being out of time nor belated, contemporary African art strategically inhabits a third epistemological space by being in time”.[16] As they add, this being “fundamentally of its time” counts for all contemporary art, not only the African. In their book, Enwezor and Okeke-Agulu discuss contemporary African art by its approaches and guiding topics rather than trying to define categories on the basis of styles, markets or traditions. Their chapters therefore are designated as “Between postcolonial utopia and postcolonial realism”, “Networks of practice” in the globalized field of cultural production, “Politics, culture and critique”, “Archive, document, memory”, “Abstraction, figuration and subjectivity” and “The body politic: difference, gender, sexuality”. Doing so, they locate contemporary African art within a historical perspective, something that had largely missed in previous discussions.

Exhibitions

1962

1966

1967

1969

1974

1977

1978

1979

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

Man's Cloth by El Anatsui (1998 – 2001), on display at the British Museum.

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Work by Cheri Cherin

2009

2010

Genesis by Tapfuma Gutsa (2010)

2011

2012

2013

2014

Collections of essays

  • Colloquium: Function and Significance of African Negro Art in the Life of the People and for the People, Paris: Presence Africaine, 1968. Conferenza a cura della Society of African Culture (SAC) in collaboration with UNESCO, 30/03–08/04/1966.
  • Ethnic and Tourists Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World, edited by Nelson H. H. Graburn, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976.
  • Modern Konst I Afrika (Modern Art in Africa), edited by Sune Nordgren, Kalejdoskop, Lund (Svezia), 1978.
  • Patrimoine Culturel et Création Contemporaine: en Afrique et dans le Monde Arabe, edited by Mohamed Aziza, Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1977.
  • Airport Art: das exotische Souvenir, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, 1987.
  • Kunstreise nach Afrika: Tradition und Moderne, edited by Ronald Ruprecht, Iwalewa-Haus, Universität, Bayreuth, 1988.
  • African Art in Southern Africa: From Tradition to Township, edited by A. Nettleton & D. Hammond-Tooke, Johannesburg: A.D. Donker, 1989.
  • The Myth of Primitivism: Perspectives on Art, edited by Susan Hiller, London & New York: Routledge, 1991.
  • Art, Anthropology and the Modes of Re-Presentation: Museums and Contemporary non-Western Art, edited by Harrie Leyten & B. Damen, KIT Press-Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam, 1993.
  • Banque centrale des etats de l'Afrique de l'ouest. BCEAO: Collection d'art contemporain, edited by Ousmane Sow Huchard, BCEAO, Dakar, 1993.
  • Creer en Afrique: 2e colloque européen sur les arts d'Afrique noire, Musée National des Arts d'Afrique and d'Océanie, Paris, 23–24/10/1993.
  • Global Visions Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts, edited by Jean Fisher, London: Kala Press, 1994.
  • Cultural Diversity in the Arts: art, art policies and the facelift of Europe, edited by Ria Lavrijsen, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, 1993.
  • Art Criticism and Africa, edited by Katy Deepwell, Saffron Books, African Art and Society Series, London, 1997.
  • Images of Enchantment: Visual and performing Arts of the Middle East, edited by Sherifa Zuhur, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 1998.
  • Issues in Contemporary African Art, edited by Nkiru Nzegwu, International Society for the Study of Africa, ISSA Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, 1998.
  • Dialogue of the Present: 18 Contemporary Arab Women Artists, edited by Siumee H. Keelan, Fran Lloyd, London, 1999.
  • Reading the Contemporary. African Art from Theory to the Marketplace, edited by Olu Oguibe & Okwui Enwenzor, Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) & MIT Press, London, 1999.
  • autopsia & desarquivios, edited by Fernando Alvim & Catherine Goffeau Alvim, Espace Sussuta Boé, Bruxelles, 1999.
  • Colors of Enchantment: Theater, Dance, and the Visual Arts of Middle East, edited by Sherifa Zuhur, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo-New York, 2001.
  • Anthologie de l'art africain du XX siècle, edited by N'Goné Fall & Jean Loup Pivin, Paris: Éditions Revue Noire, 2001. Raccolta di saggi e schede di artisti.
  • Afriche, Diaspore, Ibridi – Il concettualismo come strategia dell'arte africana contemporanea, edited by Eriberto Eulisse, AIEP Edizioni, Bologna, 2003.
  • African cultural dynamics: Africalia Encounters in Bamako (01–03/11/2002), curated by Joëlle Busca, Africalia, 2003.
  • Repenser la coopération culturelle en Afrique: Rencontre Africalia d'Ostende (27–29/05/2003), Rencontre Africalia de Liège (26–27/06/2003), Rencontre Africalia de Bruxelles (19–20/09/2003), edited by Joëlle Busca, Africalia, 2004.
  • Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, edited by Gerardo Mosquera & Jean Fisher (con il progetto artistico di Francis Alÿs), New Museum of Contemporary Art-New York & The MIT Press-Cambridge Massachusetts & London, 2004.
  • Next Flag: The African Sniper Reader, edited by Fernando Alvim, Heike Munder & Ulf Wuggenig, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, 2005.

Publications

  • Margaret Trowell. African Arts and Crafts: Their Development in the School, London: Longman, 1937.
  • Robert Goldwater. Primitivism in Modern Painting, New York: Random House, 1938 (1966, Harvard Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 1986).
  • Rolf Italiaander. Neue Kunst in Afrika: eine Einführung, Bibliograf. Institut, Mannheim, 1957.
  • Evelyn S. Brown. Africa's contemporary art and artists: a review of creative activities in painting, sculpture, ceramics and crafts of over 300 artists working in the modern industrialized societies of some of the countries of sub Saharan Africa, Division of Social Research and Experimentation, Harmon Foundation, New York, 1966.
  • Ulli Beier. Contemporary Art in Africa, London: Pall Mall Press, 1968.
  • Frank Willet. African Art, London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
  • Marshall Ward Mount. African Art: The Years since 1920, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1989).
  • Judith D. Miller. Art in East Africa: A Guide to Contemporary Art, F. Muller, London-Africa Book Service (EA).-Nairobi, 1975.
  • Kiure Francis Msangi. The Place of Fine Art in the East African Universities, 18th Annual Meeting
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Nigeria's Master Printmaker - Wendy Lawrence. Best of Africa - Toronto 1979. of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, 1975.
  • Eugene Burt. An Annotated Bibliography of the Visual Arts of East Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
  • Ulli Beier. Neue Kunst in Afrika: das Buch zur Austellung, Berlin: Reimer, 1980.
  • Paulin Hountondji. African Philosophy: Myth or Reality, New York, 1982.
  • Jan Vansina. Art History in Africa: An Introduction to Method, London & New York: Longman, 1984.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Symbols of Ancestral Groves (Monograph of Prints and Paintings 1978–1985), with introduction by Prof. Babatunde Lawal. 256 pp. 182 b/w, 3 drawings, 60 colour illustrations, essays, interviews, notes and comments, biographical and bibliographical notes. 1985.
  • Bennetta Jules-Rosette. The Messages of Tourist Art: An African Semiotic System in Comparative Perspective, Plenum Press, New York, 1984.
  • Kojo Fosu. 20th century art of Africa, Zaria: Gaskiya Corporation, 1986 (Accra: Artists Alliance, 1993).
  • Sally Price. Primitive Art in Civilized Places, The University of Chicago, 1989. I primitivi traditi: L'arte dei "selvaggi" e la presunzione occidentale, Einaudi, Torino, 1992.
  • Johanna Agthe. Wegzeichen: Kunst aus Ostafrika (Signs: Art from East Africa), 1974–98, Museum für Völkerkunde, Frankfurt-an-Main, 1990.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Spirit in Ascent. Introduction by Dele Jegede 279 pp. Ovuomaroro Gallery production 1992.
  • Osa D. Egonwa. African Art: A Contemporary Source Book, Benin City: Osasu Publishers, 1991.
  • Jutta Stroeter-Bender. Zeitgenoessische Kunst des "Dritten Welt", Koeln: DuMont Buchverlag GmbH & Co, 1991. L'art contemporain dans les pays du "Tiers-monde", Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995.
  • Pierre Gaudibert. L'art africain contemporain, Paris: Editions Cercle d'Art, 1991.
  • Betty LaDuke. Africa through the Eyes of Women Artists, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1991.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Sabbatical Experiments 1978–1983 (exhibition of prints and drawings), with an introduction by Prof. Babatunde Lawal. Ovuomaroro Gallery, Lagos, 1983.
  • Nicole Guez. Art africain contemporain: Guide, Paris: Editions Dialogue Entre Cultures, 1992 (Association Afrique en Création, 1996).
  • Jean Kennedy. New Currents, Ancient Rivers: Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change, Smithsonian Institution Press, London-Washington DC, 1992.
  • Thomas McEvilley. Art and Otherness: Crisis in Cultural Identity, Documenttext, New York: McPherson and Co., 1992. L'identité culturelle en crise: Art et différence à l'époque postmoderne et postcoloniale, Nîmes, France: Editions Jacqueline Chambon, 1992.
  • Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, London: Verso, 1993
  • Robert Atkins. Artspoke, New York: Abbeville Press, 1993.
  • Christopher B. Steiner. Africa in Transit, Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  • Edward Lucie-Smith. Race, Sex and Gender in Contemporary Art: The Rise of Minority Culture, London: Art Books International; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.
  • A Study Exploring Opportunities to Strengthen U.S.-Based Collaborations with Performing Artists of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Prepared with the Support of the Ford Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, 3 June 1994. Project director Ceclila Fitzgibbon; Project consultants Elizabeth Peterson and Robert Wisdom (Archivio Ford Foundation).
  • Catalogue de la collection d'oeuvres d'artistes contemporains d'Afrique et d'Océanie acquises ou conservées par l'ADEIAO, introduction by Lucette Albaret and Paul Balta, ADEIAO, Paris, 1995.
  • Colin Rhodes. Primitivism and Modernism, London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
  • André Magnin & Jacques Soulillou. Contemporary Art of Africa, New York-London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
  • Ulrike Bässler-Pietsch. Das Bild unserer Welt; Afrika: von Kairo bis Kapstadt, aktualisierte Ausg., 1996.
  • Betty LaDuke. Africa: Women's Art, Women's Lives, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1997.
  • E. Okechukwu Odita. Diversity in Contemporary African Art: Causes And Effects,[24] Columbus Ohio: The Ohio State University, 1997.
  • Wijdan Ali. Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997.
  • Richard J. Powell. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century, London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
  • Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler. Afrikanische Kunst: von der Frühzeit bis heute, München: Heyne, 1997.
  • Christopher D. Roy. Kilengi. Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Bareiss, Hanover: Kestner-Ges., 1997.
  • Gert. Chesi. Afrika – Asien. Kunst und Ritualobjekte – die Sammlungen im Haus der Völker, Innsbruck: Haymon-Verlag, 1997.
  • Sidney Littlefield Kasfir. Contemporary African Art, London: Thames & Hudson, 1999.
  • Nicolas Bissek. Les peintres de l'estuaire, Paris: Editions Karthala, 1999.
  • Enrico Mascelloni e Sarenco. Dialogo notturno sull'arte contemporanea alla luce del piccolo carro, Verona: Adriano Parise Editore, 1999.
  • Joëlle Busca. L'art contemporain africain: du colonialisme au postcolonialisme,Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000.
  • Gen Doy. Black Visual Culture: modernity and postmodernity, London: I. B. Tauris, 2000.
  • Joëlle Busca. Perspectives sur l'art contemporain africain, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000. L'arte contemporanea africana, L'Harmattan Italia, 2002.
  • Teresa Macrì. Postculture, Maltemi, Roma, 2002.
  • Iba Ndiaye Diadji. L'impossible Art Africain, Editions Dekkando, Dakar, 2002.
  • Thomas Fillitz. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Afrika: 14 Künstler aus Côte d´Ivoire und Bénin, Böhlau Verlag, Wien, 2002.
  • Onobrakpeya by Richard A. Singletary. 78 pp. 143 colour reproductions. The Ford Foundation, The Institute of International Education, 2002.
  • Ivan Bargna. Arte Africana, Jaca Book, Milano, 2003.
  • Olu Oguibe. The Culture Game, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/London, 2003.
  • Bärbel Küster. Matisse und Picasso als Kulturreisende: Primitivismus und Anthropologie um 1900, Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 2003.
  • Michela Manservisi. African Style: Stilisti, mode e design nel continente nero, Cooper & Castelvecchi, Roma, 2003.
  • Jean-Loup Amselle. L'art de la friche: Essai sur l'art africain contemporain, Paris: Editions Flammarion, 2005. In Italian: L'arte africana contemporanea, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2007.
  • Christophe Domino & André Magnin. L'art africain contemporain, Editions Scala, 2005.
  • Hortense Volle. La promotion de l'art africain contemporain et les N.T.I.C, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2005.
  • Sophie Perryer (ed.). Distant Relatives / Relative Distance, Cape Town: Michael Stevenson, 2006.
  • Sidney Littlefield Kasfir & Gus Gordon. Contemporary African Art, Paw Prints, 2008.
  • Regula Tschumi The Buried Treasures of the Ga: Coffin Art in Ghana. Bern: Benteli, 2008.
  • Okwui Enwezor & Chika Okeke-Agulu. Contemporary African art since 1980, Bologna: Damiani Editore, 2009.
  • André Magnin, Africa? Una nuova storia, Rome: Gangemi, 2009.
  • André Magnin & Luca Beatrice, Africa arte contemporanea, Milan: Prearo, 2009.
  • Okwui Enwezor, ed., and Chika Okeke-Agulu, Gabrielle Conrath-Scholl, Willis E. Hartshorn, Virginia Heckert, Kobena Mercer, Artur Walther, Deborah Willis. Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity: Contemporary African Art from the Walther Collection, Göttingen: Steidl, 2010.
  • Uche Okeke: Art In Development - A Nigerian Perspective. Editor Leclair Grier Lambert. 101 pp. 81 b/w illustrations. Asele Institute Nimo/African American Cultural Centre, Minneapolis, 1982.
  • Offerings from the Gods. Text by Dele Jegede 68 pp. 48 b/w illustration. Society of Nigerian Artists, Lagos State Chapter, 1985.
  • Africa On Her Schedule Is Written a Change. Barbara Haeger 105 pp. 13 b/w illustrations. African Universities Press, 1981.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Sahelian Masquerades. Monograph of prints and paintings Edited by Safy Quel 132 pp. 17 colour and 155 b/w and line pictures, Ovuomaroro Gallery production, 1982.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: 25 Years of Creative Search. Introduction by C.O. Adepegba, 57 pp. 51 b/w pictures, Ovuomaroro Gallery production, 1984.
  • The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness. Edited by Paul Chike Dike and Pat Oyelola, with essays by Cornelius O. Adepegba, Oloidi, Don Akatakpo and Jacob Jari. 298 pp. 302 b/w reproductions and 133 colour reproductions. A publication of the National Gallery of Art, 1998.
  • Agbarha-Otor 98 and 99: A Catalogue of First and Second Harmattan Workshop Exhibition. 84 pp. 127 b/w and 33 colour reproductions. Curated by Mike Omoighe, Ovuomaroro Gallery Production, 1999.
  • Amos Tutuola Show: A Folklore Inspired Art In Honour of the Novelist. Edited by Mudiare Onobrakpeya and curated by Mike Omoighe and Toyin Akinosho; 40 pp. 25 b/w and 32 colour reproductions. Ovuomaroro Gallery production, 1999.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Poems and Lithographs, print notes and comments No.9. Introduced by Bruce Onobrakpeya 49 pp. 48 b/w line reproductions; Ovuomaroro Gallery Publications, 1989.
  • Glimpses of Our Stars - An Intimate Encounter with Nigerian Leading Artistes by Oji Onoko, 468 pp. 99 B/W reproductions. All Media International Ltd, 1999.
  • Forty Years of Bruce Onobrakpeya in Contemporary Visual Art: The Portrait of a Visual Artist. Edited by Mudiare Onobrakpeya and Uche Abalogu with an introduction by Simon Ikpakronyi. A collection of 26 essays on Bruce Onobrakpeya. 70 pp. Ovuomaroro Gallery Production.
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Portfolio of Art and Literature, Catalogue. Edited by Pat Oyelola. Poems and extracts from various literary works. 56 pp. 30 illustrations in colour and b/w Ovuomaroro Gallery Production, 2003
  • Bruce Onobrakpeya: Jewels of Nomadic Images, 196 pp., with essays by Ekpo Udoma, Olu Amoda and Peju Layiwola, 439 b/w and colour illustrations, Ovuomaroro Studio Press, 2009.
  • The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists (Mara Ambrožič, Zdenka Badovinac, Roberto Casati, Johannes Hoff, Achille Mbembe, Simon Njami, Pep Subirós). ISBN 978-3-86678-931-9 [25]

Magazines

  • ADA: Architecture Design Art. Johannesburg, from 1989 to 1996. Founded by Jennifer Sorrell.
  • Africa e Mediterraneo: Cultura e società. Director Sandra Federici, Cooperativa Lai-Momo, Sasso Marconi (Bologna), from 1992. Please refer in particular to Dossier: Arte africana contemporanea, edited by Giovanni Parodi di Passano, no. 2-3/99, 12/1999; "Dossier: Sulla storia dell'arte africana contemporanea", edited by Iolanda Pensa, no. 55, 08/2006.
  • Africana bulletin. Varsavia, Polonia.
  • African Arts. Center of African Studies, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA, 1967.
  • Afriche e Orienti. Director Mario Zamponi, AIEP Editore, Bologna, dal 1999.
  • Africultures
  • Afrik'Art.[26] Dakar, from 2005 and associated with the Dakar Biennale.
  • Afro Magazine, Cape Town. Produced by Daddy Buy Me a Pony.
  • Art nègre. Namur, Belgium. Special issue Vivante afrique, no. 246, 1–53, 09-10/1966.
  • Arts d'Afrique Noire, then "Arts Premiers". Arnouville, France.
  • Art South Africa.
  • Artthrob. Rivista online founded by Sue Williamson.
  • Atlantica Revista de Arte y Pensamiento. Publication of the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, from 1990.
  • Black Art. Claremont, USA, from 1976.
  • Black Orpheus: Journal of African and Afro-American Literature, founded by Ulli Beier, Ibadan, Nigeria (1957–75).
  • Chimurenga: Who no know go know. Founded by Ntone Edjabe, Kalakuta Trust, Cape Town, South Africa, from 2002.
  • Coartnews.
  • Convergences: Revue trimestrielle d'art et de culture. Director Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Dakar, Senegal, from 1996.
  • Contemporary Art from the Islamic World then Nafas Art Magazine.
  • Critical Interventions: Journal of African art history and visual culture. Founded by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie.
  • DiARTgonale: Bimestriel panafricain d'opinions, de formation et de réflexion sur l'art contemporain africain. Founded by Achillekà Komguem, Yaoundé, Camerun, from 2007.
  • Drum Magazine
  • Gallery. Delta Gallery Publications, Harare, Zimbabwe, from 1994.
  • Glendora, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Journal de la Société des Africanistes, Paris.
  • Kunstforum International. Director Dieter Bechtloff. In particular Weltkunst-Globalkultur (no. 118, 1992), Afrika – Iwalewa (n. 122, 1993), Out of Africa (no. 174, 2005).
  • Metronome. Founded by Clémentine Deliss, from 1996. From 2005 the magazine has been produced by Metronome Press.
  • NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art. Founded by Okwui Enwezor, USA, from 1994.
  • New Culture: A Review of Contemporary African Arts. Founded by Demas Nwoko, New Culture Studios Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1978.
  • Objets et Mondes. Musée de l'Homme, Paris.
  • Position: Journal on Contemporary African Arts, Director Dapo Adeniyi, from 2001.
  • Présence Africaine: Revue Culturelle du Monde Noir. Founded by Alioune Diop, Paris, from 1947.
  • Revue Noire. Founded by Jean Loup Pivin, Simon Njami, Pascal Martin Saint Léon, Paris, from 1991 to 1999.[27]
  • Staffrider.
  • Third Text: Third World Perspectives on Contemporary Art & Culture. Founded by Rasheed Araeen, Kala Press, London, from 1987. In particular Africa Special Issue, no. 23, Summer 1993.
  • Transition Magazine: A Journal of the Arts, Culture & Society.

Databases

See also

References

  1. ↑ Firstenberg, Lauri (2003). “Negotiating the Taxonomy of Contemporary African Art – Production, Exhibition, Commodification”, in Farrell, L. A., Byvanck, V. (eds.), Looking both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. New York: Museum for African Art, p. 40.
  2. 1 2 Firstenberg, Lauri (2003). “Negotiating the Taxonomy of Contemporary African Art – Production, Exhibition, Commodification”, in Farrell, L. A., Byvanck, V. (eds.), Looking both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. New York: Museum for African Art, p. 37-41.
  3. 1 2 3 Araeen, Rasheed (1989). “Our Bauhaus Others' Mudhouse”, Third Text n. 6, p. 3-16.
  4. ↑ See also Firstenberg, Lauri (2003). “Negotiating the Taxonomy of Contemporary African Art – Production, Exhibition, Commodification”, in Farrell, L. A., Byvanck, V. (eds.), Looking both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. New York: Museum for African Art, p. 37-41.
  5. ↑ Mosquera, Gerardo (1995). “Das Marco-Polo-Syndrom”, in Hermanns, U. (ed.), Havanna. Sao Paulo. Junge Kunst aus Lateinamerika. Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, p. 34-39.
  6. 1 2 3 Nzegwu, Nkiru (1998). “Introduction: Contemporary African Art and Exclusionary Politics”, in id. (ed.), Issues in Contemporary African Art. Binghamton, NY: International Society for the Study of Africa ISSA, p. 1-18.
  7. ↑ Mount, Marshall W. (1973). African Art: The Years since 1920. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  8. ↑ Jules-Rosette, Bennetta (1984). The Messages of Tourist Art: An African Semiotic System in Comparative Perspective. Boston: Springer.
  9. ↑ Marshall W. Mount (1973) quoted in: Mudimbe, Valentin Y. (1991). “'Reprendre': Enunciations and Strategies in Contemporary African Arts”, in Vogel, S. (ed.), Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art. Munich: Prestel, p. 279.
  10. 1 2 Mudimbe, Valentin Y. (1991). “'Reprendre': Enunciations and Strategies in Contemporary African Arts”, in Vogel, S. (ed.), Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art. Munich: Prestel, p. 280.
  11. ↑ Vogel, Susan, ed. (1991). Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art. Munich: Prestel.
  12. ↑ Magnin, André, Soulillou, Jacques, eds. (1996). Contemporary Art of Africa. London: Thames & Hudson.
  13. ↑ Jegede, Dele (1998). “On Scholars and Magicians: A Review of 'Contemporary Art of Africa'”, in Nzegwu, N. (ed.), Issues in Contemporary African Art. Binghamton: International Society for the Study of Africa ISSA, p. 187-195.
  14. ↑ Studio Museum, ed. (1990): Contemporary African Artists. Changing Tradition. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem.
  15. 1 2 Oguibe, Olu (1999). “Art, Identity, Boundaries: Postmodernism and Contemporary African Art”, in Oguibe O., Enwezor, O. (eds.), Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace. Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 16-29.
  16. 1 2 Enwezor, Okwui, Okeke-Agulu, Chika (2009). Contemporary African Art since 1980. Bologna: Damiani, p. 21.
  17. ↑ Kasfir, Sidney L. (1999). Contemporary African Art. London/New York: Thames & Hudson.
  18. ↑ Hassan, Salah (1999). “The Modernist Experience in African Art: Visual Expressions of the Self and Cross-cultural Aesthetics”, in Oguibe, O., Enwezor, O. (eds.), Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace. Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 214-235.
  19. ↑ Deliss, Clémentine, ed. (1995). Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa. Paris/New York: Flammarion.
  20. ↑ Enwezor, Okwui, Okeke-Agulu, Chika (2009). Contemporary African Art since 1980. Bologna: Damiani.
  21. ↑ "Around and Around". galerie-herrmann.com.
  22. ↑ "Continental Shift". continentalshift.org.
  23. ↑ "Welcome to insights -- National Museum of African Art". si.edu.
  24. ↑ http://www.accad.osu.edu/~eodita/aeafart/archive/archive.htm
  25. ↑ "Divine Comedy – Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists", Kerber.
  26. ↑ http://www.dakart.org
  27. ↑ "REVUE NOIRE - REVUE NOIRE / Arts contemporains d'Afrique et du Monde". revuenoire.com.
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