A Companion to Modern African Art

This fresh addition to Wiley–Blackwell’s Companions to Art History series provides a much–needed perspective on the art and artists of Africa and prepares the ground for a fruitful debate on the nature of African Modernist art, often informed by a conscious engagement with European Modernism. The 29 essays that constitute this volume offer a wealth of analytical approaches, particularly those relating to African epistemologies and postcolonial theory. They cover nineteenth century photography in Liberia, early twentieth century debates on the arts in Egypt, pan–Africanism and art education in Ghana, Uganda and Senegal, revolutionary painting in Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire, and African patronage of North Korean design firms, among many other topics. Contributors also analyze broader themes such as the critical reception African artists have encountered abroad, the roles of biennales and festivals, and interface between African artists and the African diaspora. Featuring original work by authors from Africa, Europe, and North America, the case studies explore Africa’s centuries–old interaction with modernity, tracing the influences of the Indian Ocean trade, as well as visual forms crossing the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The volume’s extended historical purview grounds the work of contemporary artists in the innovations and inventions of nineteenth and twentieth century Africa, material that is often overlooked by publications that situate such artists solely in non–African contexts. It showcases the richness and variety of the continent’s visual creativity and adds much to the theoretical debate in emerging studies of global modernism.

List of Figures Notes on Contributors PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Writing African Modernism into Art History Gitti Salami and Monica Blackmun Visonà PART II: “AFRICA HAS ALWAYS BEEN MODERN” 2. Local Transformations, Global Inspirations: The Visual Histories and Cultures of Mami Wata Arts in Africa Henry John Drewal PART III: ART IN COSMOPOLITAN AFRICA: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY   3. Loango Coast Ivories and the Legacies of Afro–Portuguese Arts Nichole N. Bridges 4. Roots and Routes of African Photographic Practices: From Modern to Vernacular Photography in West and Central Africa Christraud M. Geary 5. At Home in the World: Portrait Photography and Swahili Mercantile Aesthetics Prita Meier 6. African Reimaginations: Presence, Absence and New Way Architecture Ikem Stanley Okoye PART IV: MODERNITIES AND CROSS–CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN ARTS OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 7. “One of the Best Tools for Learning”: Rethinking the Role of ‘Abduh’s Fatwa in Egyptian Art History Dina A. Ramadan 8. Congolese and Belgian Appropriations of the Colonial Era: The Commissioned Work of Tshelantende (Djilatendo) and its Reception Kathrin Langenohl 9. Warriors in Top Hats: Images of Modernity and Military Power on West African Coasts Monica Blackmun Visonà PART V: COLONIALISM, MODERNISM, AND ART IN INDEPENDENT NATIONS 10. Algerian Painters and Pioneers of Modernism Mary Vogl 11. Kofi Antubam, 1922–1964: A Modern Ghanaian Artist, Educator and Writer Atta Kwami 12. Patron and Artist in the Shaping of Zimbabwean Art Elizabeth Morton 13. “Being Modern”: Identity Debates and Makerere’s Art School in the 1960s Sunanda K. Sanyal 14. The École des Arts and Exhibitionary Platforms in Post Independence Senegal Joanne Grabski 15. From Iconoclasm to Heritage: the Osogbo Art Movement and the Dynamics of Modernism in Nigeria Peter Probst 16. Modernity and Modernism in African Art John Picton 17. A Century of Painting in the Congo: Image, Memory, Experience and Knowledge Bogumil Jewsiewicki PART VI: PERSPECTIVES ON ARTS OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA 18. Visual Expressivity in the Art of the Black Diaspora: Conjunctures and Disjunctures dele jegede PART VII: SYNTHESES IN ART OF THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY 19. Art and Social Dynamics in Côte d’Ivoire: the Position of  Vohou–Vohou Yacouba Konate 20. Contemporary Contradictions: Bronzecasting in the Edo Kingdom of Benin Barbara Winston Blackmun 21. Puppets as Witnesses and Perpetrators in “Ubu and the Truth Commission Peter Ukpokodu 22. Moroccan Art Museums and Memories of Modernity Katarzyna Pieprzak PART VIII: PRIMITIVISM AS ERASURE 23. The Enduring Power of Primitivism: Showcasing the Other in Twenty–First Century France Sally Price PART IX:  LOCAL EXPRESSION AND GLOBAL MODERNITY AFRICAN ART OF THE TWENTY–FIRST CENTURY  24. Zwelethu Mthethwa’s ‘Post–Documentary’ Portraiture: Views From South Africa and Abroad Pamela Allara 25. Creative Diffusion: African Intersections in the Biennale Network Kinsey Katchka 26. Lacuna: Uganda in a Globalizing Field Sidney Littlefield Kasfir 27. Painted Visions under Rebel Domination: A Cultural Center and Political Imagination in Northern Côte d’Ivoire Till Förster 28. Post–Independence Architecture through North Korean Modes: Namibian Commissions of the Mansudae Overseas Project Meghan L. E. Kirkwood 29. Concrete Aspirations: Modern Art at the Roundabout in Ugep, Cross River State, Nigeria Gitti Salami

Monica Blackmun Visonà is Associate Professor in the School of Art and Visual Studies of the University of Kentucky, USA, where she teaches courses on African art and architecture, and art historical methods. The principle author of A History of Art in Africa (2000, 2008), she has also published Constructing African Art Histories for the Lagoons of Côte d’Ivoire (2010), and contributed articles to Art Bulletin and African Arts . She is currently researching the artists of the western Akan peoples for a museum exhibition. Gitti Salami is Associate Professor of World Art History at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, USA. In a decade of extensive field research in south–eastern Nigeria she has published numerous articles on Yakurr culture in African Arts and Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture . She has been awarded a Fulbright–Hays DDRA fellowship and a grant from the West African Research Association (WARA), and has held resident fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution and the University of East Anglia, UK. A forthcoming monograph examines contemporary Yakurr art genres from a postcolonial theoretical standpoint.