Description
Book SynopsisOffering a wealth of perspectives on African modern and Modernist art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, this new Companion features essays by African, European, and North American authors who assess the work of individual artists as well as exploring broader themes such as discoveries of new technologies and globalization.
Table of ContentsList of Figures xi
Notes on Contributors xv
Acknowledgments xx
Part I Introduction 1
1 Writing African Modernism into Art History 3
Gitti Salami and Monica Blackmun Visonà
Part II “Africa Has Always Been Modern” 21
2 Local Transformations, Global Inspirations: The Visual Histories and Cultures of Mami Wata Arts in Africa 23
Henry John Drewal
Part III Art in Cosmopolitan Africa: The Nineteenth Century 51
3 Loango Coast Ivories and the Legacies of Afro-Portuguese Arts 53
Nichole N. Bridges
4 Roots and Routes of African Photographic Practices: From Modern to Vernacular Photography in West and Central Africa (1850–1980) 74
Christraud M. Geary
5 At Home in the World: Portrait Photography and Swahili Mercantile Aesthetics 96
Prita Meier
6 African Reimaginations: Presence, Absence, and New Way Architecture 113
Ikem Stanley Okoye
Part IV Modernities and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Arts of the Early Twentieth Century 135
7 “One of the Best Tools for Learning”: Rethinking the Role of ‘Abduh’s Fatwa in Egyptian Art History 137
Dina A. Ramadan
8 Congolese and Belgian Appropriations of the Colonial Era: The Commissioned Work of Tshelantende (Djilatendo) and Its Reception 154
Kathrin Langenohl
9 Warriors in Top Hats: Images of Modernity and Military Power on West African Coasts 174
Monica Blackmun Visonà
Part V Colonialism, Modernism, and Art in Independent Nations 195
10 Algerian Painters as Pioneers of Modernism 197
Mary Vogl
11 Kofi Antubam, 1922–1964: A Modern Ghanaian Artist, Educator, and Writer 218
Atta Kwami
12 Patron and Artist in the Shaping of Zimbabwean Art 237
Elizabeth Morton
13 “Being Modern”: Identity Debates and Makerere’s Art School in the 1960s 255
Sunanda K. Sanyal
14 The École des Arts and Exhibitionary Platforms in Postindependence Senegal 276
Joanna Grabski
15 From Iconoclasm to Heritage: The Osogbo Art Movement and the Dynamics of Modernism in Nigeria 294
Peter Probst
16 Modernism and Modernity in African Art 311
John Picton
17 A Century of Painting in the Congo: Image, Memory, Experience, and Knowledge 330
Bogumil Jewsiewicki
Part VI Perspectives on Arts of the African Diaspora 347
18 Visual Expressivity in the Art of the Black Diaspora: Conjunctures and Disjunctures 349
dele jegede
Part VII Syntheses in Art of the Late Twentieth Century 369
19 Art and Social Dynamics in Côte d’Ivoire: The Position of Vohou-Vohou 371
Yacouba Konaté
20 Contemporary Contradictions: Bronzecasting in the Edo Kingdom of Benin 389
Barbara Winston Blackmun
21 Puppets as Witnesses and Perpetrators in Ubu and the Truth Commission 408
Peter Ukpokodu
22 Moroccan Art Museums and Memories of Modernity 426
Katarzyna Pieprzak
Part VIII Primitivism as Erasure 445
23 The Enduring Power of Primitivism: Showcasing “the Other” in Twenty-First-Century France 447
Sally Price
Part IX Local Expression and Global Modernity: African Art of the Twenty-First Century 467
24 Zwelethu Mthethwa’s “Postdocumentary” Portraiture: Views from South Africa and Abroad 469
Pamela Allara
25 Creative Diffusion: African Intersections in the Biennale Network 489
Kinsey Katchka
26 Lacuna: Uganda in a Globalizing Cultural Field 507
Sidney Littlefield Kasfir
27 Painted Visions under Rebel Domination: A Cultural Center and Political Imagination in Northern Côte d’Ivoire 528
Till Förster
28 Postindependence Architecture through North Korean Modes: Namibian Commissions of the Mansudae Overseas Project 548
Meghan L. E. Kirkwood
29 Concrete Aspirations: Modern Art at the Roundabout in Ugep 572
Gitti Salami
Index 593
