The contemporary present and modernist past in postcolonial African art

Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C.

doi:10.1080/21500894.2013.775899

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…They reflect the lives of Africans rooted in South African and Nigerian contexts. The periods of production of traditional African art and contemporary African sculptures represent two distinct time frames (Nzewi 2013). Also, the stories these artists tell in their contemporary sculptures are indicative of different contexts rather than a continuation of traditional art.…”

Section: Contemporary African Art Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonising African vernacular rooted sculptures of selected contemporary Nigerian and South African artists

James

2021

JDD

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I am interested in a decolonial reading of African vernacular rooted sculptures of selected contemporary South African and Nigerian artists and compares them. Although vernacular arts were produced in indigenous or traditional African arts context, there are still several forms of vernacular art practices jostling for space with canonical modes in contemporary art in various African contexts. However, I argue that the contemporary representations of cultural imagery and symbols from indigenous cultures or urban areas in South Africa and Nigeria suggest a different mode of engagement, even though the term vernacular is used to narrate them as a rethink in narrating art practices. Therefore, my paper argues that even though contemporary artists from both countries continue to represent cultural imagery (vernacular) in their artworks, they are not a continuation of traditional African art. I adopt formal analysis, cultural history methodologies for the critical analysis of the works of two South African and two Nigerian artists that were purposively selected and compare the ideas that unfold from the interrogations for a wider continental understanding of contemporary issues and artistic trends.

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Section: Contemporary African Art Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonising African vernacular rooted sculptures of selected contemporary Nigerian and South African artists

James

2021

JDD

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“…28 Regardless of how one reads these artists' roles within the nation-state, their practices sometimes germinated and/or were destined to circulate beyond national borders. Not only did many École de Dakar artists embrace modernist idioms that placed them in dialogue with contemporaneous artists in Europe and elsewhere, but state-organized exhibitions were geared toward international audiences-from the Tendances et confrontations (Tendencies and Confrontations) exhibition at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966 (Nzewi 2013;Vincent 2017;Underwood 2019), to a smaller exhibition mounted in Stockholm several years later (Dix ans 1970), to a major show that opened at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1974 and toured the world through the early 1980s (Cohen 2018: 20-21; Murphy 2020).…”

Section: Against Socialist Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

African Socialist Cultural Policy: Senegal under Senghor

Cohen¹

2021

African Arts

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Lagos Art World: The Emergence of an Artistic Hub on the Global Art Periphery

Castellote¹,

Okwuosa²

2019

Afr. stud. rev.

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Abstract:The global geography of art has changed greatly in recent years. Whereas global art hubs were formerly found only in the West, they now exist in locations all over the world, including Africa. Though some art worlds in Asia and Latin America have been studied in recent times, there is insufficient empirical data on art worlds in Africa. This is a study of the Lagos art world, which shows how an “art system,” with all of its attendant structures and agents, has emerged in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, in the last few years. Lagos reflects the dynamics of globalization and is building up the art infrastructure and the critical mass needed for a sustainable art world: an ambitious and fast-growing group of young local collectors, an art fair, an international photography festival, regular art auctions, new art galleries, historical and critical publications, a university art museum, symposiums, art foundations, residencies, and competitions. Lagos is becoming not only a “global city,” but also a “global art hub.”

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The contemporary present and modernist past in postcolonial African art

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Decolonising African vernacular rooted sculptures of selected contemporary Nigerian and South African artists

Decolonising African vernacular rooted sculptures of selected contemporary Nigerian and South African artists

African Socialist Cultural Policy: Senegal under Senghor

Lagos Art World: The Emergence of an Artistic Hub on the Global Art Periphery

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