MODERN AFRICA Wednesday 15 February 2017

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

MODERN AFRICA Wednesday 15 February 2017 AFRICA NOW: MODERN AFRICA Wednesday 15 February 2017 AFRICA NOW: MODERN AFRICA Wednesday 15 February 2017 at 2pm New Bond Street, London VIEWING BIDS ENQUIRIES PHYSICAL CONDITION OF Sunday 12 February +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 Giles Peppiatt MRICS LOTS IN THIS AUCTION 11am to 3pm +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax +44 (0) 20 7468 8355 PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS Monday 13 February To bid via the internet please NO REFERENCE IN THIS 9am to 4:30pm visit bonhams.com Eliza Sawyer CATALOGUE TO THE PHYSICAL Tuesday 14 February +44 (0) 20 7468 5881 CONDITION OF ANY LOT. 9am to 4:30pm TELEPHONE BIDDING INTENDING BIDDERS MUST Wednesday 15 February Telephone bidding on this sale Helene Cockman SATISFY THEMSELVES AS TO 9am to 12noon will only be accepted on lots +44 (0) 20 7468 8213 THE CONDITION OF ANY LOT with a lower estimate of £1,000 AS SPECIFIED IN CLAUSE 14 or above. [email protected] SALE NUMBER OF THE NOTICE TO BIDDERS 23892 CONTAINED AT THE END OF Please note that bids should be Nigeria THIS CATALOGUE. CATALOGUE submitted no later than 4pm on Neil Coventry £25.00 the day prior to the sale. New +234 811 0033792 As a courtesy to intending bidders must also provide proof +27 761120171 bidders, Bonhams will provide a of identity when submitting bids. [email protected] ILLUSTRATIONS written Indication of the physical Front cover: Lot 19 Failure to do this may result in condition of lots in this sale if a Back cover: Lot 16 your bid not being processed. Please see page 4 for bidder request is received up to 24 Inside front cover: Lot 11 information including after-sale hours before the auction starts. Opposite page: Lot 18 Live online bidding is available collection and shipment This written Indication is issued Inside back cover: Lot 29 for this sale subject to Clause 3 of the Notice Please email [email protected] IMPORTANT INFORMATION to Bidders. with ‘live bidding’ in the subject The United States Government line 48 hours before the auction has banned the import of ivory to register for this service. into the USA. Lots containing CUSTOMER SERVICES ivory are indicated by the Monday to Friday 8.30 to 6.00 +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 symbol Ф printed beside the lot number in this catalogue. Please see page 4 for bidder information including after-sale collection and shipment. Bonhams 1793 Limited Bonhams International Board Bonhams UK Ltd Directors Registered No. 4326560 Robert Brooks Co-Chairman, Colin Sheaf Chairman, Gordon McFarlan, Andrew McKenzie, Registered Office: Montpelier Galleries Malcolm Barber Co-Chairman, Harvey Cammell Deputy Chairman, Simon Mitchell, Jeff Muse, Mike Neill, Montpelier Street, London SW7 1HH Colin Sheaf Deputy Chairman, Antony Bennett, Matthew Bradbury, Charlie O’Brien, Giles Peppiatt, India Phillips, Matthew Girling CEO, Lucinda Bredin, Simon Cottle, Andrew Currie, Peter Rees, John Sandon, Tim Schofield, +44 (0) 20 7393 3900 Patrick Meade Group Vice Chairman, Paul Davidson, Jean Ghika, Veronique Scorer, James Stratton, Ralph Taylor, +44 (0) 20 7393 3905 fax Jon Baddeley, Rupert Banner, Geoffrey Davies, Charles Graham-Campbell, Matthew Haley, Charlie Thomas, David Williams, Jonathan Fairhurst, Asaph Hyman, James Knight, Richard Harvey, Robin Hereford, David Johnson, Michael Wynell-Mayow, Suzannah Yip. Caroline Oliphant, Shahin Virani, Charles Lanning, Miranda Leslie, Edward Wilkinson, Leslie Wright. SALE Central Middlesex Acton Ln Hospital Park Royal INFORMATION Acton Ln Cadogan Tate Coronation Road W e d s P a te a o r r n R k A v e R e s A o 40 a y h a Park l C Royal iWestern Ave A40 R o Station a 0 d 0 Acton 0 North 4 Cemetery A Acton d Station a o R a i r o t c i V West Acton Horn Lane Station BIDS BUYERS COLLECTION & STORAGE AND HANDLING VAT +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 STORAGE AFTER SALE CHARGES ON SOLD LOTS Will be applied at the current +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax LOTS MARKED TP RETURNED TO CADOGAN TATE rate on all above charges To bid via the internet please visit All sold lots marked TP will be www.bonhams.com removed to Cadogan Tate, 241 Acton Storage The following symbol is Lane, London, NW10 7NP from Storage will be free of charge used to denote that VAT PAYMENTS 9.00am Thursday 16 February 2017 for the first 14 calendar days is due on the hammer price Buyers from & including the sale date and buyer’s premium +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 COLLECTION Wednesday 15 February 2017 +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax Sold TP lots will be available for † VAT 20% on hammer price collection from Cadogan Tate Charges will apply from 9am and buyer’s premium Sellers from 12pm Friday 17 February Wednesday 1 March 2017 Payment of sale proceeds then every working day between * VAT on imported items at +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 9am and 4.30pm on production Pictures and small objects: a preferential rate of 5% on +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax of photographic identification and £2.85 per day + VAT hammer price and the written authorisation for third-party prevailing rate on buyer’s premium VALUATIONS, collections. Furniture, large pictures TAXATION & HERITAGE and large objects: Y These lots are subject to +44 (0) 20 7468 8340 To arrange a collection time please £5.70 per day+ VAT CITES regulations, please +44 (0) 20 7468 5860 fax send a booking email to (Note: Charges apply every day read the information in the [email protected] [email protected] including weekends and Public back of the catalogue. or telephone call to +44 (0) 800 988 Holidays) CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS 6100 will be required to ensure IMPORTANT NOTICE To obtain any Bonhams lots are ready at time of collection. Handling A surcharge of 2% is applicable catalogue or to take out After the first 14 calendar days when using MasterCard & an annual subscription: All other sold lots will remain in following the sale, the following Visa credit cards and overseas Subscriptions Department the Collections room at Bonhams handling charges apply per Lot: debit cards. +44 (0) 1666 502200 New Bond Street until 5.30pm +44 (0) 1666 505107 fax Wednesday 1 March 2017. Pictures and small objects: Payment [email protected] Lots not collected by this time will £21.00+ VAT All charges due to Cadogan be returned back to the department Tate may be paid to them in advance SHIPPING storage charges may apply. Furniture, large pictures: or at the time of collection from their For information and estimates £42.00+ VAT warehouse. Payment may be made on domestic and international by cash, cheque with banker’s card, shipping as well as export Loss and Damage credit, or debit card (Please note: licenses please contact Alban Extended Liability cover to the Amex is not accepted). Shipping on +44 (0) 1582 493 099 value of the Hammer Price will be [email protected] charged at 0.6% but capped at Information on charges the total value of all other charges due is available by email at [email protected] or telephone on +44 (0) 800 988 6100 Payment in Advance (Telephone to ascertain amount due) by: cash, cheque with banker’s card, credit or debit card. Payment at time of collection by: cash, cheque with banker’s card, credit or debit card. MODERN & CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART AT BONHAMS The Africa Now auction last May was one of our strongest sales to date. The late and great Spirit of Ogolo by Ben Enwonwu was sold Giles Peppiatt Eliza Sawyer for £218,500, the highest price yet achieved for an oil painting by the Director Cataloguer artist. A new world record was also set for the Nigerian modernist, Yusuf Grillo, with his oil on board Mother of Twins selling for £146,500 against an estimate of £35,000-50,000. We are excited to be offering an equally impressive selection of artworks this February. The auction includes important pieces by the aforementioned masters as well as works by Uche Okeke, El Anatsui, Simon Okeke and Amon Kotei. We are particularly delighted to present a full-size cast of Enwonwu’s masterpiece Anyanwu. At 6ft10 high, the sculpture dwarfs the later editions and is the first full-size cast to come to market. Since it was commissioned in 1954, Anyanwu has acquired national significance, symbolising Nigeria’s independent status. In 1966, the Nigerian ambassador presented an almost identical cast of this sculpture Neil Coventry Helene Cockman to the United Nations headquarters in New York, a few days after Bonhams Lagos Administrator the country’s sixth independence anniversary. Pre-dating the UN’s Anyanwu by a decade, lot 29 was purchased in London by a close friend of the artist in the 1970s, and has been in a private collection ever since. Another highlight is a highly unusual oil on board by Yusuf Grillo entitled The Duet. The painting depicts two musicians in harmony. Their yellow clothes are strikingly contrasted by the vibrant red background. This colour scheme sets the work apart from the rest of the artist’s oeuvre, departing from his regular palette of purples and blues. We are proud to be offering works of such quality, and hope that you will join us in our appreciation. As the market leader in modern and contemporary African art, Bonhams continues to be an important platform for these artists, increasing their international exposure. We look forward to your participation in the auction, whether by telephone, online or in person. 1 AKINOLA LASEKAN (NIGERIAN, 1921-1974) Lasekan’s formative years were coloured by his experience of British Nigerian Soldier, 1959 colonial rule.
Recommended publications
  • Visual Art Appreciation in Nigeria: the Zaria Art Society Experience
    Mgbakoigba, Journal of African Studies. Vol.6 No.2. February 2017 VISUAL ART APPRECIATION IN NIGERIA: THE ZARIA ART SOCIETY EXPERIENCE Chinyere Ndubuisi Department of Fine Art, Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria [email protected] 0802 3434372 Abstract There is no doubt that one of the greatest creative impetuses injected into Nigerian art was made possible by, among other things, the activities of the first art institution in Nigeria to award a Diploma certificate in art, Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST). NCAST started in 1953/54 at their Ibadan branch but they could not rationalize their art programme ab initio but organized art exhibition to raise the public awareness of the programme. In September 1955 the art programme became a full department and relocated to their permanent site at Zaria, in northern Nigeria, with 16 students. This paper focuses on NCAST impact on modern Nigerian art and the gradual, but steady, growth of other art activities in Nigeria since NCAST. The paper also discusses the emergence of an art society from NCAST, known as Zaria Art Society and the extension of the philosophy of the Art Society into the church by one of its member, Bruce Onobrakpeya, who represented most of his Christian images in traditional Urhobo style as against the popular western style. The paper argues that Nigeria has a rich art and diverse culture which existed long before the colonial reign and thus encouraged the efforts of the Zaria Art Society in re-appropriating local forms and motifs in their modern art by way of an ideology known as 'Natural synthesis.' Introduction The argument may be how one can define 'culture' in the context of the diverse ethnic groups that populate present-day Nigeria.
    [Show full text]
  • Izibongo Issue 60
    IZIBONGO Celebrating Art in Africa and the Diaspora Issue 60 - 2018 Saluting Ben Enwonwu including review of Ben Enwonwu: The Making Of An African Modernist by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie Natty Mark Samuels Editorial Every public figure, especially a pioneering one, will have their detractors; so it was with Ben Enwonwu. But what is undeniable, is his massive contribution to Modern Art - and the mastery of the materials he used. I pay homage to this truly trailblazing figure, in Saluting Ben Enwonwu, which is a revised version of a previous work, entitled Song for Ben Enwonwu. Revised, in that a few verses have been added and words and sentences here and there, have been changed. This issue also includes The Necessary Song, my review of Ben Enwonwu: The Making Of An African Modernist, by Professor Ogbechie. Here's what the featured artist says about Anyanwu, one of his great offerings in bronze... “My aim was to symbolise our rising nation. I have tried to combine material, crafts and traditions, to express a conception that is based on womanhood – woman, the mother and nourisher of man. “In our rising nation, I see the forces embodied in womanhood; the beginning, and then, the development and flowering into the fullest stature of a nation – a people! “This sculpture is spiritual in conception, rhythmical in movement and three dimensional in its architectural setting – these qualities are characteristic of the sculptures of my ancestors.” From Nigeria, I am happy to present to you, BEN ENWONWU. Editor – Natty Mark Samuels – africanschool.weebly.com – An African School Production Saluting Ben Enwonwu©Natty Mark Samuels, 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking, Re-Theorising the Concept of Modernism in Painting and Its After-Effect on African Contemporary Art Discourse
    Mgbakoigba, Journal of African Studies. Vol.5 No.2. June 2016 RETHINKING, RE-THEORISING THE CONCEPT OF MODERNISM IN PAINTING AND ITS AFTER-EFFECT ON AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART DISCOURSE Ikemefula Emmanuel Irokanulo Department of Fine Arts Yaba College of Technology, Yaba Lagos State Nigeria [email protected] +2348034267433 and Amaka Nwosu Department of Industrial Design Yaba College of Technology Abstract This paper explores both the European and African concepts of Modernism and its modernity in painting. The idea is to re-examine and re-theorise the understanding of this concept with a view to finding out its true import and impact on the contemporary art scene, especially that of Africa. The works of two African artists are reviewed and discussed excluding the painting of Paul Cezanne which has birthed this argument. Finally one of the authors introduces his own paintings to help buttress their position and the theorisation of personal understanding of Modernism in painting culture. The paper concludes by advancing a re-theorisation and understanding of the concept of modernism in Africa, so that a new understanding could be realised in developing new awareness of what Modernism stands for within contemporary African art discourse. Key words: Modernism, Contemporary art Discourse, Paul Cezanne, Re-theorise, Re- thinking Background to the Study According to Irokanulo (2014), the basic characteristic of the European modern period was its emphasis on science and technological advancement because of the industrial revolution sweeping across Europe in the nineteenth century. It was also a period of theoretical assertions. Gardner (2005) advances that most of the developments in the sciences and social sciences have their roots in this period.
    [Show full text]
  • Weathering the Storm: Ben Enwonwu’S Biafrascapes and the Crisis in the Nigerian Postcolony
    Weathering the storm: Ben Enwonwu's Biafrascapes and the crisis in the Nigerian postcolony Article (Published Version) Lecznar, Matthew (2018) Weathering the storm: Ben Enwonwu’s Biafrascapes and the crisis in the Nigerian postcolony. Tate Papers, 30. ISSN 1753-9854 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/79781/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Research Publications Tate Papers Tate Papers no.30 Weathering the Storm: Ben Enwo… TATE PAPERS Weathering the Storm: Ben Enwonwu’s Biafrascapes and the Crisis in the Nigerian Postcolony MATTHEW LECZNAR This article appraises Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu’s contribution to postcolonial modernism in Nigeria through an analysis of his artistic responses to the Nigeria-Biafra war (1967–70).
    [Show full text]
  • Positioning Nigerian Modernism
    POSITIONING NIGERIAN MODERNISM On the occasion of Ben Enwonwu’s Centenary (1917–1994) 28–29 September 2017 1 FOREWORD We are delighted to be able to present this major international conference at Tate Modern, which will reconsider the origins and socio-political underpinnings of modernism in Nigeria and West Africa more broadly and the legacy of some of its key proponents. One hundred years after the birth of pioneering Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, a resolute defender of the value of African culture internationally, it is timely to emphasise the contributions of artists active in the years before and after decolonisation and reconsider the context in which they were working. This conference seeks to address issues around the formation of post-colonial identity, the preservation of history and the impact of transnationalism and decolonisation in art criticism and museum collections today. We were overwhelmed by the response we received to our open call for papers. The breadth and depth of research being undertaken by colleagues around the world is exciting and encouraging. Art histories are being written and re-written and we are honoured to be able to bring together scholars from major museums and academic institutions in Nigeria, Germany, Austria, the United States and the United Kingdom who are at the forefront of rethinking modernism. We hope that this conference will provide a platform for ideas to be shared and for the discourse to be developed further. We are extremely grateful for their collaboration. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Oliver Enwonwu, Sylvester Ogbechie and Neil Coventry whose tireless work over many years has informed our own.
    [Show full text]
  • Nkiru Nzegwu
    May 28, 2021 NKIRU NZEGWU CURRICULUM VITAE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS Department of Africana Studies, Binghamton University. Telephone: (607) 777-2635: Email: [email protected]. CURRENT STATUS SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Africana Studies, Binghamton University. Professor Extraordinarius, University of South Africa, UNISA, School of Transdisciplinary Research and Graduate Studies. EDUCATION Ph.D. University of Ottawa, Philosophy (Aesthetics), 1989. ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Member, Board of the State University of New York Distinguished Academy, 2020-. Member, University-wide (SUNY) Advisory Council on Distinguished Professorships, 2019-2021. Distinguished Professor, Department of Africana Studies, 2019- Professor, Department of Africana Studies, 2011-2019. Professor, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2011-2019. Coordinator, Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture (PIC), 2014-2017. Chair, Department of Africana Studies, 2007-2010. Professor, Department of Africana Studies and PIC, Graduate Program, 2005-2011. Chair, Department of Africana Studies, 2003-2006. Associate Professor, tenured, Department of Africana Studies and Philosophy, Interpretation, and Cul- ture (PIC), Graduate Program, 2001-2005. Associate Professor, tenured, Department of Africana Studies and Art History, 1998-2001. Associate Professor, tenured, Department of Philosophy and Art History, 1996-1998. Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Art History, 1990-1996. INTERNET EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE Africa Knowledge Project, 2010- A publishing and distribution platform of five academic, peer reviewed, indexed, journals and an ar- chive devoted to the study of global Africa. This digital platform is managed by an administrator. For information and details about the journals go to https://www.africaknowledgeproject.org/. West Africa Review – (commenced 1999). JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies – (commenced 2000). Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World – (commenced 2000).
    [Show full text]
  • The Africanized Queen: Metonymic Site of Transformation
    African Studies Quarterly | Volume 1, Issue 4 | 1998 The Africanized Queen: Metonymic Site of Transformation NKIRU NZEGWU Race as a category of classification has an infamous history of injustice and domination. In late nineteenth century Africa, it was deployed in a violent agenda of empire-building, in which European superiority became the organizing principle of the new political order. Following colonization, European cultural values, social norms, and conception of reality provided the privileged frame of representation, and the standpoint for understanding Africans whom Europeans considered to be subhuman. In the views of then Governor of Lagos, Sir Hugh Clifford, Africans lacked the organizing and creative abilities that were "the particular trait and characteristic of the white man" 1. Vestiges of this racist legacy persist today in the West in the critical reception of the works of African artists. It underwrites the reluctance to accord intellectual sophistication to African artists, and the hesitance to grant the legitimacy of Africa' s cultural paradigms in shaping the evaluative lens by which the creative expressions of Africans are framed. Nowhere is this ideological posture most evident as in the evaluation of the works of Nigerian's preeminent artist, Benedict Chukwukadiba Enwonwu. In the colonial quest to position Europe at the center of analysis, minimal attention is paid to the creative politics of modern African artists. Instances of the artists representation of a white man or white woman are often unimaginatively explained away as instances of Africans' fascination with, or reverence for, the white man. The pervasive depictions of Tarzan on the side of mammy wagons, lorries, and luxurious buses are rarely seen for what it is, which is, the lunacy of a half-naked white man running around aimlessly in a jungle with animals for relatives and companionship.
    [Show full text]
  • Lagos, City of Hustle, Builds an Art ‘Ecosystem’ - the New York Times 22/02/2019, 14:22
    Lagos, City of Hustle, Builds an Art ‘Ecosystem’ - The New York Times 22/02/2019, 14:22 Lagos, City of Hustle, BuildsART an& DESIGN Art ‘Ecosystem’ West Africa’s new art destination is a sprawling megacity with a generation of artists, gallerists and collectors powering the scene. By Siddhartha Mitter Feb. 8, 2019 LAGOS, Nigeria — Cars snaked out from the hideous traffic and deposited the city’s elite, dressed to impress, at the Civic Center, a concrete-and-steel edifice fronting Lagos Lagoon. Women exuding Vogue beauty and power paused on the patio to give television interviews. Art X Lagos was living up to its reputation as a happening. Not just collectors, but the hip, the curious, the Instagram crowd, thronged West Africa’s principal fair in November. They packed the venue to hear the keynote talk by the distinguished British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, back for the occasion. The Ooni of Ife, a Yoruba king, showed up, escorted by praise-singers. Conversations carried over from gallery openings around town and from the Art Summit, a two-day convening, where the celebrated painter Kehinde Wiley, flown in by the United States consulate, was a special guest. This enormous city — with no official census, population estimates range from 13 million to 21 million — is dynamic by disposition. Yes, the roads are clogged, political corruption is rampant, and the power cuts trigger armies of generators spewing noxious fumes. But Lagosians — who are proud of their “hustle,” a mix of effort, imagination, and brash optimism — will turn any challenge into enterprise. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/arts/design/lagos-nigeria-art-x-art.html Page 1 of 19 Lagos, City of Hustle, Builds an Art ‘Ecosystem’ - The New York Times 22/02/2019, 14:22 Commerce, music, fashion, have long thrived amid the chaos.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pathfinder Paradox: Historicizing African Art Within Global Modernity
    The pathfinder paradox: historicizing African art within global modernity Review of: Chika Okeke-Agulu, Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in 20th Century Nigeria. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015. 376 pp., 129 colour ill. $29.95, paperback. Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie ‘…Our identity is not only constructed out of what we call ‘the real’ us, but of everything that we are not. That extraneous condition of Being makes all the difference. That is to say, even in advance of our choosing what to be, we are excluded from being all the things we are not, and our subsequent elections are relevant only to the extent that they are conformable to that preselection.’ Michael J. Echeruo, 2001: 11 I The study of modern and contemporary African art is gaining global visibility in art history and there are now several publications that carry out sophisticated analysis of individuals, contexts and discursive practices. It is important to determine how these publications frame the emergent subject/context and evaluate the specific positioning of this scholarship in relation to the politics of academic writing. How do emergent theories and analyses of modern/contemporary African art position Africa within global debates about cultural production in general? How do we as scholars narrate a history of modern and contemporary art in Africa that unfolds from the viewpoint of the African subject / subjectivity rather than from the viewpoint of its negation by Western discourse? What approaches to historical data and interpretation are suitable for such analysis? I evaluate how these issues unfold in Chika Okeke-Agulu’s Postcolonial Modernism, whose narrative of African art’s emergence into global modernity bears close examination.1 The book refers to various African contexts of modernist expression but it is primarily focused on the impact of a group of young art students at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and 1 Chika Okeke-Agulu, Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in 20th Century Nigeria.
    [Show full text]
  • 10 Frieze London Exhibitors Presenting Solo Shows by Black Artists Victoria L
    Culture Type Viewing Rooms: 10 Frieze London Exhibitors Presenting Solo Shows by Black Artists Victoria L. Valentine 15 October 2020 Viewing Rooms: 10 Frieze London Exhibitors Presenting Solo Shows by Black Artists WORKS BY BLACK ARTISTS are showcased in many of the gallery presentations at the London edition of the Frieze art fair this year. Several galleries mounted solo shows focused on artists such as Theaster Gates, Faith Ringgold, Lauren Halsey, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, and Ben Enwonwu (1917-1994). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, artworks were presented online in Frieze Viewing Rooms (free email registration required). Frieze London 2020 was a largely virtual fair, a hybrid event with limited in-person programming and collector attention focused on exhibitor “booths” presented online. Although Frieze London 2020 was officially on view through Sunday, the art fair viewing rooms are open through Oct. 16, and many galleries have parallel viewing rooms on their own websites that will remain accessible for browsing beyond their “closing” dates. The Frieze Viewing Rooms provide an opportunity to see a spectrum artworks for sale, by a range of artists, offered by an international slate of galleries. The online platform features enhanced viewing with detail images and installations views, as well as background information about the artists and their work. Most galleries also state asking prices. Others give price ranges or require potential buyers to “inquire” or access pricing information “on application’ (POA). A selection of 10 solo presentations follows: Image: Installation view of THEASTER GATES: Sweet Square of Dark Abyss. | Courtesy White Cube gallery, London THEASTER GATES: Sweet Square of Dark Abyss | White Cube, London Frieze Viewing Room / White Cube Website In the main section of Frieze, the presentation of Chicago-based Theaster Gates features new works from a series of “book paintings” and “spine works” composed of custom-bound volumes of books and magazines, as well as sculptural assemblages.
    [Show full text]
  • Wole Soyinka
    Distinguished Lecture Series Wole Soyinka Art, Tradition and Modernity NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Photo. Kelechi Amadi-Obi The Drummer 1978, bronze CO N T EN T S Biography of Prof. Wole Soyinka Opening remarks by Chief P.C. Asiodu, CON Lecture - Art, Tradition and Modernity Related Resources THE BEN ENWONWU FOUNDATION Distinguished Lecture Series Delivered on the May 2, 2006 at THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONALAFFAIRS, LAGOS Prof. W ole Soyinka Art, Tradition and Modernity under the distinguished chairmanship of Chief Philip Asiodu, CON Izoma Onyaa of Asaba Guests of Honour Chief (Mrs) Opral M. Benson MON , CSA Iya Oge of Lagos Chief Tayo Akpata Ogiesoba of Benin BIOGRAPHY OF W OLE SOYINKA Prof. Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka is the Elias Ghanem Professor of Creative Writing at the English Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the president's Management Institute Professor-in-Residence at Loyola Management University in Los Angeles, California. Soyinka has been a consistently courageous voice for human rights world over and a force in national politics. He is the author of over thirty titles in all genres. In 1986, he became the first black African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wole Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934 and holds a B.A from the University of Leeds, UK and has held several positions in the academia. From 1969-71 was Head, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan, Professor of Dramatic Literature, University of Ife, 1972 and visiting Professor in Drama, Sheffield University, UK. In 1975, Soyinka was appointed Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife, Nigeria.
    [Show full text]
  • International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences Vol 7, No.2
    International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences Vol 7, No.2 Nigeria Magazine in The Critical Discourse of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nigeria, 1946 – 1976 Ozioma Onuzulike Abstract This article examines the role of the influential government periodical Nigeria Magazine in the development of modern and contemporary art in Nigeria through the agency of art criticism. Employing historical analysis, the scope chosen covers the developmental periods of early art modernism in Nigeria as a crucial period during which art writers and commentators shaped the direction of artistic development through critical discourses. Findings show that the writings of British colonial officials dominated the period from the mid-1940s up to the post- independence era and focused essentially on the manner by which the new artists were negotiating their „traditional‟ creative sources with „foreign‟ or „contemporary‟ ones. In the early 1960s, contemporary artists themselves joined in the discourse, becoming much more sensitive to the modes of artistic production and presentation by their peers, as well as to their peers‟ professional orientation and development. This critical engagement with the works of fellow artists by the Nigerian modern and contemporary artists of the 1960s and early 1970s gave rise to the phenomenon of artist-critics in contemporary Nigerian art. Introduction Nigeria Magazine played an outstanding role in the historical and critical discourse of early modern art in Nigeria, especially beginning from 1946. This date is very significant because it was the year in which what appears to be the first article on Nigeria‟s proto- modern art practice appeared in the magazine.
    [Show full text]