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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
Kwame Amoah Labi ([email protected]; [email protected]) is an Associate Professor of African art history at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. His research interests focus on modern and contemporary art and its historiography in Africa, and indigenous arts of the Asante, Akuapem, and Fante peoples, their historical development, changes and continuity. He is also interested in the symbolic values of art in Akan funerals. Labi has published widely in local and international refereed journals and contributed chapters to many books. He has served on the board of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) and the Center for Heritage Development in Africa (CHDA).
Notes
1 Egypt was the first country on the continent to use the art biennial format as a political tool for national promotion of art, long before art biennials became a trend in the 1990s. The Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean countries was founded in 1955 and celebrated its 26th edition in 2016. The Dakar Biennale was conceived in 1989 alternating between literature and art. The first edition in 1990 was focused on literature, and in 1992 on visual art. In 1993 the structure of the biennale was transformed and Dak’Art, 1996, became an exhibition specifically devoted to contemporary African art. Its most recent iteration was held in 2016. The Biennale de Bamako, also known as the Bamako Encounters, is one of the oldest art biennials on the continent (founded in 1993). The Johannesburg Biennale had a rather short existence (1995 and 1997). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_biennials_in_Africa, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
2 Several of the 21st century biennales on the African continent have been largely led by private independent initiatives and non-profit organizations. Some of these are The Biennale de Bamako, which gained its international repute because it boosted the creation of photography-based festivals such as the LagosPhoto Festival (2010), the PhotoFesta Maputo (2002) and the Gwanza Month of Photography (2009). Others include the East African Biennale, the Doula triennial called Biennale de Douala, DUTA, Salon Urban de Douala (2010, 2013, 2017), AFiRIperFOMA (2013), Biennial Kampala (2014, 2016, 2018) and Art Biennale or Rencontres Picha/Biennale de Lubumbashi (2008, 2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_biennials_in_Africa, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
3 https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/ghana-venice-biennale-2019/index.html, accessed Friday 16 August 2017.
4 Adjo Kisser, Friday 23 August 2019 interview by author. Institute of African Studies, Legon, Accra.
5 Ibid.
6 Adjo Kisser, artist’s statement, 2019, courtesy of the artist.
7 Adjo Kisser, Friday 23 August 2019 interview by author. Institute of African Studies, Legon, Accra.
8 https://www.nubukefoundation.org/artist.php?artist=WEEvaENpL3VyK3BxTER3cTFYYVJqUT09, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
9 Accra hosts several head offices of international institutions that employs educated and skilled labor with many having relatively better incomes, and multinational companies whose work force includes expatriates. The increase in earnings thus gives them spare income to spend on art.
10 Daily Graphic, June 2014, “Vibrant pieces from art students.” p. 37.
11 For example, Bernard Akoi-Jackson criticizes the early modern artists as “uncritical” and not contextual in situating their work within trends (Woets, Citation2013, p. 11). This lacks merit as the artists of the late colonial and early independence period addressed certain needs including self-recognition and acceptance, thus giving credit and confidence to Ghanaians and Africans who were subjugated by European colonial domination. Their works reflected the dawn of a newly independent and capable country and its culture. Scholars of Africa’s modern art cited in the essay have elucidated this sufficiently. Kwesi Ohene-Ayeh’s lecture “On Universality and Municipality: Curating the Void,” is another attempt at theorizing what art should be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8L65WqQo7M&t=4s, accessed 17 April 2019.
12 The opening of the Ghana National Museum on the eve of independence on 5 March 1957 was promising to the development of art and culture in the country. Other state institutions were subsequently established. Among the additional institutions created by Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana’s first president) were the Arts Council, an Institute for African Studies, the Kumasi Cultural Center, and an Academy of Arts and Sciences. All these provided an environment for modern art to thrive in the early postcolonial years. The National Museum and the Center for National Culture gallery collected some important works of early Ghanaian modern artists. Yet, it was only recently in 2014 that these works were exhibited. Political wrangling and turf wars at the Center for National Culture caused significant modern art works by Ghana’s pioneering artists to be relocated to the W. E. B. Dubois Centre, where they have been left in a deplorable state.
13 Daily Graphic, 21 June 2014, “Selfex Studio opens art gallery,” p. 36.
14 Daily Graphic, 16 April, 2004. GAVA/Shell Art Competition Winner Receives Prize, p. 23. The Ghana Association of Visual Artists (GAVA) was established in 1991 and headquartered in the Center for National Culture. In its maiden fund raising project in 2004, it organized an art competition aimed at capturing sustainable development through collaboration with Shell Ghana Limited and awarded US$1,000.00 to the winner as a way of supporting sustainable development through paintings.
15 Daily Graphic, 2 August 2014. “PAINT Holds Exhibition,” p. 37.
16 Interview with Mrs. Frances Ademola, June 2016, the Loom Gallery, Accra.
17 http://anoghana.org/about/, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
18 Daily Graphic, 9 March 2013. We are Africa. P. 17.
19 http://www.artcapitalghana.com/, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
20 http://www.kuenyehiaprize.org/, accessed Thursday 22 August 2019.
21 Daily Graphic, 28 September 2013. The Hennessy Futura Art Winner is Belhmann !. p. 37.
22 Daily Graphic, 9 March 2013. Tate Hosts “Across Board” Art Forum, p. 16.
23 Other such initiatives outside Accra include that of Ibrahim Mahama’s Savannah Center for Contemporary Art in Tamale, which helps local communities with agriculture, housing and education.
24 Interview with Mrs. Frances Ademola, June 2016, The Loom Gallery, Accra.
25 Artist statement, 28 August 2019.
26 Interview with Bright Ackwerh, 28 August 2019, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
27 One of Ackwerh’s well-received works is titled “The Sons’ Tear.” This depicts Barrack Obama, the 44th U.S. President, on his knees pleading with the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who is assumed in the picture to be his father, after British and American backed forces ousted him, which Obama apologized for as one of the most infamous political occurrences in recent time. The physique and facial features of Zimbabwe’s deceased president Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) attracts Ackwerh as a cartoonist, especially in Mugabe’s strong ideological stance against Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, England, seizure of lands British settlers appropriated during their colonial rule, and his defiance to international pressure in the face of isolation and boycott by some colonially minded countries, which crippled Zimbabwe’s economy since the beginning of the century https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
28 https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
29 https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
30 A sarcastic exclamation made in response to a question, comment, action or statement to show that the idea being expressed is silly, laughable, absurd or nonsensical.
31 "I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don't think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn't fear the knife because it is dead already. I have a dead-goat syndrome" https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-africa-35160583
https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/mahama-s-dead-goat-comment-makes-2015-africa-best-quotes.html, accessed Thursday 5 September 2019.
32 A local cuisine of rice cooked in tomato source popular in the West Coast of Africa.
33 https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/bright-ackwerh-my-art-and-i.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019,
34 http://ghana.spla.pro/en/ficha.persona.akwele-suma-glory.38080.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
35 The Mirror, 11 March 2016 “Fatric Bewong’s art show opens at Nubuke,” p. 46.
36 Interview with Zhora Opoku, 5 September 2019.
37 http://zohraopoku.com/index.php/ABOUT.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019,
38 Interview with Zhora Opoku, 5 September 2019.
39 http://zohraopoku.com/index.php/ABOUT.html, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
40 Interview with Serge Clottey, La, Accra, 22 August 2019.
41 https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/serge-attukwei-clottey-interview-ghana-my-body-is-part-of-my-works-mystery, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019. One of his projects was about a lagoon in La, which has ceased to be a source of spiritual protection and livelihood for his community. Regrettably the chiefs in the community have developed a new economic resource by selling portions of the lagoon to foreigners, who dump refuse and laterite into the lagoon to “reclaim” the land and build on it.
42 https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/serge-attukwei-clottey-interview-ghana-my-body-is-part-of-my-works-mystery, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
43 Interview with Serge Clottey, Thursday 22 August 2019.
44 https://www.contemporaryand.com/person/ibrahim-mahama-2/, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Mahama_(artist), accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
46 https://www.myjoyonline.com/entertainment/2019/July-9th/ibrahim-mahama-athe-artist-building-a-parliament-from-recycled-train-seats.php, accessed Wednesday 10 July 2019.
47 https://www.myjoyonline.com/entertainment/2019/July-9th/ibrahim-mahama-athe-artist-building-a-parliament-from-recycled-train-seats.php, accessed Wednesday 10 July 2019,
48 https://ancestorprojectgh.com/, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019.
49 https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/serge-attukwei-clottey-interview-ghana-my-body-is-part-of-my-works-mystery, accessed Tuesday 9 July 2019,
50 Interview with Bright Ackwerh. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, 28 August 2019.
51 https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/10/17/african-voices-coloring-outside-the-lines-b.cnn, accessed Tuesday 7 April 2020.