African Modernism: A Comparative Study of Resistance in the Modernist Art of Nigeria and South Africa

Abstract

This paper adopts comparative analysis as a classic art historic methodology for the study of resistance in the art during African modernism in Nigeria and South Africa. Other methodologies that are combined in this paper as an underlying paradigm and analytical methods include formal analysis and cultural history. While the comparative analysis is adopted to interrogate commonalities for similarities and differences regarding African modernism and resistance art produced by some modern artists in Nigeria and South Africa, the formal analysis is articulated to focus on gathering information exclusively from the visual elements of each work and the meanings conveyed to viewers and the cultural history method is adopted to narrate a history that is recalled or invoked in each art. The comparison reveals that, while the South African artists were engaged in resistance art which convey political commentaries, Nigeria artists were engaged in resistance art that relayed cultural commentaries.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Onabolu had to prove that the art of drawing and painting were not culture specific because of an overall colonialist desperation to deny the creativity of the native. See Olu Oguibe 2002. Appropriation as nationalism in modern African art.

2 See Anitra Nettleton 2011, writing artist into history. She narrates some of the forces that shaped the art practice during modern African art era.

3 Trado-modern forms refers to artworks that combines traditional and modern forms in its composition, in other words artworks that represented modern forms that are influenced by traditional African forms.

4 Nettleton argues that black South African artists like artists in other postcolonial African countries show emphasis on the figurative.

5 This was Chika Okeke-Agulu’s argument on what natural synthesis meant in Nigerian context. However, the author could not locate the article afterwards for proper referencing.

6 Similarly, this citation is credited to Chika Okeke-Agulu in the same article as in note 4 but could not be located for proper referencing.

7 Mbari Mbayo which operated in Osogbo from the 1950s to 1960s was an interdisciplinary club and workshop focused on the production of contemporary theatre, dance, painting, and printmaking, and their inventive combination of Yoruba visual cultural practices with modern artistic and performance forms. See Chika Okeke-Agulu. 2013. Rethinking Mbari Mbayo: Osogbo workshops in the 1960s, Nigeria.

8 This expression on the artistic practice of Mkame was made on the Art South Africa initiative (ASAI) website.

9 A narrative that attempts to situate Mkame’s art in James’s thesis Tracing the Idea of African Vernacular-Rooted Art: A Critical Analysis of Selected Contemporary South African and Nigerian Artists (2007–2016).

10 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sule Ameh James

Sule Ameh James ([email protected]) earned his Ph.D. degree in Visual Studies at the Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa, in 2019. His doctoral thesis compares the contemporary art of Nigerian and South African artists. Based on this and new research, he is preparing a series of publications, centered on contemporary African art and visual culture.