2 Map of present-day Africa. The shading indicates the following: orange major areas of precolonial sculpture in wood; blue major areas of new postcolonial genres; blue/orange overlapping types of production
2 Map of present-day Africa. The shading indicates the following: orange major areas of precolonial sculpture in wood; blue major areas of new postcolonial genres; blue/orange overlapping types of production
The original edition of Contemporary African Art, published in 1999, was intended to cover the major developments in African art from the late colonial period of the 1950s through to the 1990s. This revised edition extends that coverage into the twenty-first century.
In the intervening years, there have been at least three important changes in the field. Firstly, the study of African photographers and their work has emerged as a burgeoning sub-field, beginning with several major exhibitions in the 1990s, and so deserves a chapter of its own. Secondly, the global thrust of the art market has swept African artists up into a much-expanded exhibitionary landscape, characterized by biennials, art fairs and auctions in cities worldwide, with a corresponding increase in local collectors and galleries. A new final chapter deals broadly with how this globalized market operates. Finally, there has been a gradual breakdown in the classificatory boundaries of who ‘counts’ as an African artist. This has had multiple causes – from the downward economic spirals of many African countries after post-independence instability, to the adoption of sweeping neoliberal reforms in order to qualify for huge international loans, and the inevitable attraction of more promising markets. The spread of borderless capital has made travel a career necessity in the eyes of many younger artists. But diasporization may or may not result in permanent forms of migration: artists increasingly live in Berlin and Nairobi, or Amsterdam and Cape Town, or Brussels and Lubumbashi. Even artists who claim a permanent home in, say, Uganda, are likely to travel to residencies in Ireland or Denmark or China. Even the poorest self-taught artist can apply to attend a Triangle workshop in a neighbouring country. All of this has loosened today’s definition of who is an African artist, and where an African artist might base themselves. This book tends toward a capacious definition, rather than an ideological or strictly geographical one.
Finally, I offer my apologies to all the important artists who are not included here. This book is not an anthology, but is arranged to address a different artistic problem in each chapter. This inevitably means that coverage is secondary to the exploration of certain key ideas. These are arranged in a roughly chronological order, beginning with late colonialism and ending with the present global art market.