Click to buy Print Edition Home Page African Writing Online Home Page  
HomeAbout UsNewsinterviewsMemoirsFictionPoetryTributesArtReviews


  Abubakar Ibrahim
  Arja Salafranca
  Austin Kaluba
  C. Mark-Beasant
  Chi Onyemelukwe
  Chris Mlalazi
  Chuma Nwokolo
  Cynthia Price
 
Dibussi Tande
  Dike Okoro
  Diran Adebayo
  Egya Sule
  Elizabeth Joss
  Fiona Jamieson

  Gertrude Makhaya
  James Currey
  Jarmo Pikkujamsa
  Lakunle Jaiyesimi
  Lauri Kubuitsile
  M. M. N'Dongo
  Megan Hall
  Melissa de Villiers
  Mildred Barya
  M.Mashigoane
  N Ayikwei Parkes
  Nourdin Bejjit
  Obe Mata
  Patrick Iberi
  Petina Gappah
  P. Makhanya
  Phindiwe Nkosi
  Raisedon Baya
  Rosemary Ekosso
  Sachdeva Gaya

  Tanure Ojaide
 


          Credits:
   Ntone Edjabe
   Rudolf Okonkwo
   Tolu Ogunlesi
   Yomi Ola
   Molara Wood

African Writing Archives


   

       

     
 

Angaza Africa | Author: Chris Spring | Publisher:    Laurence King | ISBN: 9781856695480 | 1st Published: 2008 | 336 pages | Price: £25.

 
 

Johannes Phokela's Tender Loving Care


Art from Angaza Afrika
Duppy Shadow by Eugene Palmer Man With Briefcase by Adelino Mate Untitled 2006-7; Etching, Sugar lift, Softground, Chine colle and aquatint; Mohamed Bushara
Zero Canyon by Julie Mehretu  
           

Little Kadogo, by Cheri Samba

Grandmother and Granddaughter (No Mystery, 2007) by Pompilio Hilario (Gemuce)   Dysfunctional Family, by Yinka Shonibare   Somehow Different, by Owusu Ankomah
 

Chris Spring's new book on African art is a 336-page compendium of contemporary practice in Africa.The brief introductory section showcases group practices from communities such as the Fantasy Coffins of Teshie, Ghana, and other art movements from East, through West, to North Africa.

However, the book is primarily about individual artists, the major thrust of the book being to introduce the reader to the author's view of African art. For a book that attempts to cover continental Africa with a sampling of the works of some 63 artists, this can only be a personal collection, speaking as much to the taste of the curator as to the variety of the art on the continent. This is especially so because the artists featured are sometimes no longer working in Africa. Yet, the work that has been assembled within these pages depicts a comprehensive mix of paintings, sculptures, installations and performance art from an intensely vigorous pantheon. Bruce Onobrakpeya, El Anatsui, Chris Ofili.. Those who come to this book with entrenched ethnographic expectations from African art will have their sop, but the collected artists have moved in quirkily distinct directions with both brilliance and individuality.

The quality of the art reproductions succeed for the coffee-table, but the insightful commentaries that accompany them also provide a sustained philosophy of art as the artists grapple with all the big issues. The 7 million idle guns left over after the Mozambican civil war engage four artists, Kester, Fiel dos Santos, Hilario Nhatugueja and Adelino Mate, who worked on Bishop Sengulane's Swords into Ploughshares project, recycling small arms. The work of South African artist Willie Bester is also consciously political - from the recycled metal sculpture, For Those Left Behind, and the vigorous mixed-media piece, Transition. Congolese, Cheri Samba explores this tradition with his Little Kadogo (Child Soldier) and La Chulte du 3e Baobab. Yet, the haunting pieces are intensely personal. - Like the dreaminess of Gemuce's Grandmother and Granddaughter, or the regal, sphinxlike intricacy of Mohamed Bushara's Untitled, 2006 etching - which was also the cover art of 's debut print edition.

The icons of African art are represented here alongside their less famous - and by this evidence - not less talented compatriots. From Jane Alexander's unsettling mannequins to Yinka Shonibare's hilarious ones. From Algeria, through Sudan to Uganda... it is barely possible to take the pulse of African art in 336 pages but Chris Spring has done so sensitively and with curatorial flair in this important book.

 

Copyright © African Writing Ltd & respective copyright owners. Enquiries to permissions@african-writing.com.