Tag Archives: African Art

Recognized throughout Africa for his contemporary artworks, Yusuf Grillo has clearly made strides in the world art scene throughout his extensive career. As one of Nigeria’s most distinguished artists, his international recognition came during the 1960s and 1970s as he exhibited a collection of early works that would later become his legacy. Demonstrating his long-held commitment to education, Grillo served as the Head of Yaba College of Technology’s Department of Art and Printing for more than 25 years. An enthusiast of contemporary African art, Tunde Folawiyo is amongst the many fans of Grillo’s African-inspired works. Tunde’s website contains more information about his enjoyment for artwork and his other interests. These works continue to inspire art lovers throughout the African continent and well beyond.

Dubbed one of the founding fathers of visual contemporary art in Nigeria, Grillo experienced with a variety of techniques until he found those that best fit his artistic perspective. His mosaic and stained glass creations grace the walls of several important buildings throughout the country of Nigeria, including universities, churches, an International airport and government buildings. Grillo’s ties to Nigeria are deep-rooted. He is a member of the Zaria School, most commonly known as the Zaria Rebels. Here, he joined others to form a style of art previously obscure.

Born in the Nigerian city of Lagos, Grillo attended the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria. Here, he earned a diploma in Fine Arts, in addition to a post-graduate diploma in the field of education. In 1966, Grillo left Zaria to begin study at the Cambridge University academic hall. Later, he traveled to the United States and Germany, where he acquired new techniques that would later play a significant role in his works.

Grillo’s training in western art can be seen in many of his paintings, which combine western techniques and Yoruba sculpture. Amongst the most distinguishable characteristics in Grillo’s artworks is his frequent use of the color blue throughout his natural settings works. Their prominence has been likened to the resist-dye textiles utilised in Nigeria.

Nigeria experienced a great revolution of visual art during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, Nigerian art styles made a transition from ancient traditions to new concepts utilising western-style techniques. This new, exciting time in African art was dubbed “New African” and represented a mixture of modernism and tradition. Later, this concept developed into one called “Natural Synthesis” that became the philosophy by which Nigeria’s Art School was based. It was later renamed Ahmadu Bello University. The school’s students included popular artists such as Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko, Jimoh Akoho and Uche Okeke, who later spread out to various schools upon graduation. They established what is now known as the Zaria Art Society.

Meticulous in his craft, Grillo has been known to take months, even years to complete a painting to his satisfaction. Whilst the subject matter of many of his creative works are based on human activity, Grillo also drew inspiration from the Yoruba world. The artist was also said to draw inspiration from famed sculptor Paul Mount, who specialised in large, wooden sculptures during the late 1950s, then moved on to abstract, bronze and cast-iron works during the 1960s and beyond. A respected art teacher, Mount accepted a position in Lagos, Nigeria in 1955, where he was in charge of establishing an art department at Yaba’s technical institute.

Inspired by various genres of art, Grillo formed a style of technique that proved to be distinctive, so much so that it was copied upon the growth of his success. The figures in his paintings are often elongated – a representation of the artist’s contemporary ideals of beauty in urban settings. As such, the figures are easily identifiable, evoking grace and elegance. With African motifs and a prominence of the color blue, Grillo’s paintings evoke his personal qualities, as he is often referred to a man of great character – a leader, a teacher, an inspiration.

A man of humble beginnings, Grillo’s contributions to contemporary art in Nigeria and Africa as a whole are recognised throughout the country, but less widespread internationally. One writer, T. A. Fasuyi, described “Grilloism” as an art style that has influenced a number of artists in Nigeria. Perhaps more notable than his various artistic talents has been his unwavering commitment to education, one that has impacted countless students during his time as an esteemed teacher.

Whilst Grillo is now retired from teaching, an artist’s work is never done. The 80-year-old continues painting, though he has had to cease sculptures due to the physical demands of such work. His art continues to inspire new generations of African artists and collectors alike. Tunde Folawiyo is amongst those with an appreciation for the creative works of Grillo. With his paintings and sculptures scattered throughout museums and other institutions throughout Africa, Grillo’s distinctive creative characteristics will live on for centuries to come.

Born in Cape Town in 1953, Marlene Dumas is one of South Africa’s most celebrated artists. Today, she lives in Amsterdam, exhibiting all over the world. Her collections feature prints, paintings, collages and installations. The work of Marlene Dumas concentrates on the extreme fringes of the life cycle: from birth to death, stressing both the psychological value and the physical reality of the human body. She is one of Africa’s most acclaimed artists; her work prized by collectors the world over, including Nigerian-born entrepreneur and trustee of the African Leadership Academy, Tunde Folawiyo, who helps young Africans to realise their potential, working towards a brighter tomorrow. Internationally acclaimed Marlene Dumas is one of the greatest talents in the African art world.

Marlene Dumas was born on 3rd August 1953. She was raised on the family vineyard, just beyond Cape Town’s city limits in the Kuils River region. Her native tongue is Afrikaans. She studied painting during the 1970s, at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art, where she was exposed to the decade’s preoccupation with art theory and conceptualism. This was before the age of the television, which did not become widespread within South Africa until later that decade. Most of the art Dumas saw was in reproduction. Dumas developed a particular interest in the work of Diane Arbus. She honed her attentions on photography.

It was one of Diane Arbus’s works in particular that had a profound impact on Dumas. Arbus introduced Dumas to “the burden of image” – the complexities of representing the human form.

In 1975, Dumas accepted a scholarship to study at the Institute de Ateliers, a Dutch art foundation run by artists. She continues to live in Amsterdam to this day. Dumas explored the relationship between image and text in those formative years, working in collages, drawings and clipped photographs.

In 1984, Dumas began to focus on painting. Working almost exclusively from photographic sources such as snapshots, Polaroids, and even images torn from newspapers and magazines, Marlene Dumas concentrated on figures and heads. For one painting, she may adjust the colour, using her signature palette of greys, blue and red. For another, she may take an original image and crop it, honing in on a tiny figure in the background. In this way, Dumas removes subjects from their original context in her images, stripping them of all identifiable information. Dumas captures her subjects in their own moment in time, yet maintains enough distance that their dignity is quietly observed. She has composed pieces in a range of subjects: Pregnant Image, 1988-90, The Blindfolded Man 2007 and The First People I-IV (a collection of images of babies). Marlene Dumas concentrated on a famous writer for Death of the Author, 2003, and herself in Self Portrait at Noon, 2008.

During the 1980s, Dumas released a collection of paintings which she called The Eyes of the Night Creatures. These works explored recurring themes, including ethical and racial intolerance, particularly in The White Disease, 1985. In the late 1980s and early part of the 1990s, Dumas concentrated on the subject of babies and pregnancy in a series of works. From 1998 through 2000, Dumas worked with Anton Corbijn, a renowned photographer, on a project entitled Stripping Girls. This collaboration concentrated on Amsterdam’s peep shows and strip clubs. Corbijn exhibited his photographs in the show, whereas Marlene Dumas took Polaroids which she used as a base for her images.

In Dead Marilyn 2008, the historical and personal collide as with so many of Dumas’s portraits. In this work, a female body fills the expanse of a small canvass. The work is the precursor of a collection of paintings of weeping women, depicting grief and mourning. Dumas created the exhibition the year her own mother died. The basis of Dumas’s image of Marilyn Monroe was controversially an autopsy photograph. Dumas used smeared brushstrokes of white, grey and blue-green, creating the image in a small size with delicate rendering to make it a portrait of intimacy. The idea of celebrity, sensationalism and the mystery of the Monroe’s true persona came into question in the piece. In Dumas’s The Pilgrim 2006, she shifts her interests in public notoriety to an image of Bin Laden. His soft smile and peaceful eyes contrast almost irreconcilably with Western perception. By taking a subject in this way; by stripping them of public persona and historical significance, Dumas leaves the viewer trying to resolve their perception of the subject with the reality before them; balancing politics and identity with sometimes shocking, unsettling intimacy.

Dumas created Great Men for the St Petersburg’s Manifesta 10. The exhibition is a collection of 16 pencil and ink portraits depicting famous gay men such as Rudolf Nureyev, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, James Baldwin, Alan Turing, Leonard Matlovich, Tennessee Williams, Vaslav Nijinsky and Oscar Wilde. Each subject was persecuted, in one way or another, because of suspicion regarding their sexuality. Marlene Dumas commented at the time that the series was intended to contribute to a change in mentality within Russia, at a time of increasing legislation against homosexuality in the country.

Marlene Dumas is an avid educator, pointing out in interview the importance of having dialogue with fellow artists – that art is something you learn from people, from being around them. Dumas exhibits in museums the world over: from Amsterdam to Paris to New York. In 2008, Dumas’s painting The Visitor 1995 sold at auction for £3.1 million, making her the highest-fetching female artist alive at the time.

If you’re interested in African Artists, you should check William Kentridge out. He is best known for his drawings, prints and animated films.

William Kentridge is a South African artist. He is best known for his drawings, prints and animated films. Kentridge exhibits internationally, his works being mostly expressionist in nature. Kentridge is renowned amongst collectors of African Art such as Yinka Folawiyo Power Managing Director, Tunde Folawiyo. As a member of the African Leadership Network and fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh’s World Fellowship scheme, Nigerian-born Tunde is committed to helping young Africans realise their true potential and develop their skills; enabling Africa’s leaders of tomorrow. With his work delving into issues such as social injustice; the duality of man; politics and power and morality in Africa, it is of little surprise that Kentridge’s work is popular with Tunde Folawiyo, amongst countless other African philanthropists and forward thinkers over the past four decades.

Born on 28th April 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Felicia Geffen and husband Sydney Kentridge (both lawyers), William Kentridge attended the King Edward VII School in the Houghton district. Kentridge’s parents often represented clients who had been marginalised by the apartheid system, opening the artist’s eyes to social injustice from a very early age.

Kentridge studied African Studies and Politics at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, attaining Bachelor of Arts degrees in both subjects. He went on to study at the Johannesburg Art Foundation, leaving with a Fine Arts Diploma. William Kentridge set his sights on Paris in the early 1980s, attending L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where he studied theatre and mime. Reflecting upon his time in Paris, Kentridge acknowledges that he originally had aspirations of becoming an actor, quipping that his acting was so poor he was reduced to the vocation of artist and eventually made peace with that. Kentridge did, however, land himself some acting and directing work between 1975 and 1991, with the Junction Avenue Theatre Company of Johannesburg. During the 1980s, Kentridge found his feet as an art director, working on several television series and films.

Throughout his on and off screen career, William Kentridge continued with his art. By the mid-1970’s, he was making drawings and prints. Kentridge created the Pit series in 1970: a collection of 20-30 monotypes. He created the Domestic Scenes (a series of 50 etchings) in 1980. The establishment of Kentridge’s artistic identity are often attributed to these two collections of prints. To this day, despite his ongoing exploration of the innumerable range of artistic media, drawing and printmaking remain Kentridge’s mainstay.

William Kentridge began working on a group of pastel and charcoal drawings in 1987, based very loosely upon the Embarkation for Cytheria by Watteau. These works are considered to be some of his most important, the most celebrated of which portrays a dystopian city landscape.

In 2012, in his Six Drawing Lessons, delivered as part of the Norton Lectures at Harvard University, Kentridge used a series of large Indian ink drawings of trees found in encyclopaedia pages. Kentridge tore up the pages, then reassembled them. The trees were all indigenous to South Africa. Each work is put together like a jigsaw puzzle, then the whole piece painted together.

The artist experimented with animation from 1989 to 2003. He produced nine short films entitled 9 Drawings for Projection. The series is comprised of:

(1989) Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris

(1990) Monument

(1991) Mine

(1991) Sobriety, Obesity & Growing Old

(1994) Felix in Exile

(1996) History of the Main Complaint

(1998) Weighing and Wanting

(1999) Stereoscope

(2003) Tide Table

(2011) Other Faces

In the films, Kentridge used a succession of charcoal drawings on the same sheet of paper (conversely, in traditional animation techniques every movement is illustrated on a clean sheet). It was in this way that the films kept traces of previous drawings. William Kentridge’s films were made by a slow and laborious process of filming a drawing, making erasures and adaptations, then filming it again. Each changed version of the drawing received just one quarter of a second to two seconds on the big screen. The themes of the films dealt with political and social issues. The works were very personal; purportedly autobiographical at times, with Kentridge including self-portraits in several films.

It is a fusion of artistic mastery and the unflinching address of political/social inequalities which have seen Kentridge catapulted to the summit of the South African art world. William Kentridge works with essentially somewhat restrictive media: just charcoal and a touch of red or blue pastel. Using such a limited palette, the artist has created works of astonishing depth. A theme which runs through much of his work is the curious way in which he represents his birthplace. Kentridge does not portray South Africa as the oppressive or militant place it was for black people. Nor does he emphasise the “white-picket-fence” standard of living enjoyed by white South Africans in the apartheid era. Instead, William Kentridge presents, in the 9 Drawings for Projection series of films, two characters: Felix Teitlebaum and Soho Eckstein. The duo ultimately represent the political and emotional struggle faced by pre-democracy South Africans.

William Kentridge has exhibited in museums the world over: from the Louvre to the Volte Gallery, Mumbai; from the Metropolitan Museum, New York, to the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. London’s Tate Gallery reflect upon Kentridge’s contribution to the art world, emphasising the importance of the 9 Drawings series of films.

Irma Stern is also known as a very artistic South African artist, why not check him out?

Irma Stern, born to Jewish German parents in 1894, came from Schweizer-Reneke, a town in South Africa’s North West Province. Stern’s father, Samuel Stern, emigrated in 1891 with his brother, Leopold. They established a thriving cattle farm and trading store, but both brothers were enlisted in into the army during the Boer War. Whilst her father served with the Boer army, Irma and her younger brother Rudi were taken to Cape Town by their mother, Henny.

Once their father returned from battle, the family emigrated to Germany. Henceforth, the family began to travel frequently. It was this experience as a young child which greatly influenced Irma Stern’s development as both an artist and a person, a theme which continued throughout her adult life.

Stern returned with her brother and parents to South Africa intermittently during her childhood, though they spent the duration of the First World War in Germany. It was here that Stern decided that she wanted to become an artist. Her decision was supported by her parents.

In 1916, Stern met the Expressionist Max Pechstein through her studies in the Weimar and Berlin. He influenced her work, showing her huge encouragement. Pechstein arranged her first exhibition in Berlin. Stern returned to South Africa in 1920. Her work was not initially very well received in Cape Town. The conservative citizens struggled with Stern’s contemporary edge. Nevertheless Stern’s passion for her craft was indomitable, and by the 1940s she was recognised as an established artist, renowned by today’s art circles and collectors such as Tunde Folawiyo. As a Member of the African Leadership Network, he has an appreciation of all things African; particularly African art. The Slideshare website features an overview on African philanthropist, Tunde Folawiyo and more of his interests. Irma Stern’s travels across Zanzibar, South Africa and the Congo provided her with her a wide range of subject matter for her paintings, making her extensive collections a popular choice with fans of African art the world over.

The artist spent a good deal of time in Natal and Swaziland during the 1920s, where she produced her two seminal works: The Hunt and Umgababa. Irma Stern married Dr Johannes Prinz, her former art tutor, in 1926. Prinz subsequently went on to work at the University in Cape Town as a Professor in German. The couple parted in 1934 and divorced.

Stern’s parents purchased a house for her in Rosebank, Cape Town, called “The Firs” in 1927. This property remained Stern’s home until her death in 1966, becoming the Irma Stern Museum in 1971. The Irma Stern Museum is administered by Cape Town University. It was established by the trustees of Irma Stern’s estate. Three of the house’s grand rooms, namely the studio, dining room and sitting room, retain their original furnishings and features. These rooms demonstrate Irma Stern’s unique taste and eclectic style as a collector. There is a commercial gallery upstairs which is available for hire by South African contemporary artists. An exhibition program is held annually at the property and the gardens are open for public viewings. The museum houses Stern’s seminal pieces, Umgababa and The Hunt.

In 1931, Irma Stern visited Madeira. Stern visited Senegal’s Dakar in 1937 and the following year. Stern refused to either visit or exhibit in Germany whilst the country was in the grip of the Nazis from 1933-1945. Instead, Irma Stern spent her time in Africa, travelling to Zanzibar in 1939 and 1945. She visited the Congo several times. These exotic trips provided Stern with a wealth of creative energy. Stern published two illustrated journals based on her travels: Congo in 1942 and Zanzibar in 1948.

Throughout her travels, Stern wrote extensively, taking particular interest in the local people, the colours; spices and food and the Arab sailing dhows.

A painting from Irma Stern’s time in Zanzibar called Bahora Girl recently sold through Bonham’s, London. The piece achieved a sale price of £2.4 million. The work was an oil on canvass dating back to 1945, which came complete with its original Zanzibar frame. The subject was a local woman of Indian origin, by whose beauty Stern was greatly affected. A number of Stern’s pieces were sold by Bonham’s that day, achieving a collective sale price of £6 million.

Irma Stern is known as the Grande Dame of South African Painting. In recent years, African art has received a wave of attention from buyers made rich by the worldwide rise in commodity prices and booming shipping industry.

Stern is reported to have developed a fascination with Arab culture through her dealings with Cape Town’s Malaysian population. In Zanzibar, she truly immersed herself in the culture. She lived opposite a mosque, shopped in bazaars, took tea with the Sultana, and even attended an Islamic wedding. It is here that she painted the Arab Priest – the opening illustration for her publication, Zanzibar. She described the priest as the most distinguished Arab; a truly wise religious father. The painting depicts a man in crisp white robes, a white turban swathed around his skull cap. It is hailed as a glowing example of Stern’s artistic prowess; alive with expressive brushstrokes. It is said that Stern captured not only the sitter, but the spirit of Zanzibar itself. The piece was sold by Bonhams in its original frame. The Zanzibar frames beloved by Stern were crafted from local wooden doorways, with their intricate carvings. Arab Priest attained a price of over £3 million.

Check our next post out about William Kentridge, another South African artist.

Nnenna Okore is an artist from Nigeria, who is currently based in the US. Born in 1975, Okore took an interest in art from a young age, and after finishing secondary school, chose to study this subject at the University of Nigeria. Although she is now famed for her sculptural pieces, Okore focused on painting while studying at this institute, and only began to explore three-dimensional surfaces during her postgraduate years. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in 1999, she went on to study at the University of Iowa, and it was here that she earned both her MA and MFA.

As an art lover, Tunde Folawiyo may be aware that Okore is known for favouring discarded materials; items such as newspapers, magazines and fabric feature heavily in her work. She uses a variety of methods to re-shape and assemble these items, including sewing, waxing, weaving, tearing and fraying, aiming to create forms which mimic the intricate designs often found in nature; the finished pieces are often made up of an array of textures and patterns. The use of found objects serves as a nod to the wastefulness and excessive consumerism which plagues society, while the organic quality of the materials symbolises aging, death and decay.

Okore’s work has been exhibited in several places in London, including the October Gallery, and the headquarters of Channel 4. In addition to this, her pieces have also been displayed in New York, at the Museum of Arts and Design, and at the Goethe Institute in Nigeria. The latter is a venue that most Nigerians, including Tunde Folawiyo, are probably familiar with.

Some of her most successful solo shows include Textile, which was hosted by the Blachere Foundation Art Centre, Reflection, which was held at the Contemporary African Art Gallery, and Affrika West, an exhibition hosted in the UK at the Oriel Mostyn Gallery. Okore has also participated in several group shows, which have been hosted at the Tang Museum and the Middlebury College Museum of Art.

In 2012, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled her to spend a year working on her art in her homeland of Nigeria. She has also been featured in a number of well-known art publications, including an issue of the famous Sculpture Magazine. Currently, Okore works at North Park University as an Assistant Professor of Art.

Internationally recognised for her creative works, Irma Stern remains amongst Africa’s most revered painters. Her long career witnessed many successes, including a variety of solo exhibitions met with critical acclaim. Years after her passing, her paintings are amongst the most sought-after on the art market today. Tunde Folawiyo and other collectors of African art may regard her works as some of the most significant in the history of the genre.

Born in the small town of Schweitzer-Renecke, Stern was born to a German-Jewish mother and father. She and her brother Rudi, travelled to Cape Town with their mother after their father was held back due to South Africa’s war. After the end of the war, they returned, but this constant travel would later prove a great influence on Stern’s creative works.

Stern began studying art at Germany’s Weimar Academy during 1913, then picked up instruction from a variety of resources including that of Max Pechstein during 1917. Stern was widely associated with other German Expressionist artists of the period. Her first art exhibition was held in Berlin during 1919. A year later, she returned to the city of Cape Town with family, the very place she was initially dismissed for her artistry before her fame began to spread during the late 1930s.

Stern’s career saw her travel throughout much of Europe and South Africa, including Zanzibar and other regions such as the Congo. Her paintings were highly influenced by this adventurous travel, providing her quite the collection of personal artifacts. Whilst she refused to travel to Germany during the war, she spent much time travelling extensively through Africa. Two of her illustrated journals were published during this time with Congo in 1943 and Zanzibar during 1948.

Nearly one hundred moving solo exhibitions highlight Stern’s outstanding artistic career, with many held in Africa and other parts of Europe including France, Italy, Germany and England. Whilst her work was met with negative reviews during early exhibitions of the 1920s, she changed public opinion to become one of those most talented painters of her generation. A museum in her name was established during 1971, occupying the home she resided in for nearly four decades. Since her passing, her works have sold for millions at auction, breaking records throughout South Africa. Tunde Folawiyo and others with an appreciation for African art may continue to be inspired by the famed works of Irma Stern. Information about Tunde Folawiyo interest in art and other subjects may be found on his Twitter page.

South African artist Marlene Dumas is widely regarded amongst the African continent’s most beloved painters. Whilst her works have formed from various media throughout her career, Dumas is perhaps best known for her use of human figures to portray her point of view on contemporary issues such as race and sexuality. Her works of art have been displayed around the globe, inspiring millions of fans of art enthusiasts with her moving creations. Tunde Folawiyo and other collectors of African art may regard the works of Marlene Dumas to be amongst the most significant of the era.

Born in 1953 in the South African city of Cape Town, Marlene Dumas studied painting at Michaelis School of Fine Art in the early part of the 1970s. During this decade, the artist found herself fascinated by the photos of famed photographer Diana Arbus, who proved to be a great inspiration in Dumas’s representations of the human form. The late 1970s saw Dumas travel to Amsterdam to attend the distinguished institute de Ateliers. It was during these years that Dumas formed her own unique art style, combining media such as photographs, drawings and texts to create her works. In the years following, the artist began portraying figures and heads using photographs from the archives of a variety of personal snapshots, many torn from newspapers and magazines.

The artist’s first show of entirely paintings was comprised of nine portraits and took place at a gallery in Amsterdam during 1985. A decade later, she was chosen to represent the Netherlands at Venice’s 46th Biennale. Her first solo exhibition premiered at New Museum during 2002. During June of 2008, Dumas’s career received a significant boost in fanfare with a major exhibition at Los Angeles’s foremost contemporary art museum. The retrospective, “Measuring Your Own Grave” was widely received, later moving to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. That same year, galleries in Cape Town and Johannesburg showcased her solo exhibitions, marking a first for her homeland. Tate Modern museum, Beyeler Foundation and Stedelijk Museum are currently organising a retrospective of Dumas’s works, set to premiere in Amsterdam during September of 2014. Tunde Folawiyo and others with an appreciation for African art regard the works of Dumas as groundbreaking. Her paintings will continue to delight revelers in galleries and museums all over the globe for centuries to come.