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| Linden Museum in Stuttgart is well known for mounting
exhibitions of traditional, indigenous, cultural, historical,
contemporary and modern art works from other continents apart
from Europe. Among others, the museum has an excellent
collection of modern African art. In the period from 15th
July till 26th September 2004, the museum presents
an exhibition titled “Die andere moderne Afrikas” (The
„other“ Modern African Art). AFRITOPIC attended the
exhibition and discussed with the Africa expert/curator of the
exhibition, Dr. Hermann Forkl. He spoke about his fascination
for African art and explained the classification as well as
the relationships between the exhibited art works.
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| I find the ironical expressions in African art very
fascinating. These expressions are found in a variety of
African art. Whenever I visit Africa, It is always a beautiful
sight for me to view works of art on the roadsides, on
buses/lorries or on the wall of a barber’s/hairdresser’s
shop while traveling in a car. The immense diversity of art
styles from different regions of Africa is overwhelming.
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| Art by Althinoe
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| This
exhibition focuses on a relatively small collection of 140
modern African art works from 22 countries, South of the
Sahara. These include contemporary art works of the 20th
century, ranging from paintings from West African countries
like Nigeria and Togo to the Makonde sculptures from Tanzania
and Mozambique.
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| Art
by Afäwärq Mängäša |
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| Dr. Hermann Forkl |
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| The traditional African art is usually created for a
purpose. Art works are used for religious ceremonies,
traditional festivities, medical/healing rituals, status
symbol and other traditional or social needs of the region in
which the work of art is created. Over the years, with the
growth of interest in African art, modern African artists have
developed the traditional art in a way that would serve their
needs as well as the art collectors’ market. Example of such
works of art, are figurative paintings that are done as
commissioned work for clients and paintings depicting
particular services offered by a business owner. |
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| The themes of the figurative paintings vary from social
habits,
lifestyle, celebrities to political issues. Typical political
placards in this exhibition are displayed by the paintings of
the Ethiopian artist, Afäwärq Mängäša, which deals with the presidency of
Mengistu in Ethopia. Paintings depicting services are commonly found in
hairdressing and barber shops, showing different styles of
hairstyling. Traditional medical services also employ this
class of artwork to showcase their expertise. The paintings
are generally done on wood in rectangular or circular formats. |
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| Art
by Michael Ayodele |
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| The development of this form of African art originated from
the Igbo region in Nigeria in the 1950s. Since then, the style
has been emulated in other West African countries and its
influence on other artists could be found as far as Mali. Over
time, regional styles have been developed and through the
impact of national art schools as well as contacts to the rest
of the world.
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| Art
by George Lilanga |
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| The influence of the African-American style
could be found in some of the paintings showing hairstyling.
While individualized artistic styles characteristic of
paintings by K. Kosivi Fe´do from Togo for example, as well
as local styles are relatively easy to come by, ethnical
styles are very rare. The exhibition also shows works of
renowned African artists such as Michael Ayodele who was a
typical scholar of the Oshogbo school in Nigeria. Michael
Ayodele was devoted to making the traditional scenery and
cultural rituals the core themes of his work. In his artworks,
which are predominantly in ink, he gives the viewer an insight
to the Yoruba traditions. Another set of artworks are those of
Mugalula Mukiibi, a graduate of Margaret Trowell School
of Fine Arts at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and
Keíta Mori, a graduate of the Art School at Poto-Poto
in Congo-Brazzaville. It is interesting to know that the
Poto-Poto scholars abide by the ideology of portraying only
village and festival scenes in their artworks. Another
well-known artist represented in this exhibition is George
Lilanga from Makonde, Tansania. A sculptor turned painter, he
uses square format for his colorful work. Eduardo Saidi
Tingatinga developed this format in the 1960s.
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omasi2-m2.bmp) |
| Sculpture
by T(h)omasi |
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| Art
by Mugalula-Mukiibi |
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| In the sculptures section, the exhibition presents a
representative collection of modern Makonde sculptures. These
sculptures, developed in the 19th century in
Tanzania and later in the 1920s in Mozambique, still have
elements of the traditional pre-colonial styles. They are
predominantly figurative, masks and combination of different
elements in naturalistic style. Some of the sculptures express
the socio-political situation or trauma of war experience in
the region. We also present a collection of plastic art we
term “Afro-kitsch”. The works were created between
1907-1909 by Ali Amonikoyi, a Yoruba caster. Re revealed
that the objects were souvenirs produced by Amonikoyi by the
lost-cast method for his European client, who he knew had a
bad taste.
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| "Afro-kitsch"
by Ali Amonikoyi |
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| African art was never stagnant. It was always in
continuous development. But despite contacts to other cultures
and the teachings of modern art schools with European or
American influences, African artists have never neglected the
basic African traditions in their works of art. This principle
could be seen as the main connecting thread in all works
presented at this exhibition. |
| Afritopic
2004. |
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