Publisher's Description
To address contemporary African art is necessarily to address the
African diaspora and its attendant thorny issues of postcolonial
and identity politics: what is contemporary African art, and who
qualifies for its rubric? Contemporary African Art Since 1980 is the
first major survey of the work of contemporary African artists
from diverse locations and generations who work either in or outside
of Africa, but whose activities engage the complexities of
that continent. Assembled by Okwui Enwezor, and organized in
chronological order, it incorporates all major media—painting,
sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, drawing, collage—
as well as genres from the popular to the visionary, conceptual
to formalist, abstract to figurative, linking sensibilities in
order to erode the prevailing (and increasingly irrelevant) binaries
of center and periphery, vernacular and academic, urban and nonurban
forms, indigenous and diasporic. The book’s chronological
structure essentially pivots on Africa’s many transitions, from the
end of the postcolonial utopias during the 1980s to the economic,
technological and cultural shifts catalyzed by globalization.
Among the many contributing artists are Kader Attia, Tayo
Adenaike, Luis Basto, Claudia Cristovao, Georges Adeagbo, Samuel
Fosso, Barthelemy Toguo, Cheri Samba, Ghada Amer, Chris Echeta,
Mona Mazouk, Julie Mehretu, Hentie Van der Merwe, Donald
Odita, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Kolade Oshinowo, Olu Amoda, Sane
Wadu,Malick Sidibé, Victor Ekpuk, Yinka Shonibare, Iba Ndiaye,
Andries Botha, Candice Breitz,Marlene Dumas,William Kentridge,
Robin Rhode, SueWilliamson, Amir Nour,Moustapha Dime,
Fatima Tuggar, Richard Onyango and Berry Bickle.