Valuing African Art
Are we forgetting our heritage? The importance of valuing art
The trade and exhibition of African art on the
international market is a large scale business on a global scale, while it is
undervalued and its importanc e overlooked in many African countries.
found Friday, September 21, 2007 at modernghana.com
Art is not simply visual material; it has historically
acted as a powerful outlet for a country's social history, cultural tradition,
political views and changing civilisation.
Ghana's history has no differently been unofficially documented through
architecture, painting, drawing, woodwork and sculpture and this cultural and
social history is being traded internationally.
The world press have recognised the value and interest of documenting Ghanaian
culture but it appears to have been disregarded in Ghana. As the country alters
visually and socially there is a danger that if art is not publicised and
exhibited, the story told through it may be forgotten.
The medium illustrates opinions often controversial or radical and has
historically played a vital role in democratic freedom, in the same way as
literature, music, theatre and journalism facilitate people’s fight for
freedom by acting as often the only outlets for expression.
"Art is political” Lyle Aston Harris, one of the most famous black
photographers in the world, maintains. “I was asked by the New York Times to
illustrate modernisation in African culture and was expected to produce a
stereotype of a black man, bare foot using an I-Pod,” he said. Instead he
confronted negative stereotypes in Western media and looked for the depiction of
a real person in a real situation.
Similarly, local artist Hawa Nicoi- Olai told The Statesman “Art can behave in
serious ways, it can be used to educate those who can not read or write by
communicating through images to explain messages to the public”.
African artefacts played a leading role in the development of the world’s art
industry, initiating arguably the biggest and most significant artistic movement
in the world- Cubism. Reportedly it was a collection of African masks that
initiated Pablo Picasso and George Braque to develop the most radical and
entirely original movement of art at the time.
This was a phase of world history which heavily impacted society, defined a
whole century and facilitated further modern art movements. Africa demands no
credit for such an achievement, undermining value of both its artistic heritage
and creative present.
Museums and galleries in London, Paris, Rome, and New York among other cities
around the world exhibit sculptures and paintings originally from Africa,
including Ghana, and place high economic and cultural value on these pieces of
One of the problems restricting the integration of art in Ghanaian society is a
misconception that appreciating art and critically reviewing art is an elitist
Internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artist, and joint founder of AISS, an NGO
encouraging art in social structures, Senam Okudzeto explained, "the
general public don’t believe they have a relationship with art, not every
Ghanaian can afford to buy a piece of art, but everyone should be able to
experience it through the media, it’s not something elitist".
Nigerians are fighting for their art to be exported for fair prices rather than
bought cheaply by foreign art collectors and sold for vast amounts on the
The country has recognised the potential value in the art industry and if traded
effectively with regulations can result in the growth of an industry renowned
for generating financial benefits as well as standing as an outlet for cultural
value and documentation of a country’s history by visual means.
If Nigeria can impose regulations on the trade of its local talent, Ghana should
likewise recognise its local artists and place the rightful value in their work.
Local talents like Ablade Glover, Victor Butler and Kofi Settogee receive very
little attention from the communities they strive to serve, whilst Ghanaian
artists such as Owusu Ankomah, Senam Okudzeto and Godfried Donkor, who was named
as one of the 50 most influential Ghanaians in the UK this year, are highly
celebrated internationally for work largely inspired from their home country’s
rich culture, visual beauty and social history, but little known in Ghana
Hawa Nicoi- Olai is a young Ghanaian artist originally from Accra, who despite
having her work regularly used commercially by publishing houses, corporate
businesses and she having been commissioned to produce illustrations for the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture, considers herself unknown
outside the publishing circuit.
Her illustrative drawings and paintings are based around the events of everyday
life, from street selling to children playing, a culture which is slowly
changing and which Hawa Nicoi - Olai’s work is archiving, but without relevant
The artist told The Statesman, "It is very very important to document
Ghana’s society through art and the trends we live by everyday. Everything is
changing right from what we eat to what we wear and we need to hold our own
culture very high, it gives us our identity, it shows we can’t be anybody
She attributed the undervaluation of art in Ghana to the lack of available art
materials and lack of support for children to pursue careers in the creative
industries, "even if art is taught in schools, there is very little
encouragement, so they go into other fields rather than art which may be
something they are not as good at- then they have killed their talent", she
Another artist, 'Almighty God', a self-taught painter from Kumasi, with two
upcoming exhibitions in the US in October and artwork bought by a delegation of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, last year, is the most collected
Ghanaian artist abroad but his work is largely unknown in Ghana.
His work confronts social issues, often shocking and controversial, to bring
uncomfortable topics out in the open. The artist explained several pieces which
make powerful statements. "this one illustrates a woman having an abortion
while people passing by say they can stop the abortion, and another painting
portrays a person holding an iron bar to destroy a different person claiming to
take his soul", he told The Statesman.
Despite addressing different issues, both artists are playing an important role
in archiving Ghanaian life, historical context and social issues.
Internationally renowned Ghanaian artists include Kumasi born London based
artist Godfried Donkor, joint founder of AISS, whose multimedia visual art
incorporates painting, print making, collage, photography and film.
He is best known for his conceptually multilayered works 'Financial Times’, a
series that exhibit the subject of the black body as a commodity in Western
culture, firstly in the slave trade, then sports, fashion and sex. Mr Donkor
uses the financial pages of newspapers to juxtapose images of boxers and figures
of African women.
A short performance film ‘James Town Masquerade’ by Godfried Donkor was
exhibited in Ghana for the first time at an AISS event but the 2004/2005 film is
highly renowned in the US and the UK where it has been widely exhibited.
It depicts African performers in James Town wearing Ghanaian GTP fabric in the
style of traditional 18th century English clothing, incorporating the use of
masks from Venice and music from a Winneba choir and exploring the historical
connection between Ghana and England.
The future for Ghanaian art lies in public recognition of vital archiving
through art, citizen support of local artists and the nation taking deserved
credit for internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artists so that the rich culture
and social history can be appreciated and remembered within Ghana as well as
around the world.
Source/Credits: Lauren Taylor