New Currents, Ancient Rivers

New Currents Ancient Rivers: Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change. By Jean Kennedy, Foreword by Robert Farris Thompson, Introduction by Ekpo Eyo. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992

New Currents, Ancient Rivers presents 150 artists of Sub-Saharan Africa and is the culmination of twenty years' research. Painters, sculptors, fiber artists, printmakers, and filmmakers from Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa are the main focus. Kennedy examines artistic development and shows the many ways the artists meld elements from contemporary life, the legacy of colonialism, foreign technology, the natural world, and the past to create art that may be divorced from the original purposes of ritual but that still embraces traditional rhythms. The author also describes the influence of the oral and literary traditions on the visual arts.

An artist, educator, and curator, Jean Kennedy was a professor of ethnic studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts. She lived in Ethiopia and Nigeria and promoted over 100 art exhibitions. In 1969 Kennedy organized one of the first exhibitions of contemporary African artists' work in the United States. She died in 1991.

"Nobody is better informed than Jean Kennedy... If anyone can write the necessary book on contemporary African art, it is she... A major contribution to our knowledge of African art." - John Povey, Editor African Arts

African Modernism in America

A groundbreaking examination of modern African artists and their relationships with American artists and cultural institutions in the mid-twentieth century, edited by Perrin Lathrop

Between 1947 and 1967, institutions such as the Harmon Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and historically Black colleges and universities collected and exhibited works by many of the most important African artists of the mid-twentieth century, including Ben Enwonwu (Nigeria), Gerard Sekoto (South Africa), Ibrahim El-Salahi (Sudan), and Skunder Boghossian (Ethiopia). The inventive and irrefutably contemporary nature of these artists' paintings, sculptures, and works on paper defied typical Western narratives about African art being isolated in a "primitive" past.

Providing an unprecedented examination of the complex connections between modern African artists and American patrons amid the interlocking histories of civil rights, decolonization, and the Cold War, this fascinating volume reveals a transcontinental network of artists, curators, and scholars that challenged assumptions about African art in the United States and encouraged American engagement with African artists as contemporaries

open_in_newYale University Press

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club

The first book to feature Jacob Lawrence's Nigeria series, this richly illustrated volume also highlights Africa's place as a global center of modernist art and culture, edited by Kimberli Gant and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba

This revelatory book shines a light on the understudied but important influence of African Modernism on the work of Black American artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). In 1965, a New York gallery displayed Lawrence's Nigeria series: eight tempera paintings of Lagos and Ibadan marketplaces that were the culmination of an eight-month stay in Nigeria. Lawrence's residency put him in touch with the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, an international consortium of artists and writers in post-independence Nigeria that published the arts journal Black Orpheus.

This volume and accompanying exhibition place the Nigeria series alongside issues of Black Orpheus and artwork created by Mbari Club artists, including Uche Okeke, Jacob Afolabi, Susanne Wenger, and Naoko Matsubara. Essayists explore the influence of Africa's post-colonial movement on American modernists and developing African artists; the women of the Mbari group; and the importance of art publications in circulating knowledge globally.

open_in_newYale University Press

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Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Spirit in Ascent

Published by Ovuomaroro Gallery, with introduction by the art historian, Dr. Dele Jegede, and foreword by J. P. Clark-Bekederemo

The Spirit in Ascent is a documentation of paintings and engravings made over a period of eleven years, 1967 to 1978, by Bruce Onobrakpeya. The artworks cover a wide range of subjects, people, folklore, religion, philosophy, myths, legends, landscape, architecture, adventure, etc. Almost all the subjects are drawn from our physical and cultural environment. Inspired by the awareness generated by the post-independence search for African personality, they all have a central theme of looking inward for relevance and fulfilment in a changing world.

Wosene: Beyond Words

By Richard B. Woodward, Charles Donelan, Nathan Vonk, John Strawn, and Wosene Kosrof, published by Sullivan Goss gallery

A richly illustrated book on the art and life of artist Wosene Worke Kosrof. The handsome hardbound volume attempts to sum up a career begun fifty years ago when the artist graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, where he then joined the faculty.

open_in_newSullivan Goss

Powerful Voices: Africa and the Americas

Art catalog for the exhibition Powerful Voices: Africa and the Americas, curated by Mimi Wolford

open_in_newavailable for view online