Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

I found this website and thought I best bring it to your attention. http://www.africancontemporary.com/ The site has a wonderful Collection of Tanzanian artwork from a school of art, now known as the Tingatinga School. This is an important development in the art of Tanzania. The site has developed an Internet Exhibition that is not only informative but really worth a good look. The Tingatinga School Edward Saidi Tingatinga - (1932-1972) He was the origin of the naive style of painting that later take his name. Tingatinga started in 1968, and although his carrer was ended prematurely in 1972, his style inspired his five students and his followers to establish the Tingatinga school of painters that continues to florish today. This Tingatinga movement constitutes a genuine form of contemporary art, original to Tanzania.Tingatinga short lived as an artist (1968-72) but he triggered the emergence of a growing number of Tanzanian youngsters who claimed this style to be theirs and further dev...

The debate surrounding modern art in Africa has been all the rage both inside Africa and outside the continent from the beginning of the century until the last decade of the XX century. From one coast to the other, words ring out: Black Identity, African Identity, the trap of mimicry, the trap of academism, the trap of the international market, the forced marriage of tradition and modernity, the political desire for social art with a social vocation before and after the independence movement. Mixing genres is frequent between still living ritual art, popular art, urban art, recovery art and the art that certain people would like to call sophisticated. Social Anthropologists fight with too few art critics to assert a solely contextual reading. All speeches are good and accompany varied productions of varied talents. Contempt for artists who are conscious of their work has long resulted in there being seen as "sexual psychopaths sacrificed on the altar of acculturation". Attemp...

Nesbert Mukomberanwa was born in 1969 in Buhera, in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. He began to sculpt in 1987 working as an apprentice for his uncle, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, arguably the greatest Zimbabwean sculptor ever and one of the most internationally respected artists of the 'Shona Sculpture' movement, and was a most prestigious teacher. By 1989, Nesbert left his apprenticeship and established his own workshop at home in Chitungwiza. There he worked for nearly a decade, developing his own distinctive style yet at the same maintaining the Mukomberanwa attention to detail and pursuit for perfection. Each piece is meticulously worked and finished, a technique seen in all the work of the Mukomberanwa family. In 1998, Nesbert relocated to the village of Dema, south of Chitungwiza. In the tranquillity of the bush, he was liberated and free to concentrate fully on his art. Recently, he developed the 'Village Gallery', where promising young sculptors train in his workshop an...

George Hughes The African Modernist Looking at Hughes’ work one is initially struck by his spontaneity and his imaginative choice of materials for example, the use of spray paint, drawing parallels with American urban graffiti artists the application and fusion of oils, acrylics and fabric paint sends the onlooker into a quandary, even a spin. Hughes uses these numerous materials in order to permanently remain fresh but more importantly to create an interesting dialogue with himself and his audience. One thing that is glaringly apparent is his relentless artistic evolution and what makes his work so exciting is that one can draw few comparisons to other artists, either past or present. Following no particular school of art Hughes is the ultimate artistic rebel and is in fact creating a new genre as an African Modernist. The closest artist that comes to mind is Julie Mehretu originally from Ethiopia and now a true New Yorker, she also uses a variety of artistic materials but that is whe...