Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

Please take a look at this talk with Kwame Anthony Appiah. To find out more go to Amazon.com

"A wonderfully crafted collection of essays."--In My Father's House "Appiah's book on the place of Africa in contemporary philosophy powerfully exposes the dangers of any simplistic notion of African identity in the contemporary world....Tellingly, his reflections upon the calling of philosophy and the relation between post-traditional and not-yet-modern African culture(s) offer a welcome perspective on the increasingly shrill debates over "multiculturalism" that rend the academy. The epilogue on his father's funeral alone more than justifies the whole book."--Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Common Knowledge "Interesting and thought-provoking."--Safro Kwame, Lincoln University "Montaigne invented the modern essay;...Appiah has the brilliance to extend it."--The Village Voice "A groundbreaking--as well as ground-clearing--analysis of absurdities and damaging presuppositions that have clouded our discussions of race, Africa and n

The Ethics of Identity is wonderfully straightforward. It does just what it proposes to do. It explores the demands of 'individuality,' and rejects extreme understandings of what autonomy requires. It considers the relation of personal and group identity to morals and ethics... It moves on to the links between identity and culture... Appiah has some very wise and original things to say about the inevitability of a liberal state affecting the inner life of its citizens. He ends with a defense of rooted cosmopolitanism. Not only is the argument direct; it is untechnical, transparent, and unaggressive... Appiah concentrates on a double question: how we acquire an individual identity by acquiring a social identity, and how we find--and make--an identity that is not a straitjacket. In pursuing this question, Appiah begins to explore one of the most fascinating and difficult questions in moral philosophy, the relationship between general principles and particular attachments... He sh

In a world more interconnected than ever, the responsibilities and obligations we share remain matters of volatile debate. Weighing in on a discourse that includes both visions of "clashing civilizations" and often equally misguided cultural relativism, Ghana-born Princeton philosopher Appiah (In My Father's House) reclaims a tradition of creative exchange and imaginative engagement across lines of difference. This cosmopolitan ethic, which he traces from the Greek Cynics and through to the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, must inevitably balance universals with respect for particulars. This balance comes through "conversation," a term Appiah uses literally and metaphorically to signal the depth of encounters across national, religious and other forms of identity. At the same time, Appiah stresses conversation needn't involve consensus, since living together mostly entails just getting used to one another. Amid the good and bad of globalizat

This massive catalogue of the International Center of Photography's 2006 exhibition of contemporary African photography gives a thought-provoking introduction to how African artists have engaged with the international art world while sustaining their uniquely African points of view, whether they live at home or abroad. With artists hailing from South Africa to Morocco, the exhibit is a visceral reminder of the vastness and variety of a continent that colonial history has misunderstood and objectified, according to exhibit curator Enwezor. His introductory essay, although difficult reading for those unfamiliar with academic art-speak, provides an indispensable guide to this work, giving a context for what otherwise might overwhelm or mystify. He challenges assumptions of "Afro-pessimism" propounded by literature and the media that "focus on the exotic potentials of both man and animal," equating colonial photographer and African with hunter and game. In contrast,

Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace by Olu Oguibe Editor, Okwui Enwezor Editor Image by Yinka Shonibare OBE About the Author | Olu Oguibe has taught at the University of London and as the Stuart Golding Professor of African Art at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Uzo Egonu: An African Artist in the West and co-editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. Okwui Enwezor is Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the Artistic Director of Documenta XI, Kassel, Germany, 2002, and was the Artistic Director of the 1997 Johannesburg Biennial. He is the publisher and founding editor of Nka. Book Description In the past decade contemporary African art has been featured in major exhibtions in museums, galleries, international biennials, and other forums. African cinema has established itself on the stage of world cinema, culminating in the Ouagadougou Film Festival. While African art and visual culture

Art after Appropriation: Essays on Art in the 1990s Editorial Reviews About the Author John C. Welchman is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of California, San Diego. Book Description Beginning with the first comprehensive account of the discourse of appropriation that dominated the art world in the late 1970s and 1980s, Art After Appropriation suggests a matrix of inflections and refusals around the culture of taking or citation, each chapter loosely correlated with one year of the decade between 1989 and 1999. The opening chapters discuss, among other things, how the second world culture of the USSR gave rise to new visibility for photography at the Union`s dissolution in 1989, and explore how genres of ethnography, documentary and travel are crossed with fictive performance and social improvisation in the videos of Steve Fagin. Review by Paul from New York I can`t say I`ve been delighted about much art-writing the last 5 or 6 years. Welchman gets 5

Art and Artist of the Transvangarde To be published by the October Gallery. Launch date 16th December, 2000 This book containing authoritative essays by leading artists and art critics will be an important critical introduction to the notion of a developing transvangarde, or trans-cultural avant-garde. Contributors include: John Russell Taylor, Robert Loder, John Allen, Petrine Archer-Straw, Andrew Dempsey, Georgina Beier, Sajid Rizvi, Simon Njami, Ulli Beier, Elisabeth Lalouschek, El Anatsui, Wijdan Ali, Eddie Chambers and Gerard Houghton amongst others. The word ‘transvangarde’ is a shorthand way of indicating artists who, coming from one particular culture ultimately belong to all, and are not to be bounded by culturally-specific labels such as ‘African sculptor’ or ‘American painter’ – they are trans-cultural artists, catalytic agents of the transvangarde. Thus, the transvangarde can perhaps best be described as an ongoing multi-cultural experiment in the visual arts that can only

Editors with the Paris-based publisher Revue Noire, Fall and Pivin have put together a volume that will inspire and inform experts and neophytes alike. Including 500 color and 51 black-and-white images, this book provides a depth and breadth no other volume can boast of on the subject of contemporary African art. Breathtakingly thorough and overwhelming in its comprehensiveness, this volume contains a representative selection that covers all genres and reaches into every region of sub-Saharan Africa. The undertaking is enhanced by the penetrating insights of several distinguished writers, whose masterly essays recall history, provide context, and interpret uniquely African phenomena while also revealing the universality of selected works, presenting them as expressions of a modernity that is concretely African but has roots in the interconnectedness of all humans. The brief descriptions and histories accompanying each work are invaluable guides. Recommended for public and academic libr

The Nsukka artists, a loosely affiliated group associated with the University of Nigeria, demonstrate the rich and sensitive face of creativity under the rapidly changing conditions of present-day Africa. This collection is weighted toward writings by African artists and art historians and is informed by an African perspective on contemporary art. In a major addition to the literature on contemporary African art, contributors explore the questions of identity faced by African artists, in both Africa and the West; broach the topic of the sometimes conflicting theories about art and the art market; and examine the tensions between traditional and postmodern approaches to making and viewing art. The Nsukka Artists and Nigerian Contemporary Art offers pioneering and insightful material for the emergent field of contemporary African art and aesthetics. The Nsukka experience is of broad significance, not only for Africa in general, but as one aspect of a major third world contemporary art mo

SKOTO GALLERY 529 West 20th Street, 5FL. New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212-352 8058 info@skotogallery.com www.skotogallery.com Untitled I, 2008, mixed media on wood panel, 32cmx78cm Faces Aimé Mpané Recent Work February 12th – March 21st, 2009 Skoto Gallery is pleased to present Faces, an exhibition of recent mixed media work by the Congolese-born artist Aime Mpane. This will be his second solo show at the gallery. The reception is Thursday, February 12th, 6-8pm. Aime Mpane’s mixed media work consistently chronicle contemporary historical upheavals in post-colonial Africa, including the present turmoil in his homeland and forces us to confront its impact on the lives of children, the most vulnerable in society and re-imagine the innocence of youth as victim of war. Internal conflicts, ethnic strife and socioeconomic catastrophes have increased tremendously in recent years over control of the natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and consequently, children have becom

South African Artist | Samson Mnisi Johannesburg to New York - Curated by Kimberli E. Gant January 29 – May 17, 2009 Johannesburg to New York is the first retrospective of the collaborative work between South African artist Samson Mnisi and New York artist Cannon Hersey. Combining their various perspectives on the changing cultural dynamics of South Africa and its emergence onto the world stage, these artists have created mixed media imagery that is socially conscious while also being visually stimulating. Mnisi incorporates ancient Zulu symbolism and rituals with Hersey's captivating photography to give viewers insider and outsider perspectives on contemporary South African societies. OPENING RECEPTION Thursday, JANUARY 29, 2009 7-9pm Please join us for the first viewing of Johannesburg to New York with featured artists Cannon Hersey and Samson Mnisi. The reception will include live music by DJ Eddie Ed, South African cuisine from Brooklyn's own Madiba restaurant and a select

Africa Now: Contemporary African Art Wednesday 8 April 2009 New Bond Street Entries now invited for our auction of Africa Now: Contemporary African Art Georges Lilanga di Nyama | Tanzania Georges Lilanga di Nyama (Tanzanian, 1934-2005) Huyu bwana ame bebwa a napelewa osptali, acrylic on canvas (detail) Estimate: £3,000 - 5,000 William Kentridge | South African William Joseph Kentridge (South African, born 1955) Refuge in the library, oil on canvas Estimate: £100,000 - 150,000 To arrange a free and confidential auction valuation or for further advice on buying or selling at auction, please contact: Hannah O'Leary travel@bonhams.com +44 (0) 20 7468 8213 We are currently consigning works for our April 2009 auction. The sale will include the very best of post-war and contemporary art from across the African continent in various media including painting, sculpture, and drawing. Of particular interest are works by artists including El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, George Afedzi Hughes, Jimoh B

Title: Gold Digger Artist: George Afedzi Hughes Material: Oil on canvas Size: 30inches x 24inches Date: 2009 Gold Digger | No Guts, No Glory Author: Joe Pollitt On a cold late January afternoon I became, once again, inspired by contemporary African art and by the same artist that always inspires me, George Kwesi Afedzi Hughes. We had been furiously exchanging passionate words on issues of humanity and the rights of passage and then George drops a bombshell. I opened my email and gasped, “Gold Digger” – This will be the painting that changes everything. The simple tongue-in-cheek look at the hypocritical international art market; this painting drives a wedge straight through the heart of the Establishment. The British Art World – The marketplace of people, ideas and paint; where powerful expressions from the souls of individuals are exchanged for notes of paper. A perverse place in the world were names like Hirst, Herring, Basquiat and Warhol are bought and sold like slaves but their su