The African Well



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Exhuming Gluttony: A Lover's Requiem

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I am going back a bit now to 1996 to take a look at a project undertaken by architect and artist. I am interested in role of the architect in regards to modern art. There has been a lot of talk about the 4th Dimension coming out of places like Brooklyn, Berlin and London. This idea is not new, in fact it goes back as far as the beginning of the last century with the Supremism art movement in Russia founded in 1913 by Kasimir Malevich. The talk at the moment echoes ideas and thoughts of Russia just after the 1918 Revolution and thoughts of a new society of social equality. As the world faces economic depression so thoughts are focused on areas of greater importance, that of spiritual freedoms and as our general interest in consumerism depletes so our interest in ephemeral matters increases. The architect has to deal with the elements of wind, sound and light when constructing a building and these elements are an interesting dimension as yet untapped in modern art. Want interests me is h...
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KUBA DESIGNS FROM CENTRAL AFRICA - CONGO

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A Bakuba woman weaving a textile Kuba Textiles Kuba textiles are unique in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , formerly Zaire , for their elaboration and complexity of design and surface decoration. Most textiles are a variation on rectangular or square pieces of woven palm leaf fiber enhanced by geometric designs executed in linear embroidery and other stitches, which are cut to form pile surfaces resembling velvet. Women are responsible for transforming raffia cloth into various forms of textiles, including ceremonial skirts, ‘velvet’ tribute cloths, headdresses and basketry . Raffia Cloth In Kuba culture, men are responsible for raffia palm cultivation and the weaving of raffia cloth . Several types of raffia cloth are produced for different purposes, the most common form of which is a plain woven cloth that is used as the foundation for decorated textile production. Men produce the cloth on inclined, single-heddle looms and then use it to make their clothing and...
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Uche Okeke: ‘Works on Paper, 1958-1993’

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Modernism in mid-20th-century drawings from Nigeria: Above, Uche Okeke’s “Design for Iron Work I,” from 1959; and “Okpaladike and his Obu,” from 1961. Courtesy of the artist and Skoto Gallery  Article written by Holland Cotter JAN. 29, 2015 Source: NY Times  Histories of Modernism are constantly changing as scholars come to realize its global breadth and local particularities. The marketplace is slower on the uptake. Although New York has a few galleries specializing in early-to-mid-20th-century Asian work, Skoto Gallery in Chelsea remains, more than two decades after it opened, the sole full-time outlet for comparable work from Africa. And it gives us some Modernism-merging-into-contemporary basics in a thumbnail survey of works on paper by the influential West African artist Uche Okeke . Born in Nigeria in 1933, Mr. Okeke was, in the 1950s, a founding member of the Zaria Art Society, a group of academically trained experimental artists who joined Western medium...
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