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| A thing or two (not) to say, oil pastels and acrylic on canvas, 2020 |
There is an overt exploitation of curiosity and desperation in the African art market. The curiosity is on the part of the Western world who incidentally have the wherewithal to explore the whims of their curiousness (which isn't peculiar to them anyways; man in general is a being driven by a longing to know and to do. It's why we have made all the human progress we have). The desperation is largely the bane of African artists and art markets, keen to capitalize on the influx of interest from the Western world.
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| I am misconstrued, charcoal and acrylic on canvas, 2020 |
It is no news that these artefacts have since found their way into pro-western museums, but what is interesting to take note of is the attendant disinterest of the average young African artist of the 21st century in the art of his fathers asides the capitalist interest, as opposed to western interest which is both capitalist and appreciative. It seems to me that the western world sees African art and appreciate African art more than Africans do. This has fed a culture of subtle exploitation where European and American collectors come to Africa, buy art whether in craft markets, directly from artists or from middle men, take back to their home countries, set up exhibitions and sell for astronomically higher prices than were obtained in Africa. Western curiosity in the mystery surrounding such art does beef up the value of such art. Now, that's not all that bad, we'd think, except we begin to look at it within the African context. How much do we as Africans appreciate the mystery that comes from here which incidentally has become mystery for the most part because we haven't paid as much attention as we should have to the history of what we do as much we we pay attention to its capitalist contemporeality?
We do have artists like Cezanné and Picasso to thank for a renewed curiosity, Western or African, as they were some of the leading avant-garde artists of the modern art world who not only took a serious interest in understanding African art but also in importing its tenets into their work, particularly Picasso throughout his long, prolific life starting with Protocubism. He is credited with the discovery of Primitivism but this is like saying Mungo Park discovered the Niger River. That, anyways, is part of a skewed, long narrative of the documentation of discovery and rediscovery which I would not want to go into now. My current emphasis is on the fact that somehow, through the life work of several artists such as Pablo Picasso (who revealed the aesthetic importance of African masks and art vis-a-vis the prevalent naturalism in Europe at the time), as well as the brewing nationalist drive of the first half of the previous century, local interest in Art has seen consistent proliferation through the decades that ensued.
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| I need a little faith by Àrà Dẹ̀ìndé, ballpoint pens on leather, 2019 |
Conversations about the repatriation of African artefacts in British, French, Portuguese etc museums have gained intensity down the years. Restoration has been underway. However, my fear is for the young African artist challenged by the raging ocean of globalisation. I have nothing against globalisation except within the context of its stylised perpetuation of either the ignorance or belittled appreciation of African ideals by Africans, and the continued support for the existing curiosity-desperation dichotomy. The young African artist is faced with the pressing need of making a living and this desperation isn't wrong but rather not channeled well in the sense of unserious consideration for posterity. The most recent global developments and advances in technology and the speed of life and thought feeds a culture of immediate gratification. This works well in making sure the African art market stays relevant through a budding of art auctions and exhibitions on and off the continent, but it behooves the young millenials in Africa to learn more about where we're coming from so that we can pave a unique way into the future, one void of the many dynamics that fuel this current comedy of errors.
©Àrà Dẹ̀ìndé
February 7, 2020