Antubam, Kofi (1922–1964)
Kofi Antubam was an influential and pioneering modern artist in Ghana. His realistic, narrative scenes of idealized African life, depicted in wall paintings and mosaics,…
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Ben Abdallah, Jellal (1921--)
Jellal Ben Abdallah is a Tunisian artist and illustrator based in Sidi Bou Saïd. He studied at the Lycée Carnot in Tunis. His early drawings…
Okeke, Uche (1933--)
Born as Christopher Uchefuna Okeke in Anambra State, Nigeria in 1933, Uche Okeke is a founding father of Nigerian Modern Art. As one of the…
Samb, Mamadou Pape (1951–2014)
Mamadou Pape Samb, better known as Papisto Boy, was a Senegalese street artist celebrated locally and internationally. He moved to Dakar as an orphan of…
Nwoko, Demas (1935--)
Across the spectrum of fine art and design, Demas Nwanna Nwoko has made his mark as a central contributor to a neo-traditionalist philosophy at the…
Kumalo, Sydney (1935–1988)
Sydney Kumalo (1935–1988) was an important early black modernist working primarily in cast metal sculpture and drawing. As an artist and educator, Kumalo’s contributions were…
Acogny, Germaine (1944--)
In a career that has spanned over forty years, Germaine Acogny has contributed to modernism in dance by merging culturally situated West African dances from…
Capoeira
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian movement practice that has been categorized as national sport, folklore, martial art, and dance. Although capoeira has been considered a game…
Van Wyk, Christopher (1957–2014)
Born in Baragwanath, Soweto, Chris van Wyk proved an influential figure on the South African literary scene. Associated with the Black Consciousness movement, his volume…
Ngatane, Ephraim Mojalefa (1938–1971)
Born in 1938 in Maseru, Lesotho (then Basutoland), South Africa, Ephraim Ngatane was a painter and jazz musician affiliated with the first generation of modern…
Wenger, Susanne (1915–2009)
Susanne Wenger was an Austrian artist and an instrumental figure in the history of Nigerian modernism. Born on July 4, 1915 in the city of…
Kamel, Youssef (1891–1971)
Youssef Kamel is an Egyptian painter renowned for his impressionist landscapes of the countryside and views of medieval Cairo. As one of the leading figures…
Indigenous Modernisms
Indigenous modernism is not to be confused with earlier ideas of modern Indigenous art, though they do to some extent pre-empt it. In the mid-20th…
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is an art museum in Harare dedicated to collecting, preserving, and promoting Zimbabwean visual culture. Though the collection focuses on…
Laubser, Maggie (1886–1972)
The painter Maggie Laubser occupies an important space in South African art history. Her evolution as an artist was greatly influenced by her initial European-style…
Cecil Edwin Frans Skotnes (1926–2009)
Cecil Skotnes (b. 1926, East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa; d. 2009, Cape Town, South Africa) was a print-maker, woodcarver, and educator who played a…
Ainslie, Bill (1934–1989)
Born in 1934 in Bedford, Eastern Cape, South Africa, William (Bill) Stewart Ainslie was a painter and educator, and the founder of a number of…
Kofi, Vincent Akwete (1923–1974)
Vincent Akwete Kofi was born in Odumasi-Krobo, Ghana. After training at Achimota College, which had the first and foremost art department in West Africa, he…
Kappata, Stephen (1936–2007)
Stephen Chipango Kappata was born in Zambia in 1936 to Angolan migrant parents who had fled Angola during the Portuguese wars of conquest during World…
Kacimi, Mohamed (1942–2003)
Mohamed Kacimi was a significant Moroccan modernist artist who rose to prominence in the 1970s. His paintings were semi-abstract, and while a large part of…
The Oshogbo Group
Between 1962 and 1966, after Nigeria gained Independence from Britain, a group of artists emerged in the Yoruba town of Oshogbo in southwestern Nigeria. They…
Mokhtar, Mahmoud (1891–1934)
Mokhtar deftly blended Pharaonism with neoclassicism to create modern, nationalist sculpture. Born in 1891 in Tanbara, he enrolled in the first class at the École…
Ngwenya, Malangatana (1936–2011)
Malangatana Ngwenya was born in 1936 in Matalana, in what was then the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. He is Mozambique’s most important artist and one…
Desta, Gebre Kristos (1932–1981)
Gebre Kristos Desta was one of the most influential artists to emerge from the Addis Ababa Fine Arts School in Ethiopia in the 1960s. Best…
Vohou Vohou
Vohou Vohou refers to a group of artists from Côte d’Ivoire who came together at the beginning of the 1970s. The main members were Youssouf…