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…
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Bouabré, Frédéric Bruly (1923–2014)
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré is one of the best-known contemporary African artists. His drawings first gained international exposure in 1989 when exhibited in the groundbreaking show…
Modernism in Australia and Oceania
(Previously published as 'The Experience of Aboriginality in the Creation of the Radically New' in Ross, S. (ed.) (2014) Modernist World, Abingdon: Routledge.)1
KuNgoni Centre of Culture and Art
Founded in 1976 by Canadian White Father Claude Boucher, a Christian missionary, the KuNgoni Centre of Culture and Art is a non-profit organisation located in…
La Création du Monde
A ballet inspired by a creation fable in Blaise Cendrars’s Anthologie nègre (1921), La Création du monde (The Creation of the World) was produced by…
Tekle, Afewerk (1932–2012)
Afewerk Tekle was Ethiopia’s leading modern artist, famously known for introducing Western techniques of painting and sculpture to Ethiopia, and for his government commissions under…
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…
Keita, Fodéba (1921–1969)
Fodéba Keita was a poet, playwright, musician, choreographer, impresario, anti-colonial activist, and statesman. As the leader of several musical bands, author of poems and essays,…
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…
Spaces for Modern Art in North Africa
In the twenty-first century, works of modern art appear in national museums, private museums, galleries, and independent exhibit spaces across North Africa (defined here as…
Beier, Ulli (1922–2011)
Ulli Beier (b. 1922, Glowitz, Poland – d. 2011, Sydney, Australia) was a Polish-born publisher, writer, translator, lecturer, curator, theatre producer, and particularly a promoter…
Van Vechten, Carl (1880–1964)
Carl Van Vechten (b. 17 June 1880, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; d. 21 December 1964, New York City) was an American writer who wrote about music,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Douglas, Aaron (1899–1979)
Aaron Douglas was an African American artist and educator often referred to as the father of “Black Art.” He was a leading figure of the…
Koraïchi, Rachid (1947--)
Born in Ain Beida, Algeria to a Sufi family, Rachid Koraïchi’s art is often framed within a tradition of Sufi spirituality in which aesthetics and…
Boghossian, Alexander (Skunder) (1937–2003)
Alexander Boghossian, better known as Skunder, was one of the most prominent figures of African modernism. Born in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in 1937 to…
Achimota School
The majority of Ghana’s modern art pioneers received their art education at Achimota School on the Gold Coast, now Ghana. Achimota School contributed in an…
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,…
Natural Synthesis
The concept of Natural Synthesis was set forth by members of the Zaria Art Society. They called for the merging of the best of Western…
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…
Battiss, Walter (1906–1982)
Walter Battiss was a leading South African painter, printmaker, author, educator and academic, well known for his non-representational oil paintings, impressionistic water colours and symbolic…
National Union of Plastic Artists (UNAP)
The National Union of Plastic Artists (UNAP) exists in many decolonized nations as a professional organization, an artists’ union, that elevates the work of formerly…