Atta Kwami | The Afro-abstract

Atta Kwami is exhibiting in New York this week at the Howard Scott Gallery. New York is in for a real treat.

Kwahu, 2010

Here is an African Artist who really knows how to play the game. His work is screaming out to be seen on an International level. Atta is one of Africa's Greatest treasures, he has educated himself to such a high level and has a real grasp and deep understanding of what it is to be an artist.

Words from the Artist:

"The qualities I seek on my work are: clarity, simplicity, intensity, subtlety, architectonic structure, musicality (rhythm and tone), wholeness and spontaneity. So many strands inevitably manifest themselves in painting: jazz, the timbre of Ghanaian music (Koo Nimo), improvisation, arrangements of merchandise and so forth. I also see corresponding aesthetic commonalities with wall paintings and music from northern Ghana, the limited range of earth colors and the pentatonic scale of the xylophone. Poetry is able to sustain the life of language through new forms of usage. In painting it is also re-interpretation, improvisation and variation that affect innovation and development."

Grace Kwame Sculpture, 1993

I would rather a Ghanaian writer wrote this article instead of me. Somebody like John Owoo or George O. Hughes, somebody from Ghana that can sense what is happening in the world today. Finally, we have an artist that doesn't need to re-fashion African junk and recycle his backyard. No bottle tops, whiskey caps or silver or gold milk bottle-tops were used in the making and shaping of this artist. Atta is calling on art Collectors worldwide to take his art seriously. To take the African artist seriously and speaks so wonderfully clearly about the vision of building a brand new world. This is the world made of lines, boxes and seen through abstract eyes of one of the worlds leading artists; the deconstruction and reconstruction of all things Kumasi, all things from West Africa. Ghana has the brightest lights of all as the sun shines so brightly over there. Ghana is positioned on the meridian line and shares a wonderful sense of humour with the British, maybe the connection is time, we both wake up together.

Adidoe, 2010

Others speak so candidly about the Awakening Conscience of a Continent, this Exhibition in New York City is going to be an explosion of newness. It is going to knock their socks off and blow them out of their seats. This is the MOST EXCITING Exhibition that New York City has ever held, if only they could see it? If only they could see the brilliance that lies in-between the lines of paint. If only? If only? If only! We call upon writers to write, tell us what we need to know; what does Adidoe, Kwahu and Joe really mean to you in Ghana? Writers from Ghana, should be writing in the New York Times, Arts Section about the shift in our human thinking. The explanations of these words and these works must be coming out of an African's mouth...Please start to write about this amazing Artist and lead us into a deeper understanding of the black man, the African. 

Joe, 2010