The Minstrel Show

I found this on the Internet via Youtube and it really made me think about the way in which the black man is portrayed in society. What is needed is more positive imagery and a progressive mindset.




We must look towards the American Civil Rights Movement and start to reshape our thinking. To seek out the positive and the progressive and to build on the efforts made.

America's culture is based around the cowboy and Hollywood and the film industry or elaborate musicals on Broadway. This can't be the culture worldwide as each country of Africa is unique in it's development and what represents the country.

Kenya is a great example as the tourist industry has played an enormous role in it's shaping of the country. The colour of Kenya is like a rainbow with animals, white hunters and Maasai worriers with bows and arrows. A similar history of cowboys and indians can be recorded by film directors of Kenya in regards to the British vs the Kenyans but unlike America the Kenyans won.

Art For The People

A Rake's Progress,  Tavern Scene c.1735 London, Sir John Soan's Museum

Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants

c.1750-1755  London,Tate Gallery

Dr Gus Casely-Hayford shows how our sense of identity was changed forever by the most distinctively British artist this country has ever produced: William Hogarth.

Until the 18th century, the only vision of Britishness that was available in our art was for and about the toffs. But in the 18th century a revolution occurred: a revolution in ink and paint rather than blood. For the very first time, it was possible to look at our art and see people who are identifiably 'us'. It's all thanks to Hogarth.

No other artist looked at Britain in the way that Hogarth did. There's no one in the art of Europe like him. Hogarth was born poor in London, to whose teeming streets he turned for inspiration throughout his life. Hogarth's London, by far the biggest city in Europe, was not only a great subject for the artist; it was the crucible in which British identity was forged.

Gus has a personal fascination with this story because in 1748, his ancestor, William Ansa, arrived in London from Africa. William had left the Gold Coast, where his father was a wealthy trader, for England to seek his fortune. But the ship's captain had tricked him into slavery and he had spent four years working on a sugar plantation in Barbados.

His case became a cause celebre. The good people of London petitioned for William's freedom and by the time he eventually got here, he was already famous. Gus has always wondered what William might have seen and felt in London. He finds the answers in the life and work of Hogarth.

Uniquely among artists at the time, there are black people everywhere in Hogarth. For Gus, it's an acknowledgement that the lives of people like William Ansa are part of British history too.

Hogarth's inclusive vision of British identity seemed horrifyingly vulgar to the ruling classes of his day. On the whole, the artistic elite shunned the rowdy life of the streets. They wanted a more elegant, chaste vision of British identity. Hogarth wanted art that depicted Britain in all its ugly, rude reality.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-genius-of-british-art/4od#3128576

Art of Yinka Shonibare | Diary of a Victorian Dandy - 1998 Collection

Quakers funded by Child Labour of West Africa

Stacey Dooley looks into the child labour issue surrounding the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast. These are the main countries where Cadbury's, Rowntree and Hershey's source their cocoa from. The striking thing about this documentary is that it seems to have unknowingly, open up a can of worms. Numerous uncomfortable questions should be raised to Cadbury's and all the other chocolate companies. Maybe we should look elsewhere and more at those who are behind the Chocolate Companies: the Quaker Movement. The issues of child abuses and exploitation should really fall on the table of the Quaker Movement Worldwide, which has been largely funded for generations by chocolate money. Joseph Rowntree, John Cadbury and Milton Hershey are all Quakers, so in effect, this religious movement has all but solely been funded by money from child labour of West Africa. What is more concering is that the other famous groups, whose Founders are known Quakers have turned a blind-eye to these rather clear human rights abuses. Organisations such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Greenpeace. Why have they failed to mention these rather obvious violations of human rights and child abuses that have continually occurred within this region of Africa; an area within the world that Amnesty, Greenpeace and Oxfam have direct interest in? The question I ask myself is, does Africa really need these Organisations or do these Organisations need Africa and has Charity become the new Chocolate?

Please take a look at this remarkable documentary with the wonderful, Stacey Dooley, all about the Cocoa Industry in West Africa, which has inadvertently kicked up a hornet's nest..

Max Ernst

As I look closer into works of art being created in West Africa and in other parts of Southern Africa, I am beginning to see similarities to various artists of recent times. One such artist is Max Ernst, whose work is similar to many artists I know, especially from the Anglophone countries of Africa; such as Ghana; the Gambia; Zambia and Nigeria.

Take a look:

Matter of Record: Peterson Kamwathi’s First Solo Show in London

Gallery: Ed Cross Fine Art, The Hive Projects, 20 Buckle Street, London E1 8EH
Dates & Times: October 20th – November 20th 2010
Wednesday – Sunday, 12pm – 6pm
Open until 9pm for First Thursdays on November

Peterson Kamwathi (b.1980) is one of Kenya's leading visual artists. His powerful works are created in response to specific national and global socio‐economic and political phenomena.

Sitting Allowance Series by Peterson Kamwathi | Charcoal on Paper | 2009

Events such as the botched 2007 Kenyan General Elections that brought the country to the brink of civil war and the long and tortuous process of establishing a new post‐colonial constitution.

In his new "queue" works, the artist explores the meaning of queues in varying local and international contexts from Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Kenyans waiting patiently in line to cast their votes.

The works are devoid of narcissism. Kamwathi's motivation flows from a sense of belonging and duty to his society and wider humanity and the world. Artist in the tradition of story teller, as recorder, questioner and harbinger.

Matter of Record, Peterson Kamwathi's first solo show in London, will bring together works from the last four years ‐ woodcut prints and plates, and charcoal drawings.

The exhibition will be opened by renowned Ethiopian curator Meskerem Assugued.

Biography of the artist

Peterson Kamwathi, born in Nairobi in 1980, is one of Kenya’s best regarded young artists and is now establishing himself as a major name in contemporary African art. His work combines clear conceptual elements and rich content with technical mastery. 

His main body of work has been in printmaking where he is an acknowledged master of the woodcut process, though more recently he has broadened his oeuvre to create several series of charcoal and mixed media works, culminating in his “Sitting Allowance” installation which is almost epic in its scale documenting the grim realities of the bungled Kenyan 2007/8 elections. 

A substantial portion of his work has been concerned with the iconography and process of the first Kenyan constitutional referendum 2005 which he explored through the medium of woodcut. In a series of works, he uses the bull as the main symbol representing his country Kenya and the issues taking centre stage during this important period of her history.

Sitting Allowance Series by Peterson Kamwathi | Charcoal on Paper | 2009

 “I view myself as a part of my society and as such I’m accountable to the society. Being an artist in this society extends beyond my immediate environment to include the world. In my work I strive to address and document issues that affect and impact my country, my continent and now the planet.”

Solo Exhibitions

2009 Sitting Allowance, The Goethe Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

Constitutional Bulls Series, World Museum, Liverpool, UK

2007 Le Rustique, Nairobi, Kenya

The GoDown Art Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

2005 Tuska Center for Contemporary Art, University of Kentucky, USA

2002 Ngong Racecourse Restaurant

Group Exhibitions

2010 Dakar Biennale, Official Programme

Space, Johannesburg

St Louis Cultural Festival, Ed Cross Fine Art, S Louis, Senegal

Witness: The Spectre of Memory in Contemporary African Art, Ed Cross Fine Art at

Edinburgh Art Festival

2009 Probe – Group Show, Curated by Simon Njami, GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

Stereotypes – Group Show, Kuona trust, Nairobi, Kenya

2008 Africa Now, Washington DC, USA

2006 East African Printmaker's Exhibition, The GoDown Arts Centre

Printmaking Exhibition, Ramoma Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya

2005 Exhibition of Kenyan Prints, part of Africa 05, Bankside gallery, London, UK

2004 Off the Main, New York, USA

Edition One (printmakers exhibition), National museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya Art, Selena Gallery, University of Long Island, New York, USA

Two Faces of Love (two‐man exhibition), Le Rustique, Nairobi, Kenya

2003 Festival Mundial, Tilburg, Holland

Insights into Kenya, Le Rustique, Nairobi, Kenya

BBC Antiques Road Show, Karen Blixen Coffee Garden, Kenya

2001 Constitutional Review Exhibition, National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

Art Affair, The Village Market

2000 Best of Kuona, E.A. Contemporary Art Gallery

Art Affair, Ramoma Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya

1999 Hanging Around, E.A. Contemporary Art Gallery

Residencies

2009 Art Omi International Artists Residency, Columbia, New York

Reijkademy Residency, Amsterdam

2006 Printmaking residency, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK

London print studio, London, UK

Thupelo international artist’s workshop, Rorkes Drift, South Africa

2005 University of Kentucky Kenya artists in residence program, Lexington, Kentucky. USA

For further information:

Ed Cross
Mobile: 07507 067567
E‐mail: ed@edcrossfineart.com
Website: www.edcrossfineart.com

Kwame Bakoji is in the Shed | Southampton

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bakoji/122314031156735?ref=mf

His work is worth discussing as he brings colour, technique and an honesty back to Contemporary African art.

Palmer Hayden | Harlem Renaissance

Palmer Hayden, Untitled (The Carousel Wharf) (detail) (n.d., signed lower right, watercolor on paper, 18 x 23 ¾ in.)

http://www.cwow.org/see/feature.php?f_id=284&s_id=2&c_id=


THIS THURSDAY:

Two watercolors by Palmer Hayden, the famous Harlem Renaissance artist, will be included in Swann Galleries, Inc.African-American Fine Art Auction on October 7, 2010 starting at 2:30p.m. at 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010 (212-254-4710).

Palmer Hayden, Untitled (The Carousel Wharf) (detail) (n.d., signed lower right, watercolor on paper, 18 x 23 ¾ in.)

OCTOBER 7, 2010: PALMER HAYDEN AUCTION
Two watercolors by Palmer Hayden, the famous Harlem Renaissance artist, will be included in Swann Galleries, Inc. African-American Fine Art Auction on October 7, 2010 starting at 2:30 p.m. at 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010 (212-254-4710). The Benny Andrews Foundation, Inc. of Litchfield, Connecticut donated the original, signed watercolors entitled Girl with Cat and Untitled (The Carousel Wharf) to support cWOW's educational programs for youth such as ArtReach, City Murals, and Newark New Media.

Nene Humphrey, President of The Benny Andrews Foundation, said, “The Foundation selected City Without Walls for its first major award, because of the innovative ways that cWOW uses arts education to connect with urban youth.”

Palmer Hayden (1890-1973) was among the most celebrated painters of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. He served in the U.S. military during World War I, worked in Harlem and Paris between the Wars, for the WPA afterward. David Driskell wrote that Hayden was "one of the first painters to offer a candid, if somewhat controversial, interpretation of black life" in the anthology Harlem Renaissance: The Art of Black America (New York, NY: Studio Museum of Harlem, 1987).

Benny Andrews (1930-2006), the nationally renowned artist and activist who worked to spread the Civil Rights Movement to the art world in the 1960s, created the Foundation in 2002 to support projects designed to bring art enrichment to a diverse audience. "The Foundation will help to level the playing field in the art world," stated Andrews, "it will be a community-based effort that will allow artists and art professionals to help each other."