Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present
Live Virtual Auction, 19 February 2024
Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present
About the SessionFrom Thomas Baines to Jake Aikman, Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present will showcase art by pioneering modernist and trailblazing contemporary artists, spanning 175 years of visual landscape painting on the African continent. This comprehensive auction reveals a nuanced understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, and environmental contexts that have shaped artistic representations of the landscape. Through an examination of various themes, the auction seeks to engage viewers in a dialogue that transcends time and space, connecting past representations to contemporary perspectives. The auction attempts to engage with the diversity of artists that have shaped and continue to shape the depiction of Africa through time.
The auction invites viewers on a captivating journey through the artistic expressions that mirror the multifaceted nature of African terrain. Through meticulous curation and insightful analysis, the catalogue aspires to be a valuable resource for scholars, art enthusiasts and anyone eager to embark on a thought-provoking exploration of Africa’s rich and complex artistic heritage.
Curatorial Voices
Recognising the dynamic discourse surrounding African Landscape, both past and present, the auction features texts by invited contemporary curators responding to the auction selection and themes. As external voices, they provide critical insights into the complexities of the landscape theme. By amplifying these contemporary perspectives, the exhibition seeks to bridge the gap between traditional representations and the ever-evolving discourse on the role of African art within the global art market.
Azza Satti, Independent Curator, Kenya
Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director of the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), Nigeria
Camilla van Hoogstraten, Head of Sales, Latitudes Online
Ugoma Ebilah, Curator, Gallerist & Founder of Bloom Art
Nkgopoleng Moloi, Independent Curator, South Africa
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About this Item
signed, dated 1994 and numbered 15/25 in pencil in the margin; dated, numbered plate 56 and inscribed with the title on the reverse
Notes
Helga Kohl spent six years studying sites in the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop before she took her first analogue photograph for this renowned series. In Family Accommodation I, dunes bring the harsh beauty of rippled patterns of wind on sand into this former home. The central door stands ajar, with sunlit rooms behind it, but entry, invoked by the diagonal above, is prevented by the sand. The affirmation of built space being reclaimed by nature is also a testimony to the departure and displacement of the persons who once lived there. The pathos of the lingering memory of a home, which can no longer be entered, embedded in the image, may reveal Helga Kohl’s own loss in leaving Silesia to enter Germany as a refugee after World War II.
Family Accommodation I was in the Kolmanskop series exhibited at the African Biennale of Photography in Mali in 2005. It was chosen as the main promotional photograph for the exhibition. As a result, it was used on the cover page of the cultural section of the Le Monde newspaper in Paris. This photograph was also selected for inclusion in A World History of Women Photographers by Luce Lebhart and Marie Robert.
Exhibited
African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Les Rencontres de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, 6th Edition, 2005, illustrated in colour on the front cover of the catalogue.
Literature
Luce Lebhart and Marie Robert (2022) A World History of Women Photographers, English translation, London: Thames & Hudson, another example of the photograph illustrated in colour on page 332.
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