Contemporary Art of Africa

Written in an era of increased awareness of the power and importance of all non-Western forms of art, this book provides an introduction to African art. In contrast to the traditional primitive forms that are associated with Africa, it presents the brilliantly coloured and sometimes uncoventional work of 60 artists. The artistic landscape of Africa is extremely diversified. Using a range of forms and media - painting, drawing, sculpture and other objects - the artists demonstrate the vitality of age-old traditions, as well as making use of concepts imported from Europe and elsewhere: figuration, expressionism, abstraction and murals. This selection of African art is accompanied by biographies of each artist, with appendices and analyses of their work from 29 contributors - including curators, collectors, natives of the countries involved and artistic figures such as Louise Bourgeois and Ettore Sottsass.