‘This Is a Moment They Have to Grab’: How Ghana’s Art Stars Are Building a Movement to Outlast the Speculators and Market Frenzies
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Loading... - Martha Adu
- 18 Apr 2023
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Cornelius Annor is among a group of Ghanaian painters who have taken the market by storm in recent years—and now are giving back.
Ghanaian artist Cornelius Annor wants to make his father and namesake proud. Cornelius Annor, Sr. was a well-known sculptor within his native Ghana, but he was never able to see his work shown outside of Accra. His son’s career, on the other hand, has had a decidedly different trajectory.
Annor recently opened his second solo show, “A Fabric of Time and Family,” at New York’s Venus Over Manhattan (open until April 22). For anyone newly discovering the artist, the show’s title carries something of a clue to his work and place in the contemporary art market.
Annor is among a group of Ghanaian artists whose expressive paintings of Black figuration have taken the market by storm over the past five years. Others include Gideon Appah, Kwesi Botchway, Otis Quaicoe, Emmanuel Taku, Amoako Boafo, and Issaq Ismail.
Notably, all began their careers either on the roster or in the residency of Accra’s Gallery 1957, and most went to Ghanatta College of Art and Design, which closed in 2015. All have incurred a bit of speculation drama in the market. And their distinct aesthetics have enraptured the world—kicking Black figuration into heavy rotation and moving the conversation about African contemporary art beyond geopolitical borders.
But what happens when two very different art ecosystems collide? Annor offers an example of how artists and international market players are thinking sustainably amid a frenzy for Ghanaian painting.”
Boafo’s staccato, finger-painted portraits first ignited the market furor for African figuration and the shady and territorial conflict it incurred (here’s a refresher). “I don’t know exactly what I have to do to stop them from selling works at auction,” Boafo said at the time. Read More…
