ARTS MAGAZINE
Dec 1968 – Jan 1969
AFRICAN ART by Rene S. Wassing
CONTEMPORARY ART IN AFRICA by Uli Beier.
For special reasons Black [all things pertaining to black people] is now a vogue. It is therefore ironical but, let's face it, predictable to find, as one very militant Black girl told me: "... white people are always doing things for us... telling us about ourselves. They know more about Africa than we do..." The trouble is the growing need to define Black & beauty, worth, essence, etc., brings me up hard, against the fact that Negro people in the United States, until recently, have not bothered much to 'think' about their blackness. The argument goes "... we have not been allowed to cultivate, much less respect and acknowledge Black..." However there are and have been a very long time in these United States black-consciousness seats of learning, yet there is little evidence of concern with Black Africa never mind Black in the Western Hemisphere [ but this is something else, even the fact that a lot of the revolutionary spirit among blacks in this country has a strong West Indian flavor from Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X]. In fact the contrary is true. In the Arts the most energetic and adventurous actors, writers, image makers drifted 'naturally' to Europe.
It is a fact also that art education, in common with education generally, holds sway on the national imagination at the moment and my friend could not be more right in her challenging observation than in this case. For the educating here is being done almost solely by whites. The most evocative and scholarly works about African art coming on the scene are, for the most part, being produced by white people. The two books under review are much in this vein. One difference, the Abrams book is bigger and better than anything I've come across recently.
Both books are of the anthropological/social document ilk; using Art as a kind of light-shedding vehicle. By this I mean that precisely after the present fashion began both are attempting to show that the African [black man] is not after all inferior. It never fails to puzzle me just who this theme is addressed to. However, in support of this aforesaid aim the misguided and historically loaded cliché about African sculpture completely revolutionizing and influencing what we now accept as the most advanced works of our time is once again trotted out. [It might be of general interest to read, in conjunction with these now commonplace and largely unchallenged claims, what Charles Beiderman in his "Art As the Evolution Of Visual Knowledge"; has to say about primitive works, influence, and modernist dogma.]
Both books are guilty of this over simplification, but to give him his due, Mr. Wassing does glancingly admit that the thing is at least open to argument. Talking about the possible influence and discovery of such styles as Cubism & Surrealism he says, "... whether African art influenced the singularity of these styles is questionable..." not however, before stating that through this vehicle [African sculpture] "...the avant garde of the twentieth century... [found] the answer to the search that would enable the artists to break through the heavy barriers of convention and follow the path that would undoubtedly lead to the liberation of the individual..." This sound familiar. Mr. Wassing's book is a simply splendid production job – actually I don't know of an art book from the Abrams house which isn't. It is well written and absorbing with a wealth of important and useful information. Outside art I am more than a little dubious of Mr. Wassing's penchant for using terms like "the Black World" and for isolating words like primitive in quotes. In a book clearly marked Art this is humbug since in the art context such a word has a very real function. As for the Black thing, perhaps Mr. Wassing is indulging in the fashion of the times. This would be forgivable in a book of such distinction were it not for the fact this kind of thing is both avoidable and dangerous. One wonders if it's not all currying favor and pandering to something outside scholarship?
I had great difficulty convincing myself to read Mr. Beier's book as, after a glance through the dust jacket, monkey on his back and all, it was a struggle to fight the prejudice and suspicion I still hold of this kind of white man going to Africa for cultural reasons: my own gruelling exposure to this type being in London as a student. My efforts were rewarded, amply, by a solid, knowledgeable, concerned and warmly written text. The best bits are naturally first hand accounts of the activities of some of the artists with whom he was involved. I regret to report that on the whole the book irritated me and I finished it frustrated and disappointed. A minor thing which perhaps is hardly Mr. Beier's fault is the omission of certain artists, news about whose activities would have been welcome. People like Sam Ntiro, Johnaton Kingdon and my old school chum Taj Ahmed – these last two, I gather, are doing quite advanced work at present – and the late Lucky Wadiri of Nigeria. The real crux however lies in what has been accepted and what Mr. Beier must have helped foster and is now presenting as Contemporary African Art.
This book which has just been published both here and in London, with few of the works reproduced dated much before 1962 seems curiously about art some twenty years ago or more. I don't think it would be unduly hard on Mr. Beier to add that the constant harping on money ruining the native artist and the very summary and shallow dismissal of artists like Soulages and Hartung is evidence of the kind of cheap condescension one has come to expect [as a colonial product myself] from such people. It positively makes my gorge rise. There is no place here to tear into the silly chauvinistic nostalgia and essentially paternalistic axe-grinding. [PICTURE" Adebisi Akanji, Screen at Esso Gas Station [1966], cement, in Oshogbo, Nigeria.] However, I [?????????] lot of evidence [Rothko is a shining example] of roads those East African artists could have taken out of what Mr. Beier extols and which happens to be very dated indeed. I'm not saying that these artists should produce minor Rothkos [ we only have to look at any international exhibition to see the disastrous results]. But, that given the right information, encouragement and exposure these artists may well have put up a stronger contention to being Contemporary. Europe and the Slade School notwithstanding. I fear that the likes of Mr. Beier are the last people one wants the Brothers in Africa to be exposed to.
These books should be bought and read by everyone involved. The Wassing book with its essentially dramatic impact should have wide appeal and prompt deeper digging.
Frank Bowling
Frank Bowling, a Guyanese painter, has shown in Africa, London and New York and presently is teaching at Columbia University.
