The New Figuratism

Abstract

During the early 1970s when copper prices were on the rise, Zambia’s economy began to boom. Lusaka attracted more tourists, and souvenir art became a thriving outlet for small entrepreneurs. Craftspeople and traders from neighboring countries considered Lusaka a key distribution point from which to market their wares. Among them were Kamba commercial carvers from Kenya, Makonde artists and traders from Tanzania, Sénégalese middlemen, and artisans, ivory workers, and painters from Zaire. The climate of expansion for artists and craftspeople migrating from other countries and from Zambia’s rural areas was enhanced by an initial lack of official concern about regulation of the tourist art market.’ For several years, these migrant artists and their middlemen dominated Lusaka’s street trade in curios.

To study technique means to make it, to invent it. To take the raw material each time anew and twist it into shape. It must he made to serve a specific purpose. The same technique must never be used again. Each time it must be made new and fresh. A stock of set phrases won’t do.

Robert Henri, 1901