Abstract
This chapter reviews the impact of colonialism on African art and identities, especially in the emergent modernity of African artists such as Gerard Sekoto (1913–1993), Ben Enwonwu (1917–1994), Gazbia Sirry (1925–), Afewerk Tekle (1932–2012), Irma Stern (South Africa 1894–1966), and Iba Ndiaye (1928–2008). The unfolding of colonial rule differed in various regions of Africa and impacted the development of new visual languages for modern African art in these contexts. The artists selected represent these regional differences in their approach to artistic practice and questions of modernist identity. I use their careers to investigate discourses of modern art in the colonial era, and to search out points of convergence in how these discourses unfolded in their national spaces and transnational engagements.
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Ogbechie, S.O. (2018). Art, African Identities, and Colonialism. In: Shanguhyia, M., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59426-6_18
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