Modern and Contemporary African art is at the forefront of the current curatorial and collector movement in today’s art scene. This groundbreaking new book ‘African Artists: From 1882 to Now was created in collaboration with a prestigious global advisory board, represents the most substantial appraisal of contemporary artists born or based in Africa available.

The mammoth hardback showcases artists from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities who were born or who have lived across the continent. The bigger and predicted names like El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, Lubaina Himid, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Robin Rhode, as well as lesser-known names from across Africa, with stunning and surprising examples of their art paired with insightful texts that demonstrate their contribution to the painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image, and performance art. Each artist is represented by one iconic artwork of theirs and is paired alongside a specially commissioned short text written by one of over 50 art experts.

Featuring an introduction by Chika Okeke-Agulu, the new book from Phaidon will organise 316 artists from 51 countries selected by a panel of art historians, critics, curators and other specialists in the field. Covering 140 years of African art, the book charts production from the continent which has been historically under-acknowledged in the global north and its artistic institutions. The book differs from those which are on a similar subject because it aims to cover the continent in its entirety as opposed to sectioning the art of the continent off into geographical locations, such as North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

The academic Okeke-Agulu is a professor of African and African Diaspora Art at Princeton University; he pens an introductory essay that hopes to elucidate the history of how modern and contemporary African art has been presented and written about in recent decades. The essay thus raises issues surrounding identity, representation and the place of the work of African Africans in the global art world. Joseph L. Underwood, assistant professor of Art History at Kent State University, provides a glossary of terms, art groups and movements.

Advisory Panel: Alayo Akinkugbe, Kavita Chellaram, Raphael Chikukwa, Julie Crooks, Tandazani Dhlakama, Oumy Diaw, Janine Gaëlle Dieudji,  Ekow Eshun, Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba, Joseph Gergel, Danda Jaroljmek, Omar Kholeif, Rose Jepkorir Kiptum, Alicia Knock, Nkule Mabaso, Lucy MacGarry,  Owen Martin, Aude Christel Mgba, Bongani Mkhonza, Riason Naidoo, Paula Nascimento, Simon Njami, Robert Njathika, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi,  Chika Okeke-Agulu, Hannah O’Leary, Sean O’Toole, John Owoo, Brenda Schmahmann, Mark Sealy, Yasmeen Siddiqui, and Joseph L. Underwood.

Purchase your copy here

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga: Fragile 5, 2018. Courtesy of Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga and October Gallery

Watch curator and writer Ekow Eshun, Head of Modern & Contemporary African Art at Sotheby’s Hannah O’Leary, and artists Sokari Douglas Camp, Samson Kambalu, and Ibrahim Mahama take part in an unbarred conversation on the history of modern art on the continent and the rising global interest in a new generation of African artists here

Header Image: Kudzanai-Violet Hwami: Family Portrait, 2017. Courtesy of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Tyburn Gallery.