Authentic/Ex-Centric: Conceptualism in Contemporary African Art

by Annie E. Coombes, Olu Oguibe

Against the musty stereotypes and prejudices that still consider Africa a dark continent full of nameless, Third World nations always striving but never managing to catch up with the West, "Authentic/Ex-Centric" positions Africa as the source of many of the ideas associated with European modernism. From Cubism's radical abstraction to 70s performance art and its use of ritual, shamanism, and magic, the influence of African art has long been underappreciated. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name held to critical acclaim on the fringes of the 2001 Venice Biennale, "Authentic/Ex-centric" offers a glimpse of the ways in which African and African Diaspora artists have interpreted and translated the aesthetic and social experiences of post-colonial Africa into new idioms of artistic expression, and argues for their proper location in the broad narrative of global conceptualism.
Edited by Salah Hassan & Olu Oguibe. Essays by Siemon Allen, Sally Berger, Annie E. Coombes, Rory Doepel, Okwui Enwezor, Maryline Lostia, Gilane Tawadros, Christian Viveros-Faune. Afterword by Els Van Der Plas & Damien Pwono. Artists Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Willem Boshoff, Godfried Donkor, Rachid Koraichi, Berni Searle, Zineb Sedira, Yinka Shonibare. 6.5 x 8.5 in.
106 color, 12 b/w illustrations

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002