African Modernists and the Winds of Change

Scholars explore how mid-century political shifts sparked a push for Black aesthetic freedom. Adopting the exhibition West Wind as a springboard for a discussion around several artists and their practices in the mid twentieth century, this panel gathers a select group of scholars and cultural mediators who have helped shape and nuance our understanding of modernism in Africa through their involvement in key exhibitions and publications. The conversation will touch upon how artists were propelled by the winds of change that came from Ghana and philosophies like the African Renaissance and African personality, finding in these concepts, and certain inherently modern creative principles, such as Sankofa and natural synthesis, fuel for their production and reason to retrieve from the past, whilst renewing for the future. Be it on stage or in galleries, the discussion will explore this period of awareness and yearning for material and aesthetic freedom for Black people across the world, and its continuity in our time. The panel will be mediated by Nancy Dantas, 1-54 Presents’ guest curator. Panellists Zoé Whitley, Art Historian and Curator Elsbeth Court, Art Historian, Educator and Curator