Is African art really the next big thing?

Contemporary African art is suddenly much more visible. I've already mentioned that the Royal Academy Summer Show made a big feature of the work of the Ghanaian El Anusi, whose work was also featured in Christie's exhibition. Tate Modern has just exhibited the work of two African artists, Ibrahim El-Salahi, originally from Sudan but now living in England, and Meschac Gaba, born in Benin, but trained in Nigeria and now living in the Netherlands. Is this part of a wider trend? (Though whether it makes sense to talk about "African" art, when Africa is such a large and diverse continent I will leave to one side for the moment.)

In the past, western audiences were more interested in traditional artifacts from Sub-Saharan Africa, which were exhibited in ethnographic museums rather than art galleries and could achieve high prices in the European and American markets. Contemporary African art did not really take off, and the reason is surely not difficult to discover - "art follows the money" and Africa's relative underdevelopment meant there was a limited number of local art collectors no real local art market. Economic development has fostered the appearance of many wealthy local collectors, particularly in Nigeria and South Africa. This has come a bit late for El-Sahahi, who is in his eighties, but the other two have achieved international reputations while still young.

Gaba's work consisted of a series of installations (which have been bought by the Tate) called "The Museum of African Art". These cover a series of rooms which represent a study library, an African market, a living room (including a piano which visitors are encouraged to play), a games room and his own wedding. I saw the show in the school holidays, and large numbers of children were enthusiastically interacting with the exhibits. I particularly like the "money tree", a tree in a pot with fake bank notes attached to the branches. The intent is playful and satirical rather than aggressively challenging. The work clearly shows a debt to Dutch dadaism, which makes it seem less original than that of El-Salahi. I enjoyed the installations, but I did not find them as thought-provoking as I had expected.



One of the settings from The Museum of Contemporary African Art

El-Salahi's work is quite different - his drawings and paintings are of great delicacy, often in the browns and creams of the Sudanese landscape, the people usually indistinctly indicated rather than detailed. Some very effectively use Arabic letters for decorative effect.  He trained in the UK and chose to return to Sudan after college, but his college style was not understood there and in response he developed the style shown at the Tate. El-Salahi became a political figure after Sudanese independence, but fell foul of the regime and was detained and tortured. He subsequently returned to Britain. This experience is referred to in the work, but his art still retains its lyrical, rather weightless, feel. It is highly fitting that this powerful and highly original artist is at last receiving international recognition.



El-Salahi, Vision of the Tomb (1965)

Comparisons may be invidious, but I found El Anusi's bottle top hangings more original and more "African" than the two artists shown at Tate Modern; an intriguing use of locally sourced detritus which can be interpreted on a number of layers. El-Salahi's work I find the most beautiful and thoughtful of the three. Gaba's is the most playful and challenging, but I felt it was also the most derivative.

It is interesting to speculate how much two British artists of Nigerian parents might have paved the way for this interest in Africa in the UK. Both Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare were born and trained in England (though the latter was brought up in Nigeria), but there are African references in their work which may have encouraged UK audiences to connect Africa with contemporary art.

It's difficult to say if contemporary African art is really on the up. On one hand, Bonham's - currently the only London auction house which runs stand-alone sales of African art - reported world record prices for a number of African artists in its May sales, and African art was given a big boost when the Angolan pavilion won the Venice Bienniele this year. On the other hand, Chinese art was very hot a few years ago but has now reached a plateau; increasing popularity cannot be guaranteed in the longer term, although (as in China) individual African artists may make a permanently good career out of it. Maybe this is more of an expression of the increased willingness of London to acknowledge contemporary art which does not originate in Europe or America, perhaps it is even a symptom of Euro-American art running out of steam. But personally I'm more than happy to see what the rest of the world has to offer whatever the reason for its appearance.