Veteran artist Ablade Glover measures spaces on a canvas with a palette knife, then dabs on vibrant blue paint while the morning light pours into his Accra studio.
The 84-year-old artist, educator and founder of the Artists Alliance Gallery in Ghana’s capital has won national and international recognition for his work.
He set up the gallery 25 years ago and moved it to its current location, a three-story building on the beachfront 11 years ago. The premises are open to the public, offering local people and tourists the chance to see contemporary art, mostly from Ghana itself.
Photo: AFP
When Glover started out, there was little support for local artists and most needed to hold down day jobs to make a living, but in recent years there has been a huge swing. More artists are making a living from their work as a result of galleries like Glover’s, festivals, collectors and art professionals.
One of Glover’s works hangs in Seth Dei’s private gallery, on a quiet street in a leafy suburb of Accra.
The 73-year-old businessman has been an avid supporter of Ghanaian artists for several decades. He has seen them struggle and slowly build up their reputations.
Photo: AFP
He said he would much rather have a painting by a Ghanaian in his living room than a Picasso.
“I like to be surrounded by paintings that I can understand, that reflect who I am,” he said, looking at Glover’s rendering of a forest in vivid orange and red.
The work is one of about 550 pieces of art spread between his home, gallery and in storage.
Dei, who cofounded Ghanaian fruit export company Blue Skies, started collecting local art in 1993 and says, at that time, artists were not well-supported.
“The artists in our society found themselves a bit ignored and lonely and in the society as a whole we didn’t have a lot of people buying art,” he said.
He did what he could to help, buying art and encouraging the artists to keep producing.
“It got to a point where artists would come and say, ‘I painted this and I think you should have it in your collection,’” he said. “Even if I didn’t have money I would pay it off, little by little.”
As a result, he saw the careers of Wiz Kudowor, Larry Otoo and Kofi Setordji build up to the point where they have international reputations.
“People are getting used to the idea of pricing works in USD [US dollars], which would have been impossible a few years ago, and art prices are rising,” Dei said.
The increasing popularity of Ghanaian art is a double-edged sword, for a lot of it has left the country, as expatriates or companies buy works.
Glover said he wants to see a public institution invest in keeping work in Ghana for Ghanaians to appreciate, hoping the government will step in and create a national art museum.
While he and Dei have their spaces to exhibit — and for Glover, to sell — they are keen for the government to take a similar interest. Both said creating a national art gallery would be a good place to start.
Dei said he would be happy to see his collection form part of it, so everyone can enjoy the nation’s talents.
Nana Oforiatta Ayim has been promoting Ghanaian artists through curating exhibitions, a mobile museum and working to develop artists since 2002. The writer, art historian and filmmaker has held exhibitions in Ghana and Britain.
“I had seen the older artists do their work here, but [they] didn’t have such successful international careers,” she said. “So, my whole point was I want them to have the same start as an artist in London would.”
She and Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye earlier this month said that Ghana would have a pavilion at the Venice Biennale in May.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not