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Chika Okeke-Agulu co-authored “Contemporary African Art Since 1980” with Okwui Enwezor, a leading curator and scholar of contemporary art, who is also the Dean of Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute, and founding publisher and editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.

Their book “Contemporary African Art Since 1980” according to their publisher, is the first major survey of the work of contemporary African artists from diverse situations, locations, and generations who work either in or outside of Africa, but whose practices engage and occupy the social and cultural complexities of the continent since the past 30 years.

Its frame of analysis is absorbed with historical transitions: from the end of the postcolonial utopias of the sixties during the 1980s to the geopolitical, economic, technological, and cultural shifts incited by globalization. This book is both narrower in focus in the periods it reflects on, and specific in the ground it covers. It begins by addressing the tumultuous landscape of contemporary Africa, examining landmarks and narratives, exploring divergent systems of representation, and interrogating the ways artists have responded to change and have incorporated new aesthetic principles and artistic concepts, images and imaginaries to deal with such changes. Organized in chronological order, the book covers all major artistic mediums: painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, drawing, collage. It also covers aesthetic forms and genres, from conceptual to formalist, abstract to figurative practices. Moving between discursive and theoretical registers, the principal questions the book analyzes are: what and when is contemporary African art? Who might be included in the framing of such a conceptual identity? It also addresses the question of globalization and contemporary African art.

Rather than a comprehensive survey, this richly illustrated book presents examples of ambitious and important work by more than 160 African artists since the last 30 years.

This list includes Georges Adeagbo Tayo Adenaike, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Kader Attia, Luis Basto, Candice Breitz, Moustapha Dimé, Marlene Dumas, Victor Ekpuk, Samuel Fosso, Jak Katarikawe, William Kentridge, Rachid Koraichi, Mona Mazouk, Julie Mehretu, Nandipha Mntambo, Hassan Musa, Donald Odita, Iba Ndiaye, Richard Onyango, Ibrahim El Salahi, Issa Samb, Cheri Samba, Ousmane Sembene, Yinka Shonibare, Barthelemy Toguo, Obiora Udechukwu, and Sue Williamson.

We are delighted to interview one of the co-authors of this book. Chika Okeke-Agulu is an artist, independent curator and art historian with a primary interest in contemporary art, but especially of Africa and its Diaspora. Chika Okeke-Agulu is also an Assistant Professor of Art and Archeology and African American Studies at Princeton University, and editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art

MyWeku: Who inspires you the most as an artist?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: My Spiritchild

MyWeku: Do you believe creativity through paintings improves society in any way?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: I am not sure art really has the power to “improve” society. It can comment on it, question its modalities and structures, hopefully raise consciousness, and so on.

MyWeku: For what reason(s) would you buy a piece of art valued at $100.000?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: If I have the money.

MyWeku: The world as you know can be a cruel place for those who have little. How much value should society put on art?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: It depends on how well art and artists can argue for their social relevance.

MyWeku: Your book “Contemporary African Art Since 1980” co authored with Okwui Enwezor is certainly a “must read” for all those who seek to gain a fuller understanding of Contemporary African Art. Could you tell us about the inspiration behind its conception and the impact you think it will make on the African and global art scene?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: We decided the time had come to begin to make sense of contemporary African art as subject of art historical inquiry. It became clear to us that with the increasing success of African artists in the international scene, especially since the beginning 21st century, there is less interest in engaging with the work of the previous decades to which the recent work is organically connected. I cannot tell what impact our book will have; but responses to it since it came have been tremendous.

MyWeku: Defining exactly what “Contemporary” African art is can be problematic. Is “Contemporary” African art the same as “Modern African” Art and how do both differ from “traditional” African art?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: Salah Hassan dealt with this subject in his important essay, “The Modernist Experience and African Art: Visual Expressions of the Self and Cross-Cultural Aesthetics,” in the book Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace edited by (Olu Oguibe and Okwui Enwezor). I cannot unpack these terms here with a short simple answer. The bottom line is that these refer to different orders of experience by Africans.

MyWeku: The terms “traditional” African art and “tribal” African art are often used interchangeably, rightly or wrongly. Are both terms an acceptable way of describing African art of an earlier epoch?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: The words “t****” and its adjectival form have no business in contemporary writing about Africa and Africans. It is pejorative, being a carryover from the age of colonialism. When used unreflexively, it either perpetuates the colonial status quo, or reflects the user’s outright ignorance.

MyWeku: El Anatsui (Ghana), Yinka Shonibari (Nigeria), Ablade Glover (Ghana) and more recently Chris Ofili (Nigeria/Britain) have enjoyed some success in gaining access to the international art scene. There are of course many others who arguably produce great works of art, but have less recognition. Firstly, should African Artists see acceptance internationally as one of the criteria for success? If so, why aren’t more of them becoming global stars on the international art scene?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: In the age of globalization, international recognition is crucial (and this is not just in art). One reason why there are fewer African artists on the international scene is that the continent has significant structural disadvantage, by which I mean the legitimating institutions such as first rate galleries, museums, magazines, journals, and critical scholarship. In any case, even in places that have these things, it is still incredibly hard to rise to the top. And that, unfortunately, is the way things are, not just in art but in every other endeavor.

MyWeku: A prominent Nigerian British artist Chris Ofili was recently described as nothing but a “ decorator of cheap and shallow sensibility” by a well known critic – Brian Sewell. It is fair to say that global stardom will often expose artists to vehement criticisms from all four corners of the globe. Is “cultural conservatism” and “cultural confrontation” something that comes with the territory?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: Brian Sewell often talks a lot of crap. It is dunderheaded to describe Ofili in these terms, but should anyone be surprised by what Mr. Sewell’s opinion about artists of color? Incidentally, Roberta Smith, the much more respected New York Times art critic—in her February 13 essay in which she chastised major New York museums for its lack of diversity in their exhibition offerings—bemoaned the fact that the same Ofili retrospective at the Tate Mr. Sewell trashed will not be coming to New York. I will take Smith over Sewell any day. Having said that, yes, the higher in the artworld firmament you climb, the likelier that perpetually constipated critics like Sewell will want to take cheap shots at you.

MyWeku: John Peffer’s “Art and the End of apartheid” and Chris Okwonko’s “A spirit of dialogue” have been listed as some of your favourite books. Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are amongst some of the greats who used their literary works to trigger socio-political changes in Nigeria (and beyond) pre-and post colonial Africa. Do you believe the African art world (artists, curators, art historians and authors to mention a few) have or can have the same impact in future?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: The work by Peffer and Okonkwo you mention are scholarly texts, and do not belong in the same category as creative writing or socio-political treatises by Achebe, Soyinka and others like them. Peffer and Okonkwo represent fine examples of scholarly work in the field of art history and comparative literature respectively. You will need to look to the literary careers of people like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chris Abani, Helon Habila and others for the kind of impact you speak of.

MyWeku: What do you like about art history and what advice would you give to others who may want to follow in your footsteps?

Chika Okeke- Agulu: I am not sure that I “like” art history as such; I consider it necessary, particularly when you talk about Africa. There is so much work to be done in terms of mapping, and understanding the experience of art in Africa, past and present. My advice: if you have what it takes, join the fray.