Sammy Baloji

Atta Kwami, Mask Painting  1992

Mask Painting 1992 is a square painting that features several multi-coloured rectangular and square forms. The composition is centred around a four-by-four grid-like formation of rough squares that create a series of rows and columns across the canvas. The larger squares are painted in repeated shades of orange, red, green and yellow, and the smaller squares are painted in muted tones of blue, white and pink. The central grid of multi-coloured squares is framed by thick strokes of navy blue and purple, themselves framed by a thin edge of light blue paint. In certain areas of the composition, the grid-like formation is interrupted by the deliberate blurring of colours and overlapping of squares. The off-centred composition of slanted vertical and horizontal lines creates a dynamic sense of movement, as if the squares are floating on the surface of the canvas. The painting is indicative of Kwami’s interest in experimenting with form and colour.

Thomas Mukarobgwa, View from the Hill Where My Father Used to Chase His Cattle  1961

John Mburu Njenga ‘Meek’ Gichugu, Funny World  1997

Funny World 1997 is a large-scale oil painting depicting a fantastical world of hybrid creatures who parade across the canvas in a carnival-like procession. It demonstrates Gichugu’s distinctive visual language that consists of images of beasts, machinery, fruit and animals crowded into the picture plane. The composition is centred around a group of animalistic creatures who perform various acrobatic movements and gestures, while the flattened landscape is populated with exotic fruits, flowers, strange birds and dismembered body parts that appear to be floating in the air. As the title suggests, the work refers to a comical or parodic vision of the world, with various symbols referring to daily social and political realities in the artist’s home country of Kenya. Gichugu brings together the real and fantastical in ways that reveal a pointed yet subtle use of symbolism and allegory.

John Muafangejo, Adam and Eva  1968

This is one of a group of black and white linocut prints in Tate’s collection by the South African artist John Muafangejo (Tate P82832, P82831, P82830, P82828, P82835, P82834, P82833, P82829). Densely worked across whole sheets of often large paper, they depict details of human interactions and ritual, as well as scenes of human engagement with the land. Muafangejo embraces a flattened picture plane, often including intricate patterns as a counterpoint to untextured areas, which are usually the faces and bodies of his figures. Each print includes text that provides the title or location of the work, or a lengthier explanation of the image’s narrative. The prints explore subjects typical of Muafangejo’s practice, such as family, childhood, Christianity, ancestry, African colonial history, political conflicts and the complexity of race relations.

John Muafangejo, Kuanjama Wedding  1970

This is one of a group of black and white linocut prints in Tate’s collection by the South African artist John Muafangejo (Tate P82832, P82831, P82830, P82828, P82835, P82834, P82833, P82829). Densely worked across whole sheets of often large paper, they depict details of human interactions and ritual, as well as scenes of human engagement with the land. Muafangejo embraces a flattened picture plane, often including intricate patterns as a counterpoint to untextured areas, which are usually the faces and bodies of his figures. Each print includes text that provides the title or location of the work, or a lengthier explanation of the image’s narrative. The prints explore subjects typical of Muafangejo’s practice, such as family, childhood, Christianity, ancestry, African colonial history, political conflicts and the complexity of race relations.

John Muafangejo, Muafangejo’s Kraal  1970

This is one of a group of black and white linocut prints in Tate’s collection by the South African artist John Muafangejo (Tate P82832, P82831, P82830, P82828, P82835, P82834, P82833, P82829). Densely worked across whole sheets of often large paper, they depict details of human interactions and ritual, as well as scenes of human engagement with the land. Muafangejo embraces a flattened picture plane, often including intricate patterns as a counterpoint to untextured areas, which are usually the faces and bodies of his figures. Each print includes text that provides the title or location of the work, or a lengthier explanation of the image’s narrative. The prints explore subjects typical of Muafangejo’s practice, such as family, childhood, Christianity, ancestry, African colonial history, political conflicts and the complexity of race relations.

John Muafangejo, Our Church at Rorkes Drift  1970

This is one of a group of black and white linocut prints in Tate’s collection by the South African artist John Muafangejo (Tate P82832, P82831, P82830, P82828, P82835, P82834, P82833, P82829). Densely worked across whole sheets of often large paper, they depict details of human interactions and ritual, as well as scenes of human engagement with the land. Muafangejo embraces a flattened picture plane, often including intricate patterns as a counterpoint to untextured areas, which are usually the faces and bodies of his figures. Each print includes text that provides the title or location of the work, or a lengthier explanation of the image’s narrative. The prints explore subjects typical of Muafangejo’s practice, such as family, childhood, Christianity, ancestry, African colonial history, political conflicts and the complexity of race relations.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, Images I Brown Base  1993

This is one of three works from Onobrakpeya’s The Mask Series (1990–5) acquired by Tate from the Robert Loder collection: Images III Red/ Blue B ase 1993, Images I Brown Base 1993 and Ieiebe Motifs 1995 (Tate P82839, P82840 and P82842). The series as a whole uses different print techniques to explore various West African philosophies and belief systems. They also address notions of change, duality and morality in Nigerian society. These prints include references to Yoruba and Urhobo culture through the representations of traditional African masks, animals and spiritual deities, as well as references to environmental crisis and political conflicts in Nigeria.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, Images III Red/Blue Base  1993

This is one of three works from Onobrakpeya’s The Mask Series (1990–5) acquired by Tate from the Robert Loder collection: Images III Red/ Blue B ase 1993, Images I Brown Base 1993 and Ieiebe Motifs 1995 (Tate P82839, P82840 and P82842). The series as a whole uses different print techniques to explore various West African philosophies and belief systems. They also address notions of change, duality and morality in Nigerian society. These prints include references to Yoruba and Urhobo culture through the representations of traditional African masks, animals and spiritual deities, as well as references to environmental crisis and political conflicts in Nigeria.

Jackson Hlungwani, Throne  1989

This work is one of a series of seven thrones made for the artist’s retrospective The Neglected Tradition Towards a New History of South African Art (1930–1988) at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1989. This unnumbered Throne 1989 was subsequently included in the exhibition Art from South Africa at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford in 1990, the year it was acquired by its former owner, the collector Robert Loder. Constructed from pieces of driftwood, the seven thrones retain the original shapes of the tree trunks, which the artist either left rough or carved and sanded to appear smooth. The thrones differ from traditional southern African wood sculptures, as they are assembled rather than being made from a single piece of wood or shaped into a recognisable ‘figure’. While most carved African stools are usually without a back, Hlungwani’s Throne 1989 more closely resembles a high-backed chair.

Sam Nhlengethwa, Fatigue  1996

David Koloane, Dusk  1996

Mmakgabo Mmapula Helen Sebidi, Cyrene  1990

Measuring over one and a half by two metres, Cyrene is a large drawing in coloured oil pastels on paper featuring a crowd of figures and animals with distorted bodies and features. Four women emerge at the centre of the composition with three hands holding each other in the foreground. Thick strokes of oil pastel are visible across the surface of the paper, which is torn in places, in a cacophony of bright greens, blues, yellows and pinks. The textured treatment of the work ambiguously conjures hair, scales and skin.

Pais Ernesto Shikhani, Untitled  1991

Nike Davies-Okundaye, The Wall  1994