Taking place during the centenary of pioneering Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, this major international conference explores new positions on West-African Modernism before and after Independence.
Jointly hosted by Bea Gassmann de Sousa, independent curator and Kerryn Greenberg, curator, International Art, Tate Modern, this one and a half-day conference is a unique opportunity to examine strategies of cultural independence and to reflect upon the impact of transnationalism and de-colonization in art criticism and museum collections today.
Positioning Nigerian Modernism launches on the evening of 28 September, with a keynote lecture by Chika Okeke-Agulu; artist, curator, art historian and author of Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria. This is followed by a day-long conference on 29 September, featuring four sessions: Modernism and Independence in West Africa, The Formation of National Identity and Preservation of History, Knowledge and Legacy: Unexpected Tropes and Collecting Modern African Art: 1950–2017.
This landmark event brings together major institutions and thinkers at the forefront of post-colonial and transnational thought and practitioners of these approaches in a global institutional context.
This event has been provided by Tate Gallery on behalf of Tate Enterprises LTD.