When did the notion of contemporary African artists first begin to circulate?
Primarily after independence in the Sixties. It was as if independence also gave Africa the right to be modern. As soon as independence was granted, Africa’s artists seem to have simultaneously been given the right to be contemporary. Up until then, people were almost exclusively referring to what I call “classical art” now called “primitive art” when they spoke about African art. The public jumped straight from “primitive art” to contemporary African art without realising that there were already African artists in the Thirties who worked differently to those producing “primitive art”. In what way was this production different to the traditional arts? In that rather than being a continuation of the traditional arts, it was closer to what was being produced elsewhere. It was produced by more or less precursory self-taught artists who opened up the way to contemporary production. Next, came the post-independence artists, who were the founding fathers of contemporary African art but whose