Creative Visions - A. G. Leventis & West Africa

CREATIVE VISIONS — A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

EDITED BY

DEMETRA THEODOTOU ANAGNOSTOPOULOU, MYRTO HATZAKI AND LOUKIA LOIZOU HADJIGAVRIEL

Cover: Anastasios G. Leventis in his office in Abeokuta, 1923

All photographs, documents, personal objects and memorabilia related to Anastasios G. Leventis in the exhibition are from the collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia.

Valuable information was provided to the research team by Mr Anastasios P. Leventis, Chairman of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, Mr George A. David, Chairman of the A. G. Leventis Foundation’s Greek Committee, and Mrs Fotini Papadopoulou, Trustee of the A. G. Leventis Foundation.

We thank Mr Anastasios I. Leventis, Trustee of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, for lending us the photo albums of his grandfather, Christodoulos Leventis, which enabled the research team to date some of the archival material and which contributed additional details about Anastasios G. Leventis’ years in West Africa.

Special thanks to Mrs Edmée Leventis for her input on many levels.

With the support of:

Media sponsors:

EXHIBITION

CATALOGUE

General coordinators:

Editors:

Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel and Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou Curators:

Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Myrto Hatzaki and Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel Research team:

Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Themis Anthopoulou, Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel and Myrto Hatzaki

Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Myrto Hatzaki and Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel Editorial advisor:

Themis Anthopoulou Research team:

Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Themis Anthopoulou, Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel and Myrto Hatzaki Text editing:

Architectural design and supervision:

Alexandra Pel

Nayia Savvides

Translation:

Editing:

Yiola Klitou and Mary Kitroeff

Georgia M. Panselina (Greek) and Alexandra Pel (English)

Administration:

Exhibition graphics:

Photography:

Appios Communications

Pavlos Loizides

Works transportation and installation:

Graphic design:

MoveArt, Greece, and PPS Worldwide Moving, Cyprus

Appios Communications

Press office and public relations:

Layout:

Themis Anthopoulou

Demetra Christodoulou

Administration:

Printing:

Despina Georghiou

Cassoulides Masterprinters

Despina Georghiou

Technical works:

Manolis Morfitis and Iacovos Papantoniou Lighting:

Iacovos Papantoniou

ISBN: 978-9963-732-10-4 © A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, 2015 Unauthorised reproduction, republication or duplication of any of the essays or illustrations of this book, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the A. G. Leventis Gallery’s prior written consent.

EDITED BY

DEMETRA THEODOTOU ANAGNOSTOPOULOU, MYRTO HATZAKI AND LOUKIA LOIZOU HADJIGAVRIEL NICOSIA 2015

CONTENTS 009 Chairman’s Foreword

Anastasios P. Leventis, Chairman, A. G. Leventis Foundation

011 Director’s Introduction

Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery

013 A Short Biography of Anastasios G. Leventis 019 Creative Visions: Anastasios G. Leventis and West Africa

Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery, and Myrto Hatzaki, Curator, The Paris Collection, A. G. Leventis Gallery

041 The Photographic Archive of Anastasios G. Leventis

Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Deputy Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery, and Themis Anthopoulou, Archive and Communications Officer, A. G. Leventis Gallery

061 Gathering Memories from the Apartment of A. G. Leventis in Paris

Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery

077 An Outline of West African History and Culture

Adisa Ogunfolakan, Director, A. G. Leventis Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

089 A Brief History of Cloth in Africa

Antony Griffiths, formerly Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London

099 Thoughts on West African Modernism in the Context of the Exhibition

Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa

Maria Varnava, Director, Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London

106 Artists’ Biographies 144 Traditional Sculpture 148 Notes

Leventis Motors, Kano, Nigeria, c. 1950

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CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD On the anniversary of its first year of operation, the A. G. Leventis Gallery has organised an exhibition that travels back in time to the beginning of a story: to Anastasios George Leventis and his first creative steps in West Africa. The exhibition, however, is much more than a simple biographical imprint of the life of the founder. It traces parallel courses: that of a man towards business success, those of nations towards independence and those of societies towards modernity. It also follows the evolution of an audacious group of artists towards a new visual identity based on traditional African art, which itself had been an inspiration to Modern art movements in Europe and the Western world.

Sources for the exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa range from the extensive photographic archive of the Gallery and memorabilia, paintings and prints to objects of traditional African art. The exhibition seeks to identify common features bringing together rapidly developing elements of the commercial, political and artistic worlds of West Africa. We are invited to follow the life of Anastasios G. Leventis and at the same time to connect this to events that played a part in changing the course of history in both Nigeria and Ghana, the two largest countries in Anglophone West Africa.

The material presented for the first time in this exhibition gives us an insight into a changing world; a world attempting the leap from colonialism to independence and from tradition to modernity. New, modern buildings transform the image of cities, not always for the better; a rising educated class begins to play a leading role in the world of commerce and business, while tradition, the pagan past, remains a significant presence in society. This is the world that Anastasios Leventis saw and experienced. This is the world depicted in the works of renowned artists of the first generation of Nigerian Modernism, artists who sought, through their works, a new identity that would combine tradition with modernity, the past with hopes for the future. These are the threads that we follow in this exhibition, interwoven with the story of the man who was involved in the development of this new world; a foreigner whom Ghana and Nigeria esteemed and honoured as one of their own – just as they did those who continued his work.

For me, personally, this exhibition evokes the land where I was born and where I worked. A land considered a second homeland, not just by my Uncle Anastasios, my parents and other relatives and associates who laid foundations for the growth of the business, but also by us, the second generation of the Leventis–David family. To this day, our successful industrial and commercial activities and enterprise in Nigeria continue, and the A. G. Leventis Foundation maintains its support for extensive philanthropic programmes in both Nigeria and Ghana, directed to the protection of the environment and culture.

It is therefore with great pleasure that we inaugurate this exhibition, which is the crowning achievement of the Gallery’s first full year of operation. I would like to congratulate the Director of the Gallery, Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, and her team for their dedication and hard work in presenting this exhibition, celebrating as it does a year full of creative involvement in the community of Nicosia. A year which has seen important temporary exhibitions, lectures, educational programmes for children and adults, musical and theatrical performances, all promoting the A. G. Leventis Gallery as a cultural space inspiring all who wish to approach and appreciate art, but also to expand horizons by opening windows to new worlds.

Anastasios P. Leventis Chairman, A. G. Leventis Foundation

_CREATIVE VISIONS – A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

Textile stamp with the trademark of A. G. Leventis & Co. (Nigeria) Ltd Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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DIRECTOR’S INTRODUCTION The A. G. Leventis Gallery is celebrating its first year of operation by dedicating an exhibition to the life of its founder, Anastasios G. Leventis, and to West Africa, where he set up his business, a place that he loved and which became his second homeland.

This exhibition focuses both on the life of a gifted, creative man with vision and insight, but also on the bold artistic creation that developed within the context of Modernism in West Africa and in particular in the newly established states of Ghana and Nigeria, mainly from the 1960s until today. It does not, however, touch only upon this geographic area at the given time of transition from tradition to modernity. The ideas it addresses surpass the borders of West Africa; they are timeless, global and deeply humane. One could perhaps say that they are concepts of particular importance, especially for Cyprus: perceptions about the notion of identity, both personal and national; about the desire of nations to break the bonds of the past; about the quest of artists to create a new, visual language that is always of its time; about every man’s need for vision and creativity.

The objects and archival material included in the historical part of the exhibition draw exclusively on the extensive archives of the A. G. Leventis Gallery and the personal archive of Anastasios G. Leventis.

The artworks – Modernist and contemporary – come from the Leventis company offices, from West Africa House in London and the offices in Irodou Attikou Street in Athens, but also from the private family collections of Constantinos, Anastasios and George Leventis and of George, Anastasis and Harry David. We would like to thank Judy Rudoe and Antony Griffiths for lending us the African textiles on display and the artist Jude Anogwih for the three short films that exemplify contemporary artistic creation in Lagos in the field of New Media. Particular thanks also go to Maria Varnava, Director of the Tiwani Contemporary Gallery in London, for her kind cooperation.

I would like to acknowledge everyone who has worked on the organisation and setting-up of the exhibition, especially Georgina Dimopoulou and Antigoni Boulougari from the London office of the Foundation, Marilena Nicolaou from the Athens office, Appios Communications and the architect Nayia Savvides. I am particularly grateful to the Deputy Director of the Gallery, Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, the Curator of the Paris Collection, Myrto Hatzaki, and the Archive and Communications Officer, Themis Anthopoulou, for their invaluable contribution towards both the museologocial study and the compilation of the present catalogue. The entire group shared our enthusiasm and contributed to the realisation of the exhibition and this volume.

Finally, on behalf of the whole team, I would like to thank the Leventis and David families for their advice and support, for sharing their insight into the period and the life of Anastasios Leventis and for lending us the important works of art on display from their private collections. Their contribution was and always is invaluable. Our aim is to honour and pay tribute to the memory of the founder, Anastasios G. Leventis, and his legacy.

Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery

A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd store, Accra, 1955

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A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ANASTASIOS G. LEVENTIS Anastasios G. Leventis was born in December 1902, in the mountain village of Lemythou, Cyprus. After World War I he went to Marseilles, where he worked, and then studied commerce in Bordeaux. In 1920 he was employed by an Anglo-Greek company and was assigned first to a managerial position in southeastern Nigeria, then in 1922 to a position in Abeokuta, in south-western Nigeria, and, subsequently, to the position of general manager for the Gold Coast (now Ghana), Ivory Coast and Togo of G. B. Ollivant & Co. a British Company.

In 1936 he formed his own trading company, A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd, which expanded rapidly in the Gold Coast and, after 1942, in Nigeria. By the time of his death, this company and its affiliates had become one of the largest enterprises in Nigeria and were poised to expand internationally.

Anastasios G. Leventis was a leading philanthropist in Africa and in Cyprus. He supported many projects to improve life in his homeland, efforts that intensified as a result of political turmoil. In 1966 he was appointed Cyprus’ Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, partly in recognition of his support for education and cultural heritage. He gathered a notable private collection of European painting and acquired an important collection of works by 19th- and 20th-century Greek artists.

The 1974 invasion of Cyprus imposed a particular burden on him, with the personal loss of the cultural centre and family church he had built in Petra, but also coping at UNESCO with the widespread destruction of Cypriot cultural heritage. He helped to repatriate looted and smuggled treasures, but he primarily tried to alleviate the needs of the injured and of refugees. Anastasios G. Leventis died in October 1978, having provided for the establishment of a foundation to support educational, cultural, artistic and philanthropic causes in Cyprus, Greece and elsewhere.

Portrait of Anastasios. G. Leventis, c. 1950

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We can redream this world and make the dream come real. Human beings are gods hidden from themselves.

Joel Α. Barker

Creative Visions: Anastasios G. Leventis and West Africa Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery, and Myrto Hatzaki, Curator, The Paris Collection, A. G. Leventis Gallery This exhibition is envisaged as a journey – of one man to success, of nations to independence, of a people towards ‘modernity’, of a generation of daring young artists to the creation of a new visual identity. It underlines, above all, that nothing is created in a vacuum and points to the diverse, powerfully intertwining forces which come together to fuse new worlds. Navigating through photography, craft and art, the exhibition traces different, but linked, discourses as they unravel, from commerce, geopolitics and economics to the world of artistic creation; discourses which constitute the key to the dialogue constructed by the contributors to the present volume.

The exhibition travels back in time, tracing Anastasios G. Leventis’ remarkable life, from the early 1920s and his formative years in West Africa (see p. 18, fig. 1) to his years as a distinguished businessman and art collector. It illustrates also a world on the cusp of change, journeying, in the 1950s and 1960s, from colonialism to independence, and from tradition to modernity.

Photographic material documents the changes visible in the urban fabric of Nigerian cities undergoing dramatic transformation. Artworks from Nigeria’s first generation of Modernist painters reflect the dynamic art scene emerging in the newly independent state, exemplified by the Zaria and Osogbo artists.1 Tribal sculpture, Ghanaian and Nigerian textiles and traditional beadwork are included to underline the omnipresent balance between tradition and innovation, the Westernlooking and the indigenous, the survival of the past in the turn towards the contemporary. Their influence is fused with the artistic creation of the ’60s – following the country’s independence – and they were the forefathers of a booming young generation of Nigerian artists who continue today to navigate between the country’s heritage and her participation in 21st-century culture.

All of this is seen alongside the story of the man who played his part in shaping Ghana’s and Nigeria’s future – a foreigner, accepted by Ghanaians and Nigerians as one of their own – and of those who continued his legacy.

New Beginnings I have had the best airplane trip ever, we left Amsterdam in hazy weather but after a little while we were in bright sunshine, with clouds underneath us. By the time we got to Switzerland […], in that bright sunshine passing over the Alps which were snowed up with small dark patches in the valleys, it was simply a dream […] we left Rome at 6.30 pm and arrived at Kano at 2.30 am.

A. G. Leventis, writing from Ikoyi, Lagos2

Fig. 1.

At the airport, c. 1935 Fig. 2.

Envelope addressed to the Agent, Messrs A. J. Tangalakis & Co., Ibadan, dated 13 September 1927 Fig. 3.

Envelope addressed to A. Leventis Esq., c/o G. B. Ollivant & Co. Ltd, Accra, dated September 1930 Fig. 4.

Envelope addressed to A. G. Leventis Esq., c/o A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd, Kano, dated 14 May 1954

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Few men get to shape their world; Anastasios G. Leventis was one of them. Born in the Cypriot village of Lemythou in 1902, where his father was the priest and teacher, he completed his schooling at the Mitsis Commercial School, where he was taught English, accounting, finance, commercial law and correspondence.3 Inspired by the Mitsis director, Dimitrios Lipertis, who had been educated in France, he decided to pursue further studies abroad, leaving the island (at the time a British colony), first for Egypt, where he visited his older brother, George, and then for France, where he studied at the École Supérieure de Commerce at Bordeaux.

Leventis’ first position, with the company of Paterson Zochonis, led to his appointment to West Africa, arriving at Cross River (around 1919), a young man full of enthusiasm, drive and ambition.

A photograph shows him in Marseilles, on his biannual leave, on 12 November 1921 – a port from which he was to travel in the years to come – on the long route home from West Africa to Cyprus.

His next post was in Abeokuta, with the firm of A. J. Tangalakis, from where he wrote witty letters home in 1925, providing a glimpse into the burgeoning world of trade but also a testament to his own spirit: […] we have had a very good cocoa season [...] from the beginning of March, when the cocoa is finished, is the season of palm oil and palm kernels […], now we are trying to buy as much cotton as we can […]. The other day the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, passed through here. The Resident Commissioner introduced all of us Europeans to his Royal Highness. I introduced myself as ‘Mr Leventis, the only Greek of Abeokuta – but at the same time, the Cocoa King’. The Prince smiled.4 An elegant black-and-white photograph, now in the A. G. Leventis Gallery photographic archive (see pp. 8-9), portrays Leventis around this time: a very young man, dressed in white, sitting confidently at his desk. The date on the calendar to the right is October 1923 – only a few years after he first set foot in West Africa – and the wall behind him seems to encompass his world.

There is a wedding photo in the left-hand corner; a reference to family, depicting his brother George in Cairo with his young bride (Anastasios was not yet married). A map of West Africa, by contrast, alludes to what lies ahead: it reflects that Africa, that continent still both highly coveted and little understood by the European colonial powers determining its future.5 After A. J. Tangalakis was taken over by G. B. Ollivant Ltd, one of the largest trading companies in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) and Nigeria, A. G. Leventis rose rapidly to the position of General Manager (see p. 21, fig. 7). In 1934 he married Foteni Calliafas, of Greek origin born in Manchester, who followed him to the Gold Coast. By 1936, already the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Gold Coast Legislative Council, he was ready to establish his own business, leaving the firm when it was taken over by the United Africa Company. Around this time Anastasios was joined by George E. Keralakis and his younger brother, Christos Leventis, who had already been working in Lagos for several years and was to set up the Nigerian branches of the company.

Alkiviadis David joined them in 1938, and Evagoras Leventis as a Director in 1939. The new firm, A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd, concentrated on the import and export of goods in the Gold Coast, and ‘its rise’, scholarship notes, ‘was meteoric’.6 As early as 1938 -1939, that is, during its first years of operation, Leventis & Co. was ‘already the fifth largest cocoa exporter, while in the import trade it was even more successful – by about 1941, it was the third largest importer in the Gold Coast’, a success which Professor Bauer argues was ‘the result largely of the ability, initiative, hard work and independence of action of its principals’ (see p. 23, fig. 13).7

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Figs 5-6.

One of the oldest photographs in the A. G. Leventis Gallery archive depicting Anastasios G. Leventis; the reverse has a handwritten note, Marseilles 12/11/1921, and is signed by him.

Fig. 7.

G. B. Ollivant & Co. Ltd offices, Lagos, c. 1920 Fig. 8.

Photograph from an interwar issue of Illustrated Africa magazine of the top management team of G. B. Ollivant & Co. Ltd, Gold Coast, with Anastasios G. Leventis as Trade Director Fig. 9.

Anastasios G. Leventis & Co. Ltd personnel, Accra, c. 1937

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Such success was not, however, to go unchallenged. Writing in 1953, at a time when Leventis & Co. had already run a course of almost two decades, Bauer offers an insight into the nebulous world of trade relations, exemplifying not only the European power struggle for control of Africa’s trading wealth (both the export trade and the equally lucrative import trade, which brought, for instance, cocoa to Europe and machine-made cotton cloth into West Africa), but also the impact of such commercial struggles on political and public life. The newcomer, Leventis & Co., with its flexibility and market-driven strategies, quickly came into conflict with older firms and their longestablished oligopolies on the export-import trade. As the Association of West African Merchants attempted to run the fledgling Leventis & Co. out of business to maintain their oligopolistic control of the market, the ensuing power struggle, leading to a public enquiry, had the effect of discrediting the colonial administration and even the judiciary, events which contributed, through the Martindale and Sachs investigations, to the Accra Riots of 1948 and eventually affected political developments in the Gold Coast.8 What started as an economic rivalry and a response to oligopolies then led to a boycott of European imports, due to resulting inflated prices, organised by Ga chief Nii Kwabena Bonne III in January of 1948; this was to mark the beginning of a movement towards independence for Ghana. If the Watson Commission, set up by the British colonial government to examine the circumstances surrounding the Accra Riots, first paved the way for constitutional changes, eventually enabling Ghana to break away from colonial rule, the riots in fact highlighted Anastasios Leventis’ difference in the eyes of the local community, as Adisa Ogunfolaken underlines (see herein, pp. 77-84). The belief that Leventis, himself brought up in a British colony, was part not of the colonial European powers, but of Ghana and its people was recognised early on. Signalling this public feeling, the premises of Leventis & Co. remained untouched by the rioting crowds.

Leventis’ friendship with Kwame Nkrumah – one of the leading activists in the United Gold Coast Convention Party, which was to form the Convention People’s Party in 1949 – was to turn into active support of the movement for Ghanaian independence. Leventis was to help Nkrumah return to Accra in 1947 and he was later appointed by Nkrumah, then first president of Ghana, as the country’s diplomatic representative to Europe (see p. 22, figs 10-12, and p. 52, figs 85-87).

Between 1958 and 1960, Anastasios Leventis acted as minister plenipotentiary and ambassador of Ghana in Paris, an honour directly reflecting the mutual feeling of close ties among Leventis, the company that made his name and the people of Ghana. It is this very spirit that is underlined in the celebratory message published a few years earlier, in 1957, in which Anastasios Leventis aligned his own story with that of the Ghanaian political struggle: 20 years of human effort; it is the story of the struggle and effort of the Patriots and Leaders of Ghana which brought about the memorable date of the 6th March, 1957. It is also the story of the firm of A. G. Leventis which entered West African trade starting with a small and insignificant store in Accra in 1937 [sic] to reach its present pre-eminent position in West Africa as portrayed by its new Building now in course of completion in Accra. These pictures show the unswerving confidence of Leventis in the future of Ghana. And every Ghanaian knows that Leventis’ struggle, firstly for survival and secondly for success, was at all stages interwoven with the struggle of the Leaders and people of Ghana for freedom and independence. The political struggle is over. The economic struggle is about to begin. Leventis will continue to remain a free and independent organisation, always ready to serve the economic interests of Ghana.9

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Figs 10-12.

Photographs from the celebrations of the independence of Ghana, March 1957 Fig. 13.

‘Graphic’ Independence Souvenir (March 1957) celebrating the independence of Ghana; page 38 is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd.

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Two years later, in 1962, he was to sell his enterprise to the State of Ghana, focusing himself on the interests of Leventis & Co. in Nigeria.

African Textiles – Manchester Cloth The war years tested the resilience of the new company, yet it was also a time of expansion, beyond the Gold Coast, to Nigeria – as a result (once more) of financial struggle for survival in a key industry for A. G. Leventis & Co. That industry also features prominently in the exhibition: the import and wholesaling of textiles to West Africa. African textiles and their rich and complex history, eloquently summed up by Anthony Griffiths in the present volume, are a powerful evocation of Nigeria’s traditions (see pp. 89-94): the distinction between men’s work and women’s work, the careful craftsmanship of weaving and dyeing, the rich-coloured kente cloth, the cool blues of tiedyed indigo adire cloth, the ‘magic’ patterns denoted in rich embroidery, the vastness of fabrics used in a world where size matters, where ‘the bigger the cloth, the greater the man wearing it’.10 The story is one of trade – the distinction between timeless types and patterns and those subject to the quick-changing whims of fashion; it calls to mind the lucrative import trade, led by British manufactures, which brought Manchester-made cotton cloth, especially produced for the African market, alongside imported threads and dyes, to West Africa. In this context it should be noted that the trade in West Africa had come to be on what are originally wax prints imported from Java in the Dutch East Indies, designed and manufactured by indentured labourers transported from West Africa – mainly the Gold Coast – to Java by the Dutch East India Company in the early 19th century. Such textiles underline a world in flux: imports blended with local traditions; new, imported colours enriched kente cloth; imported cotton cloth was dyed by Nigerian women using age-old techniques; imported sewing machines (as depicted in the print on p. 109) appeared sideby-side with the hand-crafted tradition (see pp. 91-94, figs 132-135); and imported Manchestermade patterned textiles actually adopted designs inspired by their original, African counterparts.11 Complex and fascinating, the history of such textiles is intimately linked to the Leventis story and to the imports of machine-made cloth from Manchester, which formed a significant part of Anastasios Leventis’ trading activities in Ghana. Although this trade had peaked well before Leventis’ own time, at the turn of the 19th century it was said that well over half the world’s population wore fabric made in Manchester. Leventis & Co. had also partnered with the Manchester-based company of Coddington & Lamb, who dealt in cotton textiles, and travels to Manchester underline the ties to the local industry that brought Leventis to this centre of British industry. In 1943 fresh state-imposed quotas for exports set down by the British Cotton Board led Anastasios G. Leventis to look to Nigeria as a new market for imported Manchester textiles – a response to the shift in the market created by the quotas, which privileged Nigeria with the bulk of the export trade. A. G. Leventis & Co. set up in Nigeria in that year, in order to take advantage of the import quotas there – a move which was to tie the Leventis name with Nigeria in the years to come.12 A remnant, and a testament, of Anastasios G. Leventis’ trading in printed cotton cloth is provided by the numerous textile stamps prominently displayed in the exhibition (see p. 10 and p. 24, figs 14-15) Such stamps, a highly effective means of ‘branding’ were first created in response to the Design and Copyright Act of 1842, which required that all pieces of cloth produced in Britain had to be clearly stamped or labelled with the supplier’s identifying mark and the cloth’s type and length. Beautifully crafted, the stamps were made by hammering copper ‘ribbons’ into the flat

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Figs 14-15.

Textile stamps featuring the ‘Spearman’ trademark of A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd Collection of the A.G. Leventis Foundation, London Figs 16-17.

Coca-Cola factories in Nigeria and Ghana Fig. 18.

Press cutting of 23 March 1955, with reference to the establishment of a Coca-Cola factory in Accra

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surface of the wood, a laborious, time-consuming task undertaken by a trained stamp-cutter, who could devote up to a month to complete a single, complex piece. The stamps on display still bear traces of dye – gold, blue, white, yellow. Some bear the Leventis trademark, a fittingly Greek motif of a helmeted warrior who appears in the 1940s as much on stationery as on shop signs, while others attest to the 100% cotton content of the cloth or mark its length in yards.

A chance survival provides the direct link to what was known as ‘Cottonopolis’, the Manchester cotton empire of dyers and bleachers, which was the starting point for Leventis textiles travelling to Africa. It is a card with the details of John Stanning & Son, Ltd, ‘Bleachers and Dyers, Leyland, Near Preston’, with the Manchester office address marked in the left-hand corner (Winchester House, 89 Fountain St). A handwritten note (‘Leventis stamps returned – see details on reverse’) acknowledges the return of the stamps, identifying many that can be seen in the exhibition: there is the monogram stamp, one for ‘Leventis Best’, one for the ‘guinea brocade’. There is also mention of the so-called ‘Guinea Stamps’ and reference to the ‘Spearman’, along with a mark for a 16-yard length of cloth.

Independence, Modernity, Expansion The Company was surging ahead rapidly. One extension followed the other. […] He believed intensely in Nigeria’s development. He continued to buy land, for the present and for the future. Not just in Lagos but all over Nigeria. In Ibadan, in Kano and Port Harcourt, he bought land for shops and for houses and he had them built simultaneously.13 In the post-war years, A. G. Leventis & Co. expanded the scope of its original import/export business to include hardware, building materials, consumer goods and retailing, as well as distributing and servicing motor vehicles (see p. 49, figs 73-74). This is measured visibly in photographs – showing streams of warehouses, pyramids of groundnuts awaiting exportation (see p. 49, fig 70) and functional residential blocks for expanding numbers of staff. A showroom for cars was set up in the area of the Mainland Hotel (see p. 27, fig 24); the first luxury hotel constructed in Lagos, it was built by the company in 1955 and extensively remodelled in 1964-1966.14 In 1951 the company ventured for the first time into manufacturing, building the sole soft-drinks factories in Lagos and Accra. The broad range of its activities is perhaps best summarised in the company’s own advertisement – highlighted in the Special Independence issue of Nigeria Magazine, published in October 1960, designed to celebrate Nigerian independence; a periodical which played an influential role in the development of early Modern art in Nigeria through the agency of art criticism. The full-page advertisement sums up A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd, Nigeria, as: ‘West African merchants and engineers, refrigeration, air condition and lift suppliers. Imports: textiles, vehicles, machinery and electrical goods, building materials, hardware, chemicals, footwear, fancy and sundry goods. Exports: hides, skins, Gum Arabic and all Nigerian produce [see p. 32, fig. 35]. Modern cold stores and provisions. Self-service [see p. 49, figs 71-72, 75]. Branches throughout Nigeria and Ghana.’ Four head- and buying-offices are listed, in Lagos Marina, Pagan Road, Accra, Peter St, Manchester, and Rue La Boétie, Paris. Fittingly perhaps, though unmentioned in the magazine, A. G. Leventis & Co. marked Nigerian independence in its own way, with the construction of a new hotel, the Federal Palace on Victoria Island, built in just two years from 1958 to 1960, in order to house guests for the Nigerian independence celebrations of 1960.15 For the international press, the Federal Palace occupied that very line between the

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Figs 19-22.

Postcards depicting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960 Fig 23.

Ghana House, A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd headquarters, Accra, 1955 Fig 24.

The Mainland Hotel, the first modern hotel built in Lagos, 1955

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past, present and future (see p. 26, figs 19-22); Life International magazine commented that its position on Victoria Island ‘commands a superb view of the busy harbor traffic and its native net fishermen [it is] a favorite place for local businessmen and government officials (see p. 29, figs 3031). To them the hotel is a source of national pride.’16 For the local press, the appeal was mostly the hotel’s ‘Western’ character: the five ‘continental’ chefs (‘from Europe to Nigeria’, in the Daily Express), the fine furnishings, and the stately banquet hosted for Princess Alexandra all made the headlines, as did a sense of the symbolic importance of the building, which would ‘add to the beauty and glamour of Lagos as a capital befitting an independent Nigeria’.17 Avgie Leventis, who described the elegance of the festivities at the Federal Palace, could not but comment on how different Lagos appeared in 1960 to when she had first set eyes upon it in 1937. This feeling of change is equally poignant in the pages of Nigeria Magazine, which provided a panorama of the country as it celebrated its independence in 1960: a world on the cusp of change, so strongly perceived within Nigeria herself that it seemed to dominate numerous aspects of popular culture. Through its pages, we sense the importance of this much-coveted modernity, be it one balanced by the pervasive influence of tradition.18 Against the multitude of advertisements by foreign companies publicising the latest goods and services, there are the chapters on Nigerian history and the aftermath of colonialism, on tribal art and local customs, all illustrated with photographs – some in the visibly ‘modern’ medium of colour photography: there are Igbo dancers, Gwari housewives, Lagos fishermen, but also Yoruba seamstresses working on Singer sewing machines (see pp. 76-85, figs 119-130) and a state-of-the art operating theatre in Lagos. Western-style suits battle against tribal masks and images of women in the richly patterned Manchester textiles reflecting the fashions of the day, all next to advertisements for electrical appliances and cable and wireless, Swiss watches and Nigerian airlines. This was the world in which the Leventis Stores, pioneering in the retail distribution field in Nigeria in the late 1940s and 1950s, would become a brand name,19 and where Prince Philip, during the official royal visit to Nigeria in 1956 commented, when introduced to Christos Leventis and upon recognising the familiar name, ‘Leventis? That is a name I find written everywhere in the city.’20 Towards New Architecture and New Art It is this very world, and its proud modernity, that was experienced by that generation of Nigerian artists that embodied Nigerian Modernism. Photographer J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, as Maria Varnava emphasises (see herein, pp. 99-105), photographed the skyscrapers and the construction sites that made up the changing urban fabric of the expanding cities. He documented the emergence of a new, educated, professional class, photographed in suits and ties, just as his lens captured women with their patterned cloths and elaborate hairstyles, providing a powerful impression of Nigerian urban culture in the 1960s. This was a world of which A. G. Leventis & Co. was part; as were the members of the Leventis–David family, now living in Africa and immersing themselves in the business and the vibrant Greek and Cypriot community, but also in the local culture.

The company self-consciously embraced this modernity, a fact underlined in all its choices – from the ephemeral (the support, for instance, of the National Bottling Company Limited in 1961 for the presentation of Obadzeng, the first all-Ghanaian musical drama, ‘a story set against a background of the old religion, but in a new and changing society’) to the long-lasting; that is, to choices with an enduring impact.21 A. G. Leventis & Co. employed personnel from among the rising Nigerian professional class: a key to the success of the company was choosing to keep centres of decision-

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Figs 25-27.

Construction of the A. G. Leventis retail store, Accra, 1955 Figs 28-29.

Architectural Design magazine (May 1955), featuring the design of the A. G. Leventis retail store in Accra Figs 30-31.

Life International magazine (24 September 1962), with the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos

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making local, allowing for immediate responses to challenges as they emerged, but also binding the company to the interests of the local community instead of micromanaging from afar, from remote decision centres in Europe, like the majority of its antagonists.

More tangibly, the company constructed buildings with the clear, angular outlines of Modernism (see pp. 26-29, figs 19-31). Notably, the 1955 Leventis Store in Accra, designed by Modernist architects Fry & Drew, is a paradigm of contemporary design. It featured in the pages of the Architectural Design magazine of May 1955, citing the name of assistant architect Creamer, underlining the use of contemporary materials (‘a reinforced concrete frame with solid reinforced concrete floors and roofs’) and functionalist solutions to climate control – its front elevation, a ‘non-load bearing breathing wall’ allowed ‘permanent breeze penetration while completely excluding the rain’.22 The Mainland Hotel, even before the extensive renovations of the 1960s, is listed in Commerce in Nigeria (produced for the royal visit of 1956 by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce) under ‘New and Modern Buildings in Lagos’ and as 'a new and modern hotel, with air-conditioned bedrooms, built by G. Cappa Ltd’.23 More spectacular, the remodelling plans are preserved, on fragile tracing paper, signed by D. Devaris and B. Manteuffel, portraying the hotel’s linear façade and the geometric modelling of the grounds and gardens in crisp black and white.

Ghana House, Accra, became an embodiment of Modernism, but also of hope. Leventis wrote, in March 1957, that he ‘went to visit “Ghana House” for the first time properly; it took me two hours to go round it – it is tremendous in size’. An advertisement published one year later remarks, ‘This massive, modern building, fitted with the most up to date equipment, serves as a visible symbol of our confidence in the People of Ghana, and of our conviction that the years to come will bring prosperity, security and happiness.’24 This almost symbolic reading of the new architecture was emphasised in the local press. The New Ashanti Times (27 August 1960) wrote that ‘Looking at Ghana House, that colossal edifice that pierces the Accra sky-line from the Church Road to the post office lane corner, is not only a monument to the achievement of Mr. Leventis, but it is symbolical, in a sense, of all that he has strived for, to help building business in Ghana. It also synchronises with the country’s aspirations.’25 A wealth of material on the company’s architectural projects survives in the Gallery archives, proof not only of its rapid expansion, but of a profound interest in actively documenting that expansion: there is a hoard of photographs of construction sites (a fascination reminiscent of Ojeikeire’s own images of the rising structures of Lagos), of workmen, scaffolding and concrete structures with exposed rebars, and angular shots exposing the modern aesthetics of architectural details, from concrete blocks to ventilation louvres photographed in oblique angles (see p. 28, fig. 25). This documentation of modernity is beautifully captured – preserved, as if frozen, either in black-andwhite images or in eerily faded, ‘modern’ Kodacolor transparencies, featuring rows of gleaming car bonnets, fleets of transportation trucks neatly aligned in rows, the angular white Leventis headquarters in Lagos and Accra, hotel lobbies with modern furnishings, sleek department store aisles and the pristine interiors of food halls. This treasure of carefully preserved photos, images in which Anastasios Leventis and his world are either present physically (captured in the frame) or conceptually (as the eye behind the lens), are explored in this catalogue by Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou and Themis Anthopoulou (see pp. 41-56).

Besides Ojeikere, the Modernist Zaria and Osogbo artists and the artistic creation which emerged in the years just on the verge of and in the aftermath of Nigerian independence are inextricably

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Fig. 32.

Yoruba ibeji twin figurines, 20th century Wood, 28 x 10 x 8 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Fig. 33.

Ibeji statuette, 20th century Wood and shells, 32 x 26 x 17 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Fig. 34.

Benin figure, 20th century Brass, 48.5 x 23 x 17 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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linked to this modern world (a world, notably, rarely depicted in their imagery) 26 and to the shifting scene where, as Maria Varnava has noted, ‘the visual arts and the process of decolonisation worked together to increase national consciousness, ultimately resulting in new ways of thinking about the possibilities of artistic practice’.27 Artists, many instructed in the Western artistic tradition, constructed a visual vocabulary that drew on forms and patterns, even materials, seeped in Nigerian heritage. Their creations negotiated a new route between the traditions of African and Western art, resulting in ‘work that extended from a new artistic canon, one that was in line with a newly independent nation […] an indicator of an attitude evident in the post-independence generation of artists, interested in imbuing their works with the sentiments of decolonisation’.28 The exhibition celebrates this world, through works by the acknowledged masters of Nigerian Modernism; works mostly drawn from the collections of the Leventis–David family. Many were acquired around the time of their production by the second generation of the Leventis–David family, who were then living and working in West Africa, engrossed in that very milieu in which this imposing new art was being produced. In the exhibition, there are the potently imaginative works by Twins Seven-Seven, which draw upon Yoruba myths and stories, often transformed into a personal cosmology by the artist. He was a contemporary of Yusuf Grillo, who also painted scenes of Yoruba life in his elongated, graceful forms, which ‘represent the contemporary ideal of beauty in an urban setting’, often denoted ‘in shades of blue that are reminiscent of Yoruba adire textiles’, like the ones included in the exhibition.29 The violently coloured bead paintings of Jimoh Buraimoh evoke the traditional beadwork of Yoruba cloaks and crowns: his rows of beads, strung on cotton thread, transcribe ‘the shimmering colours, the designs, the patterns and above all the expensive look and grandeur’ of traditional craftsmanship.30 The heavily worked surfaces of printing plates fashioned by Bruce Onobrakpeya allude not only to the work of this widely influential artist and his innovative printmaking techniques, but also to his perception of the latter as an intrinsically sculptural method (which he would later term ‘plastography’), perhaps suited to an artist who was the son of an Urhobo carver. Many of the works on display draw from the collection of Constantine Leventis, introduced by his uncle to Africa at a young age (see pp. 30-31, figs 32-34, pp. 34-35, figs 37-39, pp. 108-110, p. 117, pp. 144-147); he would later become the first chairman of the A. G. Leventis Foundation and he was profoundly interested in African sculpture (from actual Yoruba and Benin figurines, for instance, to later export-market works in the familiar forms of the ibeji twin statuettes), prints and, predominantly, paintings produced by the artists of the contemporary art scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

Beyond Modernism [...] with the world of tradition seen as doomed and the world of the modern seen as constituting the root of all problems, the only appropriate solution was the creation of new art forms, expressing the fluid, open and still undetermined phase society was believed to be going through.31 Tied to West Africa, subsequent generations of the Leventis–David family have felt the attraction of the contemporary art scene, often finding fascination with the younger Nigerian artists – the generation of global perspectives: an innovative group working in a variety of media, both in Nigeria and beyond her physical borders, as a part of the broader African diaspora.32 Perhaps by far the best-known, most controversial and most international in his outlook of the artists featured in

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Fig. 35.

An advertisement for A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd published in a special indepedence issue of Nigeria magazine (October 1960) Fig. 36.

The Hellenic Pan-African Directory, from Cape to Cairo,1950-1951 includes a special section on Anastasios G. Leventis Donated to the A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia,

by Evi Pierides

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the exhibition is Chris Ofili: an artist who ‘has built an international reputation with his works that bridge the sacred and the profane, popular culture and beliefs’;33 an artist who has ‘for more than two decades [...] dazzled and discomfited, seduced and unsettled, gliding effortlessly between high and low, among cultures’, at times addressing ‘blackness: as night, as history, as culture, as skin, as majesty, as terror, as paranoia, as myth’.34 His works are set side by side with those of emerging Nigerian artists whose imagery, in a variety of media, negotiates Nigeria’s participation in 21st-century culture. Their works allude poignantly to the broadness of Nigerian artistic creation today, looking into questions of identity, of belonging, of the self in the context of a shifting world; questions which remain pertinent in Nigerian culture.

In the present volume, we have aimed to allow the voices of three young artists to be heard for themselves (see pp. 138-143), creating an immediate dialogue that touches upon but also goes beyond interpretation. By presenting the artist’s statements, set in juxtaposition with their work, we hope to provide context for the images. Photographer Andrew Esiebo addresses, in his images of barber shops, the particular ‘social, spiritual and mystic impact of hair’ in African society – but, as visual ‘close-ups’ of African urban daily life, his images of the barbers in their working spaces portray an insight into that built environment that engages with the notion of modernity and the ‘contemporary’. Taiye Idahor’s Shut Cut, from her Hairvolution series, creates a visual discourse of self-discovery, also visualised through hair – and the preoccupation with this aspect of feminine beauty in Nigerian culture – and of the Benin beliefs of reincarnation with which the artist grapples.

Video artist Jude Anogwih focuses on the movement of people and ideas beyond their place of origin, and addresses both the forced movement of African populations and the willing ‘migration’ to the West in the quest for another life. The idea of migration or movement, however, is particularly pertinent in the case of the narrative explored in this catalogue – as it bears resonance also for the travel to West Africa, and beyond it, that comprises the story of Anastasios Leventis – as it is traced through tangible objects, the ‘memorabilia’ found decades later in his Paris residence and discussed by Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel in the present volume (see pp. 61-72).

Today, the contemporary art scene in West Africa attests to the power of creative visions; once more a point of convergence with the Leventis story. Creative visions in the art world are supported by organisations that nurture the potential of new art, new artists and new media, from photography to film and video, performance and installation art, but also the critical study and presentation of art in Nigeria. From the Video Art Network to the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, such initiatives provide a platform for the display of and the debate over contemporary art – the latter organisation also particularly prioritising education.35 This focus on education is paramount also for the A. G. Leventis Foundation, which represents Anastasios G. Leventis’ vision and his legacy. Established in 1979, a year after the founder’s death, it has supported since its inception the promotion of culture, the preservation of heritage and the environment, and the furthering of philanthropy, as much in Cyprus and Greece as in Nigeria, where the Foundation’s Nigeria Advisory Panel was inaugurated in 1979. Through its operations, the Leventis Foundation Nigeria has supported technical education and vocational training, as well as the education of young farmers in sustainable farming techniques, through the operation of farming schools, ultimately supporting poverty alleviation through the promotion of self-sufficiency in food production. Its vision for the future looks to broader horizons; to the support of local communities, the focus on sustainable development, the preservation of natural

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Fig. 37.

Ibeji statuette, 20th century Wood and beads, 26 x 19 x 14 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Fig. 38.

Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1989 Bead painting on wood, 121.5 x 42 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London Fig. 39.

Yoruba ibeji statuette, 20th century Wood, 50 x 19 x 20.5 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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resources, the protection of biodiversity, the eradication of disease, the support of education also for the very young, which will help schoolchildren today – tomorrow’s generation of adults – to unlock the potential offered by 21st-century culture. It thus follows in the footsteps of the creative vision of A. G. Leventis and those who have continued this legacy for over three decades.

Part of this legacy is most eloquently embodied in the A. G. Leventis Gallery in Nicosia, a unique space for the display and promotion of art, which in hosting this exhibition undertakes to transport viewers into the world of Anastasios Leventis and West African Modernism and its aftermath.

Through its art, its politics and its perception of underlying change, it is a world in which the words of famous Nigerian author Ben Okri ring poignantly true: ‘Politics is the art of the possible; creativity is the art of the impossible’. This exhibition is dedicated to those, visionaries as much as artists, who have made the impossible possible through their life and work.

Figs 40-41.

Silver and brass commemorative medals struck on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd (1937-1967) Fig. 42.

Anastasios G. Leventis at the inauguration ceremony of the A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd store in Accra, 1964

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Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.

Berenice Abbott1

The Photographic Archive of Anastasios G. Leventis Demetra Theodotou Anagnostopoulou, Deputy Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery, and Themis Anthopoulou, Archive and Communications Officer, A. G. Leventis Gallery About four years ago, the preparation process for the transfer of the Paris Collection from the cosmopolitan Avenue Foch apartment to the heart of Nicosia had begun. The unique works of art of leading artists that were so passionately collected by Anastasios G. Leventis had to be conserved and studied before travelling to their new – now permanent – home, the A. G. Leventis Gallery. In parallel to this process, which was exceptional for us, we started selecting the furniture, ornaments, books, documents and photographs that would constitute the material of the Gallery’s archive.

Over the course of this time we realised that, apart from the great art collection, we were also discovering and revealing an unknown, to us, part of the life of Anastasios G. Leventis. Through thousands of photographs, we reconstructed afresh, this time with pictures, the exciting life of this business genius, this prominent Cypriot, Anastasios G. Leventis, who on the threshold of the 20th century and within challenging geopolitical conditions was inspired to create – literally – from scratch a business colossus in West Africa, contributing decisively to the change of course of that world.

The archive, which in various ways sparked off the preparation of the Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa exhibition, consists of a number of photo albums, files and boxes in which photographs immortalising various events were stored. In many cases, short – albeit valuable – descriptions were attached to the material, which helped us classify the photographs, both chronologically and thematically.

When the material arrived in Nicosia in Spring 2013, the process of classifying and cataloguing began. The photographs that were in files were placed in special albums, accompanied by some basic information about each one or the section to which they belonged. Their digitalisation was started with the use of the expert software ‘TO MATI’ [The Eye].2 It should be mentioned that due to the large amount of photographs there is still a long way to go before the photographic archive is available to researchers and the public.

Fig. 43.

Anastasios G. Leventis, c. 1924 Fig. 44.

Anastasios G. Leventis, c. 1934

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We shall now attempt to describe and delimit the vast number of photographs in the archive in order to give readers the opportunity to become acquainted with Anastasios G. Leventis through some as yet unseen aspects of his life. We aim to trace the cosmopolitan route (see p. 43, fig. 48) he followed between Europe and Africa for almost six decades, which was marked by the historic happenings that shaped the profile of the modern world on both continents, laying emphasis, in particular, on the events directly linked to West Africa.

The earliest pictures in the Leventis Gallery archive date to around 1916 -1918. Young Anastasios, Tassi as he was called by his family and friends, was photographed in Lemythou (see p. 42, fig.

45), his birthplace, a mountainous village in the district of Limassol, shortly before leaving for his first stop, Egypt. The archive ends with the last years of his life in Athens and his death in 1978.

After fruitful discussions we chose to focus this exhibition and catalogue on the beginning of his career, which was determined by his special relationship with West Africa and its people.

For the purposes of the exhibition, we gathered and classified the photographic material as it was, without necessarily having digitalised it yet. We then converted all of the albums into an electronic book in order for them to be accessible in the specially arranged cube in the centre of the exhibition space. Apart from the digital books, photographs that characterise and represent the exhibits visually were selected and processed so that visitors can view them while strolling in the room, sometimes as parts of a larger composition and sometimes as isolated visual material.

We felt that it was important to display as much information as possible to inform readers and visitors about the relationship and ties of Anastasios G. Leventis with West Africa and his progress there. The truth is that he loved the Gold Coast, Ghana as it is known today, and Nigeria, and he was inspired by the sight of the African land in a way that triggered his business acumen; he believed in and trusted its people. At the same time, the photographic details on display provide us with an opportunity to become acquainted with West Africa, so distant and unknown to many.

As regards the material that connects Anastasios G. Leventis and his presence in West Africa, we singled out the photographs of the first years after his arrival there, around 1920-1921, when, after completing his studies at the École Supérieure de Commerce at Bordeaux, he started his professional career with the firm of Paterson Zochonis, and then with A. J. Tangalakis & Co. (see p. 43, fig. 49), which was bought by G. B. Ollivant Ltd. (see p. 43, fig. 50), a commercial firm in Abeokuta. In these years we meet an active, slender, dark-haired, extremely young man in photographs with his colleagues and friends, at social events or his office, at the private clubs of the colonial society and sometimes in nature (see pp. 44-45, figs 52-56). This is the same time to which this excerpt from a letter of his belongs: ‘[…] I also have a steam bicycle but a month ago coming from Lagos (67 miles) I almost killed myself twice; I had to stay a night at Bush 15 miles from Abeokuta injured and send a runner to Abeokuta to fetch me a cart […] I stayed in bed for a while and now I am well […]’. We wonder whether this letter describing this experience, dated 28 February 1924 and sent to his uncle, refers to the photograph of Anastasios sitting with his leg broken and looking enigmatically at the lens (see p. 42, fig. 47).

Another large section of photographs is the one starting with his engagement and wedding to Foteni (or Fofy as she was usually called), née Calliafas, a young woman of Greek origin who was brought up in Manchester (see p. 46, fig. 58). The photographs inform us about their acquaintance (see p. 46, fig. 57), Foteni’s family, the places they visited in England and their wedding on 19 August 1934, as well as their journey and arrival in West Africa, their settlement in Accra and the first years of their married life.

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Fig. 45.

The Leventis family at Lemythou, c. 1917

Fig. 48.

At the airport, c. 1935

Fig. 46.

The Leventis brothers (left to right): Charalambos, George, Christodoulos and Anastasios, c. 1917

Fig. 49.

A. J. Tangalakis & Co. offices, Lagos, c. 1924

Fig. 47.

Anastasios G. Leventis with broken leg, Abeokuta, 1924

Fig. 50.

G. B. Ollivant & Co. Ltd offices, Lagos, c. 1927

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Fig. 51.

Holidays in Biarritz, 1934

Fig. 53.

With fellow tennis players, Lagos, 1935

Fig. 52.

Garden party, Lagos, 1935

Fig. 54.

Excursion, 1935

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Fig. 55.

Games, 1938 Fig. 56.

Garden party, Goverment House, Lagos, 1938

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Two of the photo albums of the collection are of significant importance as they were created by Fofy Leventis herself and refer us with her handwritten notes to the life of the couple from 1934 to 1936. Carefree moments of the newlyweds in West Africa and elsewhere are documented in these. Photographs from Accra and Abeokuta, their first home – Villa Fota – with their dog, their first cars (see p. 48, figs 65- 68), their friends and many other images trace the start of their married life in a distant country that was meant to become their new homeland. They also include photographic material from their first journey from the Gold Coast to Cyprus via Italy and Greece in 1935 (see p. 47, figs 59-64).

One year later, in 1936, Anastasios founded his company, and this important event was immortalised with photographs of the first offices and the new employees. It is worth noting that Anastasios G. Leventis was one of the first European migrants who chose to employ local people, also giving them managerial positions. The whole development of the business, as of its very first steps until the end of World War II and the 1950s, is documented in a series of photographs showing the new buildings that were constructed to house the business, which was expanding rapidly, and the products represented by A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd. There are also photographs of employees, customers, new cars and imported agricultural machinery, while we single out the photographs of the huge groundnut pyramids ready to be exported to European markets. These images take us back to that time and reveal significant moments and events in the life of West Africa and Anastasios Leventis. After the end of the war, business was thriving; large stores were opened, machine works and factories were founded, and textiles, electrical appliances and even toys were traded in the department stores established both in Accra and Lagos (see p. 49, figs 70-75).

Family photos document important moments in the lives of Tassi and Fofy, but also of the wider Leventis family, as in 1936 his brothers Christos and Evagoras moved to Lagos to reinforce the newly founded A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd, while in 1938 his brother-in-law Alkiviadis David also arrived. We observe events at the various houses of the family (see p. 48, fig. 69), excursions to the coastal areas (see p. 50, figs 76-78) and moments at the high society private clubs (see p. 51, fig. 84) – mainly of European migrants working at the branches of large commercial firms from England and the rest of Europe. An important factor to remember is that British West Africa was at the time one of the major colonies of the British Crown.

Similar photographs transport us to equestrian games, where the Leventis horses won silver cups (see p. 51, figs 80, 82), to New Year’s Eve parties at clubs, outdoor receptions at the Governor’s house and official government events where we see Anastasios in a prominent position next to the High Commissioner, for example, at an event that took place on 28 December 1941 to raise money to support the Greek war fund (see p. 51, fig. 83).

An important part of the archives is also the extensive reference to the first moments of the establishment of the new sate of Ghana on 6 March 1957 (see p. 52, figs 85-86). Anastasios G. Leventis’ deep friendship with the first Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah (and later first President), in combination with the distinguished and key position of the Leventis companies in the economic life of the new state meant that Anastasios was present at all the official events.

Decisive moments that were captured on film and placed in his records by himself are supported

Fig. 57.

Tassi and Fofy, Manchester, UK, Summer 1934 Fig. 58.

Tassi and Fofy’s wedding photo, Manchester, UK, 19 August 1934

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Fig. 59.

Tassi and Fofy, on the way to Europe, 1935 Fig. 60.

Tassi and Fofy, Pisa, Italy, 1935 Fig. 61.

Tassi and Fofy, Capri, Italy, 1935

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Fig. 62.

Tassi, Venice, Italy, 1935 Fig. 63.

Tassi and Fofy, Corfu, Greece, 1935 Fig. 64.

Between the pillars of the temple at Sounion, Greece, 1935

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Fig. 67.

With the family dogs, 1935

_CREATIVE VISIONS – A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

Fig. 65.

Villa Fota at its best, Accra, 1936

Fig. 68.

Tassi and Fofy in front of Villa Fota, with their new car, 1935

Fig. 66.

On the porch swing, 1935

Fig. 69.

The new house at Abraka, 1939

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_CREATIVE VISIONS – A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

Fig. 70.

Groundnut pyramids, Kano, Nigeria, 1946

Fig. 73.

Leventis Motors, Kano, Nigeria, c. 1950

Fig. 71.

Leventis Stores, Kano, Nigeria, c. 1964

Fig. 74.

Motor Vehicle Imports, Leventis Motors, Lagos, c. 1957

Fig. 72.

Leventis Stores, Marina, Lagos, 1964

Fig. 75.

Leventis Stores, Marina, Lagos, 1964

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Figs 76-78.

Beach parties, Accra, 1943-1944

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Fig. 79.

Excursion to Kruger National Park, South Africa, 1943

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Fig. 80.

Brown Beauty and owner, 1935 Fig. 81.

At a football match in aid of the Greek war fund, Accra, September, 1940 Fig. 82.

Horse races, Accra, 1943

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Fig. 83.

Gala night at the post office in aid of the Greek war fund, Accra, December, 1940 Fig. 84.

Opening night of the American Officers Club, Accra, late 1943

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by invitations, the official programme, clippings from the local and international press, special editions and even personal notes.3 If someone wishes today to research the events that took place in Ghana from 1-20 March 1957, he may very well get all the information and details from this archive.

Three years later, Nigeria, where the Leventis business was successfully expanding, was declared – with peculiar circumstances and together with his homeland – an independent state on 1 October 1960. This event was also documented in the archive in the same way as the independence of Ghana.

Anastasios loved and supported Africans, and they never forgot him. Several years later, on 18 March 1971, King (Alake) Oba Alaiyeluwa Samuel Adesina Gbadebo II in a special ceremony in Abeokuta honoured Anastasios G. Leventis with the highest honour of Egbaland, declaring him ‘Babalaje’ (King of Egbaland). Two photo albums and many other single photographs immortalise the event, a crowning moment of acknowledgment as a prominent member of Nigerian society and as truly one of their own (see p. 54, figs 93-96).

The photographs of the Leventis couple and the rest of the family on their recreational trips, mainly out of West Africa, are also immensely interesting. Until the end of World War II they were forced to remain on the coast of Ghana and West Africa due to the ongoing situation in Europe. Marvellous landscapes with lush vegetation and endless beaches with palm trees stand out in these pictures, which also hide another aspect. They masterfully reveal Tassi's interest in photography and his passion to capture all that he loved, all that fulfilled, inspired and impressed him on his camera.4 Right after the World War II the Leventis family travelled to Europe and United States of America on vacation, but also to Cyprus to pay tribute to the beloved homeland that he never forgot and always supported. Albums and photographs of the early 1950s in particular, show careless moments in Italy, Switzerland, Greece, France and Monaco, where they enjoyed themselves with the world’s elite, lying in the sun and by the sea (see pp. 53, figs 88-91, pp. 56-57, figs 100-101).

Another category is the one with photos from Paris, where Anastasios Leventis, as Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador of Ghana to France, welcomed in 1958 the Prime Minister and later first President of Ghana (1960) Kwame Nkrumah and held a reception for him and the French president of the time, René Coty (see p. 52, fig. 87). A separate dimension of Anastasios Leventis’ 20-year stay in the French capital is his service as the first Permanent Representative of Cyprus to UNESCO. This post was offered to him in 1966 by Archbishop Makarios III, the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, with whom he worked closely (see p. 55, fig. 97), accompanying him on many official and important national missions (see p. 55, fig. 99). As Ambassador he received and met remarkable and world-renowned personalities. Among them was Constantine Karamanlis, who at the time lived in exile in Paris and with whom he became friends. All these photographs, together with personal carefree and tender reflections of that time with his daughter (see p. 55, fig. 92), nephews and nieces (see p. 53, figs 89-90) at winter and summer resorts, will constitute the theme of a future analogous edition.

To close this part of the exhibition, we left a large group of photographs depicting exclusively Anastasios G. Leventis for the end. We observe in progression, first in the strictly black-and-white photographs and then the ones in colour, the young boy from Lemythou and Petra becoming Figs 85-86.

Ghanaian indepedence celebrations, 6 March 1957 Fig. 87.

Anastasios G. Leventis, as Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador of Ghana to France, with the Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and the French president, René Coty, Paris, France, 1958.

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Fig. 88.

Tassi and Fofy, Rome, Italy, 1950 Fig. 89.

Deno, Tasso, Fofy and Harry Leventis, Christmas at Torquay, UK, 1948 (left to right) Fig. 90.

Tassi and Fofy with their nephews and niece (left to right): George A. David, Iro Hunt, Deno Leventis, and a friend, Paris, late 1950s

_CREATIVE VISIONS – A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

Fig. 91.

St Moritz, Switzerland, 1950 Fig. 92.

Anastasios G. Leventis with his daughter, Fotini, New Year’s Eve, Badgastein, Austria, 1957

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Figs 93-96.

King (Alake) Oba Alaiyeluwa Samuel Adesina Gbadebo II in a special ceremony in Abeokuta honoured Anastasios G. Leventis with the highest honour of Egbaland, declaring him ‘Babalaje’ (King of Egbaland), 18 March 1971

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Fig. 97.

Anastasios G. Leventis with Archibishop Makarios III, Nicosia, Cyprus, June 1964 Fig. 98.

Anastasios G. Leventis with his daugther, Fotini, visiting his village of Petra Soleas, Cyprus, June 1964 Fig. 99.

The Cyprus delegation at the annual General Assembly of the United Nations, New York, USA, September 1974

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a stately gentleman who acquired and radiated the aura of success. Anastasios’ complex personality is displayed in part through this puzzle of portraits. Some of his main features can be discerned by the viewer in these photographs, in which he always posed and looked intently at the camera; a proud, bold and insightful man, intelligent and creative, determined and dynamic.

This book is a starting point for us, a way to introduce to the public the photographic archives of Anastasios G. Leventis, the collector. This Gallery, which bears his name, was also his vision. We aim to study, classify and present properly the archive in future thematic volumes. This is how we keep memories alive.

Anastasios G. Leventis’ penetrating gaze follows us meaningfully through the exhibition and this edition, inviting us to a significant and original ‘reading’ of his beloved West Africa and of himself: the businessman, the collector, the man.

Figs 100-101.

St Moritz, Switzerland, 1950

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We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.

Denis Diderot

Gathering Memories from the Apartment of A. G. Leventis in Paris Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, Director, A. G. Leventis Gallery Anastasios G. Leventis and his wife, Foteni, or Fofy as she was mostly known, moved to the City of Light in 1948. Initially they lived in a luxurious apartment on the Boulevard Suchet, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and in 1960 they moved to a beautiful apartment in the most elegant and aristocratic neighbourhood of the French capital, at 86 Avenue Foch (see p. 61, figs 103-104). The couple lived in Paris for more than three decades, enjoying cosmopolitan French society, though Anastasios travelled frequently to West Africa, where his business headquarters were, and to other countries in Europe and the rest of the world.

The photographs collected from the apartment on Avenue Foch allow us to envisage to a certain degree their first apartment as well, the one on the Boulevard Suchet, and to acknowledge the refined taste of the Leventis couple: not just the furniture, the carpets and the ornaments, but also the manner in which these, in combination with the wonderful collections of artworks, marked and outlined the world of Tassi and Fofy. This was a warm home, a unique space where the history of European art, with works selected and purchased by the collector himself, and fine taste coexisted in harmony.

What this text will attempt to record is the unseen world of the many objects, small and large, that were stored in drawers and cupboards in the apartment and that bring to light the unknown side of Anastasios G. Leventis – knick-knacks, desk accessories, cards, stationery, photographs, small odd collections, interesting details that unfold moments that have passed to eternity. We shall then present this ‘private world’ with respect to the memory of both Anastasios and Fofy Leventis.

This contribution will not refer extensively to the substantial records we found properly and perfectly classified and catalogued with reference to all the purchases of artworks by the collector. These records are divided in three sections: paintings, furniture and ornaments. They are classified per year from 1950 to 1977. Each year includes auction catalogues, purchase invoices and even photocopies of cheques used to pay for specific artworks. This archival material still constitutes the basis and starting point for all research for the artworks in the Paris Collection. A separate file,

Fig. 102.

Anastasios and Fofy Leventis, 1950s Figs 103-104.

The TV room of the Avenue Foch apartment

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dated 1973, includes letters and catalogues referring to the works in the Greek Collection, which Anastasios purchased from Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza.

As we emptied the drawers of gilt-mounted Louis XV furniture, such as the Bernard II van Risenburgh commode1 and the secrétaire made by Adrian Faizelot Delorme,2 beautifully inlaid with floral designs, the life of a man who could undoubtedly be characterised as a citizen of the world unfolded before our eyes. The first impression that one forms about Anastasios G. Leventis from the objects in the Avenue Foch apartment is that of a businessman who has travelled far and wide and during difficult times as well. Photographs record his journeys, his tours of Europe and England and stays at cosmopolitan resorts, depending on the time of year. Today, these photographs are part of the large photographic archive that is discussed in another essay in this catalogue (see herein, pp. 41-56). Anastasios liked to collect travel guides, slides, cards and other small objects from airlines and from the hotels where he stayed, as well as small memorabilia from his travels.

From a distant journey to Tokyo (see p. 62, figs 105-107), he kept in a special case flip-flops, silk fabrics, board games and items for personal use offered by the airline with which he travelled.

This journey was made in 1970 within the framework of the official visit of the first President of the Republic of Cyprus.

Equally interesting are, of course, the books – mainly literature – that were found in double rows in the bookcases of the Avenue Foch apartment. Organised with particular attention, they were divided into Greek and foreign literature, travel books and, naturally, books and catalogues of art exhibitions from great museums and galleries both in France and the rest of the world. It is precisely this material that helped us become better acquainted with the collector, since the books were mainly chosen according to his collections. A series of art journals, currently considered quite valuable, such as the well-known Connaissance des Arts, was discovered in the attic, where material on Greek painters was also found, probably collected after Anastasios had bought the Greek Collection from Averoff-Tossizza. It seems that his zeal and need to be informed, to read and to enrich his knowledge go back in time to when he was in West Africa, where he subscribed to newspapers and magazines that arrived by post especially for him.3 We were also impressed by the large number of dictionaries he kept, indicative of his determination to perfect his mastery of the many languages he knew and spoke very well. In their majority these are small pocket dictionaries of various languages (see p. 63, fig. 108).

What is of particular importance for the Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa exhibition is the material Anastasios collected for the official ceremonies marking the establishment of the Republic of Ghana in 1957 and the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1960: invitations, special editions, even the menus from various dinners, events programmes and newspapers and clippings from the contemporary press coverage (see pp. 64-65). All this evidence constitutes a unique record of the events that marked and defined a new era for West Africa, the birth of two new states. Anastasios G. Leventis celebrated the establishment of the two new states as much as the indigenous people of these countries, knowing perhaps that his own small homeland would also celebrate its independence soon after Ghana did. This section includes a plethora of newspapers and journals of the time with articles and advertisements about the Leventis companies and him, along with best wishes for the new beginning. Equally interesting are the files and boxes where whole newspapers or clippings were kept and which are dated between 1950 to around 1973 and which have now been classified. Another section includes press clippings from Cypriot newspapers referring to Anastasios G. Leventis and his family. These newspapers were sent regularly, especially after 1960, by his friend, the late Patroclos Stavrou.4

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Figs 105-106.

Photos from the official visit of Archbishop Makarios III to Japan, 4-9 November 1970 Fig. 107.

Memorabilia from the visit to Japan Fig. 108.

A case of four pocket dictionaries, Mignet Series, Burges & Bowls Ltd, London 1964, and a Greek dictionary, Athens 1921 Fig. 109.

Anastasios G. Leventis’ camera and manual, c. 1950

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The honorary medals and distinctions Anastasios was awarded during his life are also important objects. Some were neatly placed in a cabinet in the TV room of the Avenue Foch apartment.

These were the easiest for us to document and record. Others were kept in a safe in the house and also had to be identified and recorded. He was honoured by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, King Paul of Greece, Archbishop Makarios III, the Republic of Cyprus, the French Government and many international organisations (see pp. 66-67, figs 110-111).5 Some of the most special objects and memorabilia that we gathered are the medals, silver cups and awards Anastasios received from his participation in car races and equestrian games.

Some of the cups are exhibited in a special display case in the entrance hall of the A. G. Leventis Gallery. Those who would like to learn about another aspect of the collector’s life, his passion for racing, can trace this through the various driver’s licences he acquired – the oldest dating back to 1924 after passing a test in Ghana – as well as the many international driver’s licences and by examining all the medals he received for participating in car races in Africa and Europe, his crowning moment being his award at the Salon of Monte Carlo in 1954 (see p. 71, fig. 116).

Another large collection that forms a separate grouping of the personal items found are various board games: backgammon in a red leather case, a Chinese board game, packs of cards, and sets of chips made of bone. All these games were neatly stored in a big box in the TV room, easily accessible to all interested parties. Of particular note is a commemorative wooden box for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (see p. 68, fig. 112). The box includes smaller boxes made of leather bearing the queen’s coat of arms and containing such board games as chess, dominoes and even a small roulette wheel. In addition, for that same event, we found in the archive invitations, the programme for the coronation ceremony, newspapers and special editions. We can imagine the guests of Anastasios G. Leventis playing these games at the end of a social evening. We know that, while on leisure trips and in his free time, he frequented the casinos of the cities he visited, as was customary for the high society of his time.

An unknown collection of Anastasios G. Leventis is his coin collection, which was adequately researched and recorded and kept in a leather briefcase in his study. The collection includes coins featuring the monarchs of Britain, Greece, Austria and other European countries. It also includes ancient and Byzantine coins, as well as commemorative coins for important events, for example the Olympic Games. Certain other objects could be grouped with this collection, such as commemorative medals that were struck as souvenirs for games, important personalities, to celebrate the New Year or even to mark important events or company anniversaries. This particular section includes the copper and silver medals that were made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Leventis companies.

There are also many small-scale collections of Anastasios G. Leventis. One particularly interesting one is his collection of matchboxes – some bearing the initials of the Leventis couple. Among the small, unique and typical items concerning Anastasios personally is the plethora of cigarette and pipe filters, as well as dozens of cigar cutters, that smokers always carry: simple, made of silver, or more complicated, made of old coins, and even those that a smoker could purchase from his neighbourhood kiosk or a tobacconist (see p. 70, fig. 115).

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Fig. 110.

Diploma for the honorary distinction given to Anastasios G. Leventis by the Orthodox Bishop of France and Iberia, Meletios, 1963 Fig. 111.

Anastasios G. Leventis’ special honorary distinctions from the Paris apartment (see p. 149, note 5)

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Fig. 112.

A limited edition of various board games circulated on the occassion of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953

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Fig. 113.

Drawings by Anastasios G. Leventis’ nephews Deno, Tasso and Harry Leventis and grandchildren Constantinos and Maria Yiorkadjis

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The drawers of Fofy Leventis’ elegant desk, as well as those of Anastasios, contained stationery with their initials, business and personal cards, as well as invitations and menus from various dinners and receptions to which they were invited. Equally interesting – given the wide circle of people all over the world with whom Anastasios had both professional and personal relations, and which allows us to follow the evolution of the design of business cards – is a small box of such cards, found among many other boxes for various uses and small objects. According to some handwritten notes, some cards date back to 1926 (see pp. 58-59). On some of these, Anastasios wrote when and why they were given to him. Many scattered cards have also been found in drawers of other pieces of furniture and in smaller files. We have gathered all these business cards in a special archival file, and perhaps in the future they can be systematically studied by sociologists and historians.

The many telegrams found in two large files are also revealing of the world of the Leventis couple.

The first date back to 1934 and were sent from Cyprus to Ghana to Anastasios and Fofy Leventis for their wedding, wishing them well or, in Greek, ‘a life strewn with flowers’. Another subsection are the telegrams from Africa, Cyprus, England and elsewhere to the Leventis couple in Greece, where they were celebrating their silver wedding anniversary with a leisure trip in August 1959. Some also congratulate Anastasios for his decoration by King Paul of Greece around the same time.

It appears that Anastasios’ relationship with the Greek royal family was quite close. Apart from the medal he was awarded by King Paul in 1959, he was also one of the distinguished guests at the wedding of King Constantine with Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, which took place in Athens on 18 September 1964 (see p. 70, fig. 114). This is evidenced by the silver wedding favour with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Greece and the many photographs of him with the couple.

Anastasios’ love for his nieces, nephews and grandchildren is demonstrated by the care he showed in keeping their greeting cards and letters. He also framed some of their Christmas and Easter drawings and hung them in his apartment (see p. 69, fig. 113). Made by the hands of children, these drawings ‘met’ the great painters of his collections and take their own special place in the Leventis archives.

Several letters and handwritten notes outlining Anastasios’ relationships with his friends and with personalities he met during his life have also been assembled. His personal letters and correspondence with his family and his wife have been given to the family and are not part of the A. G. Leventis Gallery archives.

Stamps are another small collection. A large box contained stamps clipped from envelopes sent to him, a suggestion perhaps that he meant to collect them in a more systematic way. Another cardboard box contained envelopes from the first day of operation of the Cyprus Post, with the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960, until 1978, which corroborates this assumption.

Time never stopped at the apartment on Avenue Foch. There was not a single room without at least one clock: small or large, antique or modern, a clock constantly indicating the passing of time. (see p. 72, fig. 117)

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Fig. 114.

Royal commemorative gift on the occassion of the wedding of King Constantine II of Greece and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, 1964 Fig. 115.

A silver cigarrette rolling paper accessory with the initials A. G. L. Fig. 116.

Various driver’s licenses, automobile club membership cards and awards

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All these things that we have briefly and concisely described were perhaps in their majority small, personal items that have lasted in time and survived in an exceptional condition in order to ‘speak’ to us about Anastasios and Fofy Leventis; items that perhaps we all possess as well, that we consider worthless or of no special value, in other words, ephemeral. However, for a collector such as Anastasios G. Leventis, a personality of such range, a man who started with a vision and created an empire, these small objects constitute important and valuable evidence.

They reveal his character and values and help us to trace his perceptiveness, his sensitivities and, primarily, his timelessness. The Anastasios G. Leventis archive of memorabilia is an inexhaustible source of information about the daily life of an eminent personality. In essence, our archive confirms the meaning of the word ‘memorabilia’ as given in the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘objects kept or collected for their historical interest because of their associations with memorable people or events’.

Fig. 117.

Some of the clocks from the Paris apartment Fig. 118.

Anastasios G. Leventis in front of a portrait of his mother in the TV room of the Paris apartment, c. 1950-1960

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Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.

Kwame Nkrumah (First Prime Minister and later first President of Ghana)

An Outline of West African History and Culture Adisa Ogunfolakan, Director, A. G. Leventis Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria When he arrived in West Africa around 1920, Anastasios G. Leventis ventured into a land with a long and diverse history; an ancient land marked by its multiplicity, with which he would tie his fortunes for the decades to come, linking his destiny with the complex socio-historical shifts that were to mark that part of the 20th century in a region undergoing dramatic change. This essay traces, in brief, that complex past, set in a broader historic and cultural context and focusing from the precolonial period to the present.

West Africa is the westernmost part of the African continent and comprises 18 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, the island of Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the island of Saint Helena, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The region lies west of an imagined north-south axis near 10° east longitude. The Atlantic Ocean marks the western and the southern borders of the area. The northern border is the Sahara Desert, while the eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at the Benue Trough and others on a line running from Mount Cameroon to Lake Chad. Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern borders between contemporary West African states, cutting across ethnic and cultural lines and often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more states.

The history of this part of Africa can be divided into six major periods: the prehistoric era, in which the first human settlers arrived, developed agriculture and made contact with peoples to the north; the Iron Age empires period, during which trade both within and outside of Africa was consolidated and centralised states developed; the precolonial period, when major polities flourished and experienced extensive contact with non-Africans, particularly through the slave trade; the colonial period, in which Great Britain and France controlled nearly the whole of the region; the independence era, when some entities started gaining control of their states; and the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.

The precolonial period was the era of human trafficking into Europe and America. Europeans had established trade contacts with Africans, and the escalating demand for slaves led to an expansion of European commercial activities, particularly along the coast. By the early 18th century African rulers and merchants of the coastlands were well-prepared and organised to sell

Fig. 119.

From a collection of photographs related to Lagos, produced for the needs of promoting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960

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slaves in substantial quantities. They dealt mostly with European small traders, who were not connected to particular companies; this arrangement was welcomed by African rulers, who had no wish to see the latter establish permanent bases and political claims on their coasts. British traders, bolstered by their nation’s command of the seas and abundant supplies of trade goods and capital, were the most successful in manipulating this pattern of trade.

The course of history in West Africa was irrevocably altered when factional disputes at the religious centre of the Islamic world provoked Wahhabi fundamentalists to capture Mecca (1803) and Medina (1805). Their strong opposition to mystical Sufism, the dominant form of Islam practised in western and central Sudan, galvanised African Sufis and strengthened the position of the Sufi Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya orders in sub-Saharan Africa. The responsibility to spread Islamic precepts among non-believers inspired a surge of Fulani reformist jihads, which resulted in the establishment of large-scale theocratic states, stretching from the southern Sahara to the coast of Guinea and to northern Ivory Coast. Notably, Usman dan Fodio’s Fulani Empire replaced the Hausa city-states, Seku Amadu’s Massina Empire defeated the Bambara, and El Hadj Umar Tall’s Toucouleur Empire briefly conquered much of modern-day Mali. This had a profound effect on the cultural and artistic history of the region. Large-scale migration fuelled the stylistic development and exchange of sculptural forms, as well as the consolidation of ethnic identity in response to foreign influences, while competing Islamic ideologies sparked debates over urban design and religious architecture.

This period is also marked by the ‘Scramble for Africa’, the imperialistic advances of France and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Portugal into the region, subjugating kingdom after kingdom. European travellers arrived in central Sudan and documented such urban centres as Jenne and Timbuktu.

By the end of the 19th century, Senegal had emerged as the most productive and populous French colony, with important mercantile activity at Dakar and Saint-Louis along the coast. With the fall of both Samory Ture’s Wassoulou Empire in 1898 and the Ashanti Empire’s Queen Yaa Asantewaa in 1902, most West African military resistance to colonial rule ceased. France created the federation of French West Africa (1895-1960), bringing together Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Britain ruled over the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone throughout the colonial era. Portugal established the colony of Guinea-Bissau; Germany founded Togoland, which was then divided between France and Britain following World War I as a condition of the Treaty of Versailles. Liberia retained its independence, although it ceded major territorial concessions.

Starting already in the 1870s, colonial conquest and expeditions resulted in the importation of large quantities of African sculptures into Europe. These were displayed in museums in Paris, Berlin, Munich, London and elsewhere – considered as ‘curiosities’ produced by colonised peoples rather than as artworks. However, the interest in non-Western art of many early Modernists focused on the sculpture of sub-Saharan Africa. For much of the 20th century this influence was often described as ‘Primitivism’, a term which denoted the fascination with the formal, ‘primal’ power of such art, but, somewhat simplistically defined it from a Western perspective, without acknowledging its staggering diversity and cultural complexity. During the early 1900s, the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became a potent stimulus amongst European avantgarde artists. In France, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and others were profoundly influenced by the highly stylised representation of the human figure characteristic of African sculpture,

Fig. 120.

From a collection of photographs related to Lagos, produced for the needs of promoting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960

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Figs 121-128.

From a collection of photographs related to Lagos, produced for the needs of promoting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960

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which, with the influence of the art of Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, contributed to defining early Modernism and to its quality of pictorial flatness, bright colouring and fragmented forms.

While these artists were unaware of the original meaning and function of West and Central African sculptures, some were sensitive to their tangible, spiritual power, an aspect they adapted in their own attempts to move beyond naturalism. Beyond the Parisian avant-garde, amongst whom African art played a pivotal role in the emergence of Picasso’s Cubism, in Germany such Expressionist painters as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner combined African influences with the power of clashing colours and distortion to convey the anxieties of modern life, while Paul Klee developed a symbolic imagery. After an exhibition of Gauguin’s work in Dresden in 1910, interest in nonWestern art was further bolstered amongst the Expressionists, while Modernist movements in Italy, England and America initially engaged with African art through contacts with School of Paris artists. Avant-garde artists, their dealers and leading critics of the era were amongst the first Europeans to collect African sculpture for its aesthetic value.

Going beyond the influence of Africa on the West, let us consider some of the effects of European influence in West Africa. In the 19th century, West Africa became a hub of European missionary and educational activities, and major towns in some states developed into important cultural centres. More businesses also sprang up, and by the early 20th century such major companies as G. B. Ollivant Ltd, the Royal Niger Company (later renamed the United African Company [UAC]) and A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd (founded in 1936) had established themselves, and continue today to have holdings, in Nigeria and Accra (capital of the Gold Coast, now Ghana), as well as in Ivory Coast and Togo. Certain cultural aspects, including cuisine, the marriage system, dress codes and hairstyles, have altered as a consequence of European presence. West African peoples were trading with the Arab world centuries before the arrival of Europeans; as such, spices were introduced and became part of the local culinary traditions alongside indigenous wild pepper. The Portuguese, French and British further influenced regional cuisines, when European explorers and slaves ships arrived with different chili peppers and tomatoes from the New World.

Groundnuts, corn, cassava and plantain became staples of the West African diet. The local cuisine in the French-colonised states was entirely changed due to the politics of ‘assimilation’.

Although the European colonists brought many new ingredients to the African continent, a strong West African culinary tradition lives on despite the influences of colonisation and food migration.

People no longer observe the customary mode of marriage negotiated by an intermediary as in the precolonial period; Christian weddings now take place in churches rather than in a family setting. Hairstyles have become increasingly westernised instead of featuring the braiding of hair previously favoured by women.

By the 1940s, a series of riots erupted in some West African states as a result of resentment of high prices and of the emerging nationalist movements. During the Accra Riots of 1948 in Ghana, the most serious instance of anti-colonial violence in post-World War II West Africa, the only large stores not to be burnt were those of Leventis & Co., in contrast to the earlier non-violent protests of the Aba Women’s Riot of 1929 in eastern Nigeria. Following the war, nationalist movements arose across West Africa. These factions resulted in agitation for independence, and by 1957 Ghana, under Kwame Nkrumah, became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve independence, followed the subsequent year by France’s colonies; in 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain; by 1974, West Africa’s nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been submerged in political instability, notably with civil wars in Ivory

Fig. 129.

From a collection of photographs related to Lagos, produced for the needs of promoting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960

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Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and a succession of military coups in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and elsewhere. Since the end of colonialism, the region has been the stage for some of the most brutal conflicts ever to erupt. This could be attributed to the weak structures laid down by the colonial masters and the incompatible merger of ethnic groups. Some states adopted (and still exercise) the political system of the country that had colonised them without instituting their own political mechanism or adopting a system synchronised with the extant colonial political and administrative organisation.

Businesses were nevertheless thriving, and up to the 1960s most of the states anchored their economy on agricultural products. For instance, in Nigeria cocoa and groundnut were major agricultural exports, much in demand in Europe and America, which led many people from subsistence farming to permanent cropping. The first multi-storey building in Nigeria, and indeed West Africa, was built in Ibadan from the gains of cocoa exports. This success was short-lived, as the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria, for instance, led to the abandonment of agricultural products and changes in the fortune and culture of the people. More industries were established, and there was a drift from rural areas to urban ones. The dependency on agricultural products for foreign exchange was outstripped by oil exportation. Leaders became corrupt, and infrastructures were not in place. By the 1960s, coups and counter-coups were the order of the day. Military personnel who were not administrators were now at the helm of affairs, and the aftermath was further mismanagement of resources. Since independence, West Africa has suffered – as has much of the African continent – particularly from dictatorships, political corruption and military coups, as well as famine and AIDS. At the time of his death in 2005, for example, Étienne Eyadéma of Togo was the longest-serving ruler in Africa and amongst the world’s longest-ruling dictators. With the rare example of the nearly bloodless Agacher Strip War between Mali and Burkina Faso, there has been little inter-country strife. However, the successive changes of government through military coups have altered and continue to affect the course of progress in the region as corruption is rampant. This has virtually led to a state of poverty in a land of plenty.

Fig. 130.

From a collection of photographs related to Lagos, produced for the needs of promoting the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, 1960

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It is the cotton that the mother cards, that her child will spin.

Yoruba proverb

A Brief History of Cloth in Africa Antony Griffiths, formerly Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London When the Portuguese first arrived on the coast of West Africa in the 15th century, Africans had already been weaving cloth for at least 1000 years. Along the thickly wooded coastal areas, the main fibre was raffia, strips from the leaves of plants growing naturally. This was woven into cloth on a vertical loom in square panels, which could be sewn together to make garments. Such weaving became the exclusive preserve of women, though the cloth was worn by both sexes.

Cotton first arrived south of the Sahara, it seems, in the late 1st millennium, carried from Egypt

by Muslim immigrants. This was hand-spun into thread and woven in narrow strips (typically 8-10 cm wide) on a horizontal loom. These strips were sewn together along the long sides to form complete cloths of whatever size was required. This narrow-strip weaving was the exclusive preserve of men, though again the cloth was worn by both sexes. Very little cloth in West Africa was made other than for apparel.

As clothing, cloth was assembled into rectangular panels, which were worn as wraps. A woman would wear a smaller wrap round the waist, tucked in rather than pinned, with perhaps a second one round the torso. A man would wear a much larger cloth with one end thrown over one shoulder, in the same way as the Romans wore their togas. Under the influence of Islam, a new sort of man’s tunic with very wide shoulders and sleeves became very fashionable by the 17th century at the latest, not only in the Muslim areas in the north, but also in the non-Muslim areas in the jungles of the south. These tunics, often called boubous or tobes in Europe, were pulled over the head and were pleated to hang below the waist. On the breast were areas with elaborate embroidery, often using patterns that were thought to have a magical significance. The two most common of these are known as the ‘two-knives’ and ‘eight-knives’ patterns. Beneath the tunic was worn a pair of trousers with enormous waist dimensions, often five or six metres in diameter, and gathered together with a drawstring. Like the tunics themselves, these aimed to satisfy the African love of imposing scale; the bigger the cloth, the greater the man wearing it.

The women’s loom allowed a cotton cloth to be made about a metre wide; two panels sewn together would make a cloth of a size for a woman, three a cloth for a man. With narrow strips, a minimum of 12 strips were needed for a woman’s cloth and 22 for a man’s. To sew this number of strips together so that the cloth hangs properly was highly skilled work done by men. Although boubous were decorated after assemblage by male embroiderers, most other African cloth relied

Fig. 131.

Turtle, detail of fig. 133 from a man’s robe (kente), Ghana, c. 1950-1960 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe

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on weaving (not embroidery) to produce decorative patterns of often very complex kinds. Also used, though for less expensive items, was tie- or resist-dyeing, usually after the strips had been sewn together into complete cloths. The local dyes available were primarily indigo and some reds; there was also a local wild silk that was a natural buff brown. Other colours had to be imported.

The most expensive of these was the waste silk from the factories of Italy and France, which was dyed a magnificent magenta red in North Africa and carried by camel across the Sahara to be spun and woven, primarily in Nigeria.

Africans wove cloth not only for personal and local use, but also as an item of long-distance trade.

Some types, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, became frozen in a tradition of decoration that reaches back for many centuries. Other types of cloth responded to fast-moving fashions and continually developed and changed. This produces many problems for the historian, as the damp climate in West Africa means that few cloths survive very long, and it is only when they found their way into European collections that a firm date is known. As a result, documented African cloths earlier than the imperialist decades of the late 19th century are excessively rare, and the vast majority of surviving cloths date from the 20th century. New inventions such as sewing machines were quickly adopted in Africa and had a major effect on production methods. An abundant local hand-woven production continued up to the 1960s, but has today greatly diminished. Women’s weaving on the vertical loom hardly survives, and it is only in Nigeria that men’s strip-weaving still flourishes, thanks to the demand for a specially designed pattern of cloth to be made into garments worn by the bride and groom’s side at weddings.

European traders had to fit into this highly complex and changing environment. West Africa has always been an area rich in gold and other natural resources, and there was plenty that Europeans wanted to acquire; the difficulty was to find anything that the Africans wanted in exchange.

Cloth was one such commodity, and initially traders found a market for cheap varieties used for everyday wear. None of these survive. More significant from the late 18th century onwards was the import of European thread. The invention of the spinning jenny by James Hargreaves in 1764 and the development of new dyes produced a much cheaper thread in a huge range of colours that the African weavers exploited to dramatic effect. The development of kente cloth in Ghana, now often seen as the archetypal ‘African’ cloth, was dependent on the availability of European thread. European scissors and metal sewing needles were also much in demand.

Much finer qualities of cloth were imported into Africa throughout the 18th and 19th centuries by European traders from India and South-East Asia. Again, none of these seem to survive, though they can often be seen being worn in late 19th-century photographs. One type that proved immensely popular was the batik cloth from Indonesia, imported by Dutch merchants. Its success led to the search for an equivalent that could be manufactured in Europe, and the technique known as ‘wax printing’ was invented as a way to achieve this. It quickly established itself as a high-end commodity in West Africa and became a major export industry dominated by British and Dutch manufacturers. New designs were produced every year for the fashion-conscious African market, and these would have been a staple item of trade for a firm such as A. G. Leventis & Co. Ltd. Wax-printed cloths continue to be produced by the Dutch firm Vlisco for the African market, while English production ceased only recently; the last surviving firm was bought by a Chinese concern and the machinery and production moved to China. There are today many varieties of cloth manufactured by machine in Africa itself, and new sorts of textiles have come into fashion, such as those made of Lurex metallic thread and the ‘fancy’ fabrics imported from Switzerland.

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Fig. 132.

Igala cloth for the masquerade dance, Nigeria, c. 1950-1970 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe

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Fig. 133.

Man’s robe (kente), Ghana, c. 1950-1960 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe

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Fig. 134.

Man’s robe (kente), Ghana, c. 1900-1910 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe

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The cloths from the collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe displayed in the exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa include a man’s robe (see p. 93, fig. 134) now called a kente, created in Ghana c. 1900-1910, in 24 strips, with a mid-brown warp and wefts mostly in shades of red. The strips show mixed weft-faced and warp-faced blocks, the latter often with supplementary weft motifs. The black thread used has decayed and is missing in parts.

A second man’s robe (kente), (see p. 92, fig. 133); also from Ghana, is later in date, c. 19501960, in 22 strips, with the warp on the front showing red and on the back blue. The strips show alternating weft-faced and warp-faced blocks in a checkerboard pattern. Both are formal attire, for a wealthy and important man, perhaps a chieftain, at a public ceremony. Such cloths were far too valuable (and hot and heavy!) for everyday wear.

Unlike these cloths, another piece (see p. 91, fig. 132) was not intended for clothing: it was used to wrap round the base of a mask to hide the shoulders of the man wearing the mask in a dance.

Created c. 1950-1970, it is called an Igala cloth and comes from the Cross River area in the Igbo region of south-eastern Nigeria: it consists of 16 strips of white hand-spun cotton, tie-dyed with blue indigo in blocks of 4 triangles alternating with dots. The pattern is only in the centre of the cloth; the ends and edges are plain blue.

One further example (see pp. 94-95, figs 135-136) is English machine-spun and machine-woven cotton made for the West African market in the late 1960s. It was bought in Ghana in 1967 or 1969 by the textile historian Roderick Taylor, from whom it was acquired by the collectors. It is formed of two pieces sewn together as woman’s clothing and is wax-printed in dark blue and red in a diamond pattern with a golden lion in the centre of each diamond. On the selvage can be read Guaranteed English wax. Intended as everyday wear, cloth of this kind was primarily worn by women. It was sold in standard lengths and made up locally by tailors into whatever type of garment was required. The cloth was printed (mainly in Manchester) with a huge range of patterns designed in England specifically for the West African market; such patterns were never marketed in Europe.

Fig. 135.

English machine-spun, machine-woven cotton made for the West African market, late 1960s Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe Fig. 136.

Golden lion, detail of fig. 135 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe

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Art is a man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.

Chinua Achebe (Nigerian novelist and poet)

Thoughts on West African Modernism in the Context of the Exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa Maria Varnava, Director, Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London

It was an incredibly interesting proposition to be asked to write a text for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa. Interesting, because the A. G. Leventis Gallery, located on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus and created and donated to the nation by the A. G. Leventis Foundation in 2014, has chosen for its first anniversary exhibition to focus not on the relationship of the Leventis Foundation with Cyprus, or even with Greece, but on West Africa, in particular Nigeria. Although the connection might not be initially apparent, there is in fact a long history between Anastasios G. Leventis and this area of the African continent. A. G. Leventis migrated to West Africa around 1920, establishing himself professionally and setting solid foundations for the creation of an enterprise that grew and flourished on an international scale and continues at the same pace to the present day. As such, there is a very strong, century-long link between the Leventis family and West Africa, and this is being celebrated for the Gallery’s first anniversary with an exhibition of works bringing Nigeria to Cyprus and, with it, the story of a family and two countries coming from different ‘places’ but whose histories are very much interlinked.

This text will focus on Modernism,1 in particular its manifestation in a West African context, exploring two examples: the Natural Synthesis movement in Nigeria, which played a considerable role in the development of a West African Modernism; and, with photography being such a key medium in discussions of modernity, the Nigerian photographer J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere.

Modernism For the British art historian T. J. Clark, modernity is rooted in notions of transition – a departure from the past with an eye towards the future. It is characterised by risks, by change, and through the flexible nature of time and space.2 It can thus be argued, according to Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, that Modern African art was created in a context of political, social and historical necessities, which by turn played an important role in both its development and visual character.

Further, Modern African art ‘involved the modes of symbolic communication used by modern African artists to negotiate their location within a Eurocentric colonial culture’.3 Salah M. Hassan elaborates on this, noting that modernity, even in a European context, is both expansive and

Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Esu (detail of fig. on p. 110), c. 1960-1970 Carved etching plate, 49 x 70 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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fragmented, occurring in different spaces (countries, regions) at different times and taking different forms. This is corroborated by Rasheed Araeen, who maintains that ‘modernity is better understood as being open and not necessarily limited to a universalised European construct’.4 As such, modernity within the context of West Africa took many forms and was inspired by different external forces, for example slavery and colonialism – from both the Anglophone and Francophone worlds.

During the mid-20th century in West Africa, the visual arts and the process of decolonisation worked together to increase national consciousness, ultimately resulting in new ways of thinking about the possibilities of artistic practice. Hassan describes this as the most important component of African Modernism: ‘the nationalistic cultural resurgence that swept through many newly independent African countries and where government patronage and interest in the arts became part of decolonisation, the nation building project and refashioning of the self in modern terms’.5 Work that was produced during this period resulted in the discovery of new motifs of self-representation; it was nationalistic on the one hand, but also international in its perspective.

Thus, as shall be discussed, the need to create a new language of representation required artists to consider local methods of art production in relation to international modes of producing art.

Interestingly, as a side note, A. G. Leventis was present in Nigeria during this period and would have witnessed this moment of change. He would have seen the Nigerian people coming out of colonialism and in the process of formulating their post-modern identities. Additionally, he would also, in a way, have partaken in this process through the modern buildings constructed for the Leventis business activities. Moreover, one could go as far as to argue that A. G. Leventis would have been more than just an observer to this moment – he would presumably have been able to relate to the process, as his own home country of Cyprus was going through a similar transitional period. Cyprus also became independent from British colonial rule in 1960, and the country and its people were themselves trying to establish their new, modern, independent identities.

Natural Synthesis and Nigeria The Nigerian art movement of Natural Synthesis was closely linked to the idea of creating a national identity in line with a modern, newly independent West African nation. From the outset, two events – both precursors to the movement’s development in the 1960s – should be mentioned. First was the position of the Nigerian artist Aina Onabolu, who, after studying in London and Paris in the 1920s, supported the creation of a Western pictorial art school in Nigeria.

This position led to the second important action, which was the appointment, by the colonial government, of Kenneth C. Murray as Nigeria’s first art education officer in 1927. Murray has been described as a ‘nativist’ in his approach, as he incorporated traditional craft skills into the art education programme. More importantly, through the creation of the art school at the instigation of Onabolu, as well as the art education system that was initiated by Murray, the country’s emerging artists were encouraged to consider their cultural surroundings in their art. It is this form of production that carried on into independence and partially inspired the formation of the Zaria Art Society in 1958, a group of artists who advocated the acceptance of the contemporary artist in an African context.6 One of the artists and founding members of this society, also featured in this exhibition, was Bruce Onobrakpeya. He can be described as a post-colonial artist whose personal disposition and artistic work engaged novel processes, concepts and aesthetics. His intellectual and radical approach to art has led him to extensive experimentation, innovation and a prolific use of a range of materials and styles in painting and printmaking, referencing his cultural heritage, philosophy and indigenous ideology, all the while ensuring its relevance in the contemporary, modern context.

Uche Okeke, Simon Okeke and Demas Nwoko were among the pioneers of Natural Synthesis.

The objectives of the group can be summarised by the following statement: ‘In our difficult work of building up a truly modern African art to be cherished and appreciated for its own sake, not only for its functional value, we are inspired by the struggle of our fatherland. We must have our own

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school of art independent of European and oriental schools, but drawing as much as possible from what we consider in our clear judgment to be the cream of these influences, and wedding them to our native art culture.’7 Thus, all members were conscious of the fact that new forms of art were being taught at Zaria, forms which excluded the art of their surrounding indigenous and traditional culture. They believed that this art was lacking because of the constant rejection of the realities around them and they acknowledged that this reality needed to be incorporated if a true, Modern Nigerian art were to be established. This is what Natural Synthesis aimed to address. In simple terms, the movement was, for these artists, an amalgamation, or synthesis, of the best of local and foreign, Western art forms and ideas.

Uche Okeke equated Natural Synthesis with Négritude in Senegal,8 signifying the group’s awareness of the link being made between art and politics. This paved the way for the exploration of the post-colonial cultural experience. Furthermore, the mastery of knowledge from ‘within’ was paramount to the groups’ creative direction and was conveyed by Okeke as Natural Synthesis. It was a combination of the technical skills taught in the (mostly Western) art classes and the experience of exploring (practically and technically) indigenous art forms.9 Additionally, Natural Synthesis, it can be argued, embraced the contradictions evident between the African ancestral past and colonial modernity, which consequently helped in the shaping of post-colonial consciousness.10 In theoretical terms, Natural Synthesis was also modern in that, through these artists, it proved that, whether Igbo, Yoruba or Urhobo, all were ultimately Nigerian. This was part of an action set in motion in the mid-19th century involving the way ethnic and national identities evolved as part of the modern world. It dictated that none of these identities took precedence over the other; and, more importantly, it was this action that became apparent in visual practice opposing colonial rule from the late 19th century onwards.11 Thus, in theoretical terms, it can be argued that an indicator of modernity was the artists’ control over decision-making, development and inventiveness; indeed, their work and the value they placed on it went beyond politics and society.12 In practical terms, form and stylistic choices that informed their work acted as visual indicators of modernity that became apparent in the choice of palette and the employment of stylised figuration.

Furthermore, in the context of modernity and Nigeria, and in addition to the exploration of Natural Synthesis, the example of mural paintings is worth discussing: in particular, the Ori Olokun Experimental Art Workshop, established in 1968 under the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Indeed, artists who are included in this exhibition, such as Jimoh Buraimoh, Rufus Ogundele and Muraina Oyelami, were part of this workshop. Murals from the workshop decorated the walls of the university and are a great example of modernity. Murals usually created in a traditional as well as a spiritual context as part of shrines were painted here in a new context, sharing similar elements in terms of form and ways of representation, but making use of a more vibrant palette and wide areas of colour, rather than the layered, highly stylised embellishments of the shrine murals. In a similar fashion to the concepts behind Natural Synthesis, a traditional way of approaching mural painting was adopted and adapted. Indeed, ‘The prolification of murals on the university walls, which bear semblance to traditional Yoruba shrine paintings in form and motif, can be considered as successful attempts in reproducing the traditional ideas of the Yoruba murals into modern contemporary life.’13 As such, the murals on the university walls are proof of Yoruba traditional ideas and culture reappropriated through new, modern imagery.

In this part the way in which Natural Synthesis contributed to Modernism in Nigeria, namely via its negotiation of the traditions of African and Western art, has been explored. What is worth noting is that specifically, and importantly, the movement did not deny the influences of colonialism, nor was it ‘a declaration of the artist’s rejection of Westernised modernity by returning to an authentic, imaginary, and indigenous culture’.14 Natural Synthesis signalled the ‘coming together’ of artists and widened from thinking reflexively about, and being aware of, the contemporary conditions

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in which the artists lived. Such artists aimed to produce work that extended from a new artistic canon, one that was in line with a newly independent nation.15 Moreover, the group’s work can also be viewed as an indicator of an attitude evident in the post-independence generation of artists, interested in imbuing their works with the sentiments of decolonisation. Their practice was rooted in notions of cultural freedom and political autonomy. Thus, politics and culture were a central element in their exploration of the critical potential of post-colonial artistic practice.16 A Brief History of Photography in Africa Photography really is the medium of modern times and is therefore of great importance to the exploration of a West African Modernism. A brief history of the emergence of photography in Africa is helpful, as it explains how this vehicle of creative expression developed and grew to have such a widespread presence on the continent. Photography, with its seductive qualities, is a medium that makes claims about truth. It offered people, according to Erin Haney, ‘a new way of framing and visualising the things that mattered to them...’.17 Despite the fact that photographing would prove challenging in a tropical climate due to humidity – which decomposes photographic material very quickly – and strong light, there is proof that the daguerreotype made its appearance in Africa around the same time it appeared in Europe. In Egypt, it appeared as early as 1839, the very year of its invention, when the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, learnt of the practice from a French painter passing through Cairo and chose the ancient port of Alexandria as the subject of his first image.18 In South Africa, the daguerreotype appeared in 1840.19 The medium’s arrival in Africa was not the first sign of African-European dialogue: there had already been a great deal of cultural exchange between the two continents.20 As such, photography was one of the first Modernist art forms to appear in Africa, and this also explains a further link to the presence of modernity as a theme in the work of many African photographers.

The uses of photography were in no way limited, in that the medium did not simply explain or represent ‘one thing’, but many complex and interlaced ideas. John Peffer provides more clarity on this in describing how photography was perceived: ‘…what was called a “photo” was not the same material thing in Africa as it was in Europe, especially circa 1900. In Africa, photography has been interpenetrated with ritual, with political and familiar performances of status, with the establishment of modern civic institutions, with establishment of and resistance to metropolitan control over local affairs, with perceptions of the image of the body based in custom, and with other visual media.’21 It is also important to add that even though most African photographers operating in the very early days were taught through colonial apprenticeships, they still managed to create an artistic language of their own that deviated from European styles, teaching and perception. This language was exclusively theirs and not at all connected with the voyeuristic use of the camera of Europeans in Africa. The distinctly ‘African’ relationship between photographer, sitter and camera is something that has undoubtedly contributed to the development of the medium’s usage in Africa. Jean Loup Pivin strengthens this argument by noting that ‘the first African photographers...took photographs which displayed not the slightest stylistic connection to those of their tutors...Africans were showing themselves to themselves...by contrast, shots taken by European photographers have a tangible quality of awkwardness and distance; it feels as if they have been taken from outside.’22 Let us now consider how African photography gained widespread attention. It was as late as the 1990s when photographic practice on the continent first gained international popularity through publications such as Revue Noire, which dedicated a number of issues to African photography.

This eventually led to an exhibition at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris in 1998, entitled A Selfportrait of Africa. Another key moment came with the 1996 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, in which the ‘...disjuncture between what the African photographer [saw] and what the ethnographic lens remembered [lay] at the core of the exhibition’.23 From that point onwards, one could sense a shift taking place.

This can be seen in: the initiatives of important institutions acknowledging the substantial body

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of photographic work that has come out of Africa; the success of numerous exhibitions with a strong critical and academic component; the circulation of a number of significant publications; as well as the presence of work by African photographers in many acclaimed private collections.24 Beyond the institutional acknowledgment, the widening of the collector base and more public awareness, these initiatives would play a role in how the practice of African photographers would develop and how the ‘distinctive features’ of their work would evolve.25 J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere was a Nigerian photographer. Mostly self-taught, he bought his first camera in 1950 and did not experience any direct Western influences. His professional development was gradual, but his persistence was constant. He began by taking photographs of commercial activities and cultural life in Nigeria before embarking on his Hairstyles project in 1968 – therefore very much active in the post-independence years when Nigeria and Nigerians were in the process of national transformation. This project would continue for over 40 years, eventually establishing Ojeikere as an internationally acclaimed photographer. As shall be discussed below, Ojeikere viewed his work as having two purposes: ‘The first is to document examples of hairstyles, which I feel are an art form in themselves. One can see an element of ethnography in this. The second purpose is an esthetic project.’26 Ojeikere’s Hairstyles series consists of approximately 1000 black-and-white photographs documenting the vast array of styles worn by women across Nigeria. Focussing rarely on the face, he was instead concerned primarily with constructing images that would reveal the sculptural qualities of his sitter’s coiffures.27 This would often mean photographing them from behind or in profile. To accentuate further the appearance of his subject’s hairstyles, Ojeikere would position his sitters before featureless monochrome backgrounds. With this series, Ojeikere was honouring and documenting, for the purpose of safekeeping, the ancient tradition of braiding. This tradition is also a highly stylised art form that has survived for 2000 years, mainly by transmission from mother to daughter. The different patterns, which would often signify class, a moment of a woman’s life or an occasion, were traditionally sacred and thus guarded by those who practised them, while at the same time being expressions of great beauty. Ojeikere wanted to capture beauty in his photographs, because, for him, art was not only beauty but, more profoundly, an extension of life.28 It was consciously central to Ojeikere’s photography to document these many styles for preservation purposes – something that extended his work beyond that of simple portraiture, giving it an anthropological, ethnographical and documentary nature. Mary Tannen highlights this point in writing: ‘Historically, the configuration of coils and curls is a language indicating tribe, material status, wealth and occasion. In Nigeria in the ’50s, Ojeikere noticed that the hairdos were disappearing giving way to glossy wigs. Then just as suddenly as they started to vanish, they came back, but the language had altered. It was less tied to rural tradition, more in tune with urban life. Jazzy towers of braids mimicked the first skyscrapers in Lagos. There were swirls and spikes, symmetry and asymmetry. Realising that this evanescent art could vanish again, Ojeikere began documenting it.’29 The above also touches upon another aspect of Ojeikere’s work: his capturing of moments of early modernity in Africa. He achieved this by recording the ways in which hairstyles evolved in a similar way to other documentary projects, such as architectural photography of Lagos. In so doing, the artist was creating a link between the two subjects and captured moments in African history that reflect modern transformation. On the issue of modernity in regards to Nigeria, Brian Larkin makes the relevant comment that ‘…the oil boom of the late 1960s and 1970s thrust Nigeria into the fast capitalism of an oil economy, transforming not only the economic basis of the country but the pace of urbanism, consumption habits and the political system. [Academics] have borrowed from Benjamin to label this revolutionary change the “shock of modernity”.’

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Interestingly, Ojeikere, through the totality of his body of work, successfully captured the moment at which Nigeria was undergoing that ‘shock’.30 In one of his images, Untitled (HD 276-1975) of 1975, the viewer encounters a ‘modern’ hairstyle that makes reference to a woman’s awareness of the modern city she inhabits as it resembles a skyscaper, yet her decision to call attention to this awareness through the traditional medium of hair braiding suggests a sense of ambivalence.

Ojeikere’s contribution to African photography, in addition to the Hairstyles project, also includes a large body of architectural images taken over a 60-year period (often, Leventis buildings are captured in his work). These images, the bulk of which were taken in the 1960s and 1970s, were not shown publicly until 2010, when Ojeikere celebrated his 80th birthday, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence. The Kunsthalle Bern showed a small part of this work in the exhibition The Idea of Africa (Re-invented) #1. These architectural photographs capture such developments in Lagos as the harbour, flyover highways and tall, imposing buildings and document the transformation of Nigeria’s main economic and cultural hub into a modern urban city.31 Ojeikere, by photographing the features of his environment while they were in the process of becoming, also recorded the uncertainty that came with that transformation. Perhaps, one could argue, in the same way that Ojeikere was concerned with documenting the changing styles of hairdos (and everything that such changes represented), he also felt that part of his role was to document the changing structure of his city as it moved from the past into the future, while always remaining a combination of the two. According to Ojeikere, ‘Photographs form a visual history. In Africa we are conscious of appropriating history, which has been transmitted for a long time by oral tradition. My work as a photographer contributes to the preservation of culture in Nigeria and in Africa in general.’32 This part has touched upon the work of one artist among the many in Africa who employed the medium of photography to interact with their local realities. Ojeikere was among those African photographers to gain international acknowledgment not only for his technical and aesthetic talent, but also for what his work represented and the issues it touched upon. He was interested in documenting the changing times: a period in which nations and their inhabitants were collectively and individually coming to terms with their ‘newness’, their independence. Bisi Silva articulates this with clarity when noting that Ojeikere, ‘...used the medium of photography to document the complex ways in which style and self-presentation index shifting conceptions of not simply what it means to be modern, but what it means to be seen as modern through photographic representation’.33 In addition, technical skill and continuous learning played a major role in the execution of this work, as did beauty and perfection in the manner he perceived it. In his own words: ‘If my work projects a certain beauty, I don’t strive for it. Perhaps it comes simply from the pleasure I gain by doing it.’34 The question has at times been asked as to whether there exist any distinctive features of African photography. When considering the work of Ojeikere, it seems only appropriate to say that one distinctive feature of African photography is that it is highly diverse and complex – so much so that it almost resists definition. Taking the work of Ojeikere, for example, we can see that one of the distinctive uses of the medium is its ability to document. Artists such as Ojeikere used a modern tool to record their own modernity in highly individual ways.

Closing Reflections Using the occasion of the Creative Visions exhibition in Cyprus, some thoughts have been shared in terms of Modernism in West Africa and the presence of A. G. Leventis in Nigeria during a moment of change and reinvention. Additionally, photography, as a medium almost equated to Modernism, has been considered in relation to West Africa through the example of J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere. This by no means intends to serve as an all-encompassing summary or commentary on Modernism in West Africa, but rather should be considered as a basic introduction to an area that is expansive and deep.

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In considering West African Modernism and the works included in the exhibition, one cannot but also reflect upon the unique personal story of the exceptional Anastasios G. Leventis. His story can also direct our thoughts to broader ideas surrounding the movement of people, whether due to empire, trade or migration, and onwards to notions of identity and belonging that are at once so fixed in our belief system, but upon closer observation can be seen to be so fluid. Perhaps the story of A. G. Leventis is about, amongst many other things, the welcoming of one’s multiple senses of belonging, as well as the ability to embrace equally those multiple ‘places’ to which one is connected. Ultimately, this exhibition, Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa, celebrating the first anniversary of the A. G. Leventis Gallery in Nicosia, Cyprus, could be one of the most strongly articulated manifestations of such sentiments.

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BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA (Agbarha-Otor, Delta State, Nigeria, 1932 –)

We live in a state of natural synthesis whereby we are part of the present, past and future simultaneously.

Printmaker, painter and sculptor Bruce Onobrakpeya studied at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, where he specialised in the Western tradition of representational art. He then joined the Zaria Art Society formed by fellow artist Uche Okeke in 1958, which greatly influenced his art. Throughout his career he has presented works in numerous exhibitions around the world, including at the Tate Modern, London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the Malmö Konsthall. He was conferred with the Living Human Treasure Award by UNESCO and the 2010 National Creativity Award by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Nativity Etching, 62 x 90 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Leopard in Cornfield, 1965 Print, 60 x 45 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Inwie (Deep Blue), 1972 Deep etching and corresponding etching plate, 60.5 x 46.5 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Obioma and Reconstruction, 1971 Deep etching, 60.5 x 45 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Idjede Owari, 1972 Deep etching, 59 x 44.5 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Eclipse, 1967 Etching, 38 x 26 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932 –) Esu, c. 1960 -1970 Carved etching plate, 46 x 67 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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MURAINA OYELAMI (Iragbiji, Nigeria, 1940 –)

Making a painting is really like going into a strange place, like an unknown territory and then you have nothing but your own integrity to guide you. But how can you be true to your own character, if you don’t know who you are?

Painter, printmaker and performer Chief Muraina Oyelami began his career as an artist in 1964, as one of the original artists of the Osogbo Art Movement. He was part of the Osogbo school initiated by Ulli Beier and Georgina Beier, but he also studied technical theatre, specialising in theatre design, at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he later taught traditional music from 1975 to 1987. A founding member in 1962 of the Duro Ladipo Theatre Company, he performed as an actor and musician, touring in Germany (1964) and the UK (1965); he also composed and directed the music for Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (1990). As a visual artist he has exhibited in museums around the world, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Berlin, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Oyelami’s art embraces the spirit of the Osogbo experiment and its belief in art stemming from the inner self, unconstrained by formal training.

His work draws on Yoruba culture, personal experiences, stories, folk tales, ceremonies and festivals, including physical characteristics of the Yoruba people, such as their facial features and markings.

Muraina Oyelami (1940 –) African Mask, 1973 Print, 51.5 x 31 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Muraina Oyelami (1940 –) Untitled, c. 1970 Acrylic on wood, 91 x 121.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London Muraina Oyelami (1940 –) Untitled, 1976 Acrylic on wood, 91 x 121.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Muraina Oyelami (1940 –) Untitled, c. 1970 Oil on canvas, 75 x 60 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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WALE OLAJIDE (Agbaa, Osun State, Nigeria, 1939 –)

Painter and printmaker Wale Olajide is known for his signature tapestry paintings (or yarn paintings), created using coloured thread. Associated with the Ori Olokun workshop, an extension of the Osogbo group of artists, he also participated in workshops at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ife, Ile-Ife, in 1968 and in 1973. His works are included in the collections of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, and he has exhibited both in Nigeria and the US.

Wale Olajide (1939 –) Untitled, c. 1970 Embroidery on canvas, 107.5 x 89.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia Wale Olajide (1939 –) Untitled, c. 1970 Embroidery on canvas, 107.5 x 89.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia

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TWINS SEVEN-SEVEN (Ibadan, Nigeria, 1944-2011)

Painter, draughtsman and printmaker Prince Twins Seven-Seven also produced metalwork and designs for textiles; he was an actor, musician and author as well. A renowned artist of the Osogbo school, he exhibited widely and on an international level, for instance at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the National Modern Art Gallery, Lagos. His works reflect the cosmology and mythology of Yoruba culture and are densely populated by a multitude of figures, fantastic creatures, ghosts and spirits, drawing on Yoruba stories, myths, religion and folklore. His linear style sprawled to take over the entire paint surface. He also practised what is described as ‘sculpture painting’, raising the foreground of a work to create a low relief. In 2005, he was named UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Twins Seven-Seven (1944- 2011) Untitled, c. 1960-1970 Coloured marker and embroidery on fabric, 73 x 110 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) Untitled, c. 1960 Acrylic on canvas, 169 x 122.5 cm Collection of George A. David

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Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) Untitled, c. 1960 Acrylic on canvas, 167.5 x 120 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) Ayo Player, 1964 Acrylic on hardboard, 30.5 x 61 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) Maijeja Twins Mother in Valaijelije, 1964 Acrylic on hardboard, 61 x 30.5 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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JIMOH BURAIMOH (Osogbo, Nigeria, 1943 –)

The Yoruba people of Nigeria have traditionally incorporated beads in many of their art forms.

In particular, their glittering look encouraged their use in decorating the king’s regalia, including crowns, shoes and walking sticks. My innovation was to adapt this traditional use to the more contemporary art form of painting. My interest today is to spread the gospel of bead painting, especially to a younger generation.

Painter and printmaker Chief Jimoh Buraimoh works in a variety of media, including his signature bead paintings and mosaic murals. One of the most influential artists to emerge from the experimental workshops known as the Osogbo school in the 1960s, Buraimoh is known for pioneering bead painting in Africa from 1964, with the intention of creating a contemporary art form drawing on the Yoruba tradition and incorporating beadwork designs into ceremonial textiles and crowns. His work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, while his mosaic murals adorn public spaces in Nigeria, Europe and the USA. He represented Nigerian artists at the First All African Trade Fair in Nairobi (1972) and presented his work at the Second World Black Arts Festival in Lagos (1977). In 1983 he became the first Nigerian to be awarded membership of the Associazione Internazionale Mosaicisti Contemporanei of Ravenna. In 1996 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for African and African American Art and Culture in San Francisco; his 1997 mosaic mural, commissioned for Howell Park, Atlanta, GA, received an Award of Excellence.

Important retrospectives in the USA include that held at the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2000).

Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1995 Acrylic on wood, 51 x 40.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, c. 1975 Beads and acrylic on wood, 121.5 x 61 cm Collection of George P. Leventis

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, c. 1970-1980 Bead painting on wood, 61 x 41 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, c. 1970-1980 Bead painting on wood, 61 x 41 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1990 Bead painting on wood, 82 x 122 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1989 Acrylic on metal, 92 x 61.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1995 Acrylic on wood, 60.5 x 76 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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Jimoh Buraimoh (1943 –) Untitled, 1994 Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 119.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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ADEMOLA ONIBONOKUTA (Osogbo, Nigeria, 1943 –)

Mosaic and textile artist, actor and musician Ademola Onibonokuta started his career in 1962 as an actor with the Duro Ladipo Theatre Company. In 1964 he attended the Osogbo art workshops and the following year was employed as a research assistant at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He has travelled widely, pursuing his artistic, acting and musical careers, for instance to Dakar, Senegal (with the Orisun Theatre School of Drama Company) in 1966 and to the United States in 1970. He was artist-in-residence at the Iwalewahaus, Bayreuth, Germany, in 1983. He is known for his powers of experimentation, which have led him to develop new musical instruments. In his art, he experiments with diverse media and has pioneered new mosaic techniques; he creates seed mosaics, but also uses sand, gravel and crunched glass (a medium termed ‘glasstone sand’). His work has been seen as attempting to create a holistic world view from the many contradictory and incompatible elements of Yoruba culture in the 1960s.

Ademola Onibonokuta (1943 –) Untitled, 1996 Crushed glass, gravel, sand and seeds on wood, 122 x 45.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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RUFUS OGUNDELE (Osogbo, Nigeria, 1946-1996)

Painter, printmaker, actor and musician Rufus Ogundele participated in Denis Williams’ workshop in 1963. He experimented with such printmaking techniques as linocut at the instigation of Georgina Beier. In 1968 he moved to Ife, Nigeria, working with Solomon Wangboje in the Ori Olokun Cultural Centre. He then cofounded the Ogun Timehin Studios. In 1983 he was artist-in-residence at the Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Germany. Ogundele’s art links the European artistic tradition and the techniques learnt under Williams, with the bold outlines suggestive of printmaking techniques and vibrant colouring reminiscent of German Expressionism, with Yoruba culture, folklore and religion. He was the brother of artist Bayo Ogundele.

Rufus Ogundele (1946-1996) Untitled, 1975 Acrylic on canvas, 81.5 x 122 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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BAYO [LABAYO] OGUNDELE (Osogbo, Nigeria, 1949 –)

Painter, printmaker and actor Bayo Ogundele is the brother of Rufus Ogundele, who influenced his work. He studied at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (1969-1974) and attended workshops at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ife, and the Ori Olokun Cultural Centre in Ile-Ife in the 1970s. A freelance artist, he works in a variety of media and techniques, particularly woodcut prints, monoprints and painting. He has exhibited his work in Nigeria and Cameroon and also in Germany, the USA, the UK and Australia.

Bayo (Labayo) Ogundele (1949 –) Flautists, 1982 Oil on canvas, 64.5 x 42.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London Bayo (Labayo) Ogundele (1949 –) Market Women, 1982 Oil on canvas, 64.5 x 42.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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DAVID DALE (Kano, Nigeria, 1947 –)

Like Picasso, I want to work till death.

A printmaker – with a preference for etching – but also a painter, draughtsman and watercolourist, David Dale works in a variety of media, including beadwork, etching, stained glass and mosaic. He attended St Gregory’s College in Lagos, where he was taught art by master printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya, and went on to study fine art and art history at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he specialised in illustration and graphic design. He taught at the University of Lagos, from 1977 until 1990. His work has been exhibited extensively all over the world: in Britain, Germany, Spain, Eastern Europe, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Cuba, Japan, the USA, Canada and Australia. Dale’s public works in Nigeria include stained glass at Our Saviour’s Church in Onikan, Lagos, a mosaic project for St Agnes Church, Maryland, Lagos, a mural for the MTN Building in Ibadan, and works in State House and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, both in Lagos. Iconographically, his works cover a breadth of themes, including landscape and the world of nature, with which he has a personal affinity, but also including religious beliefs and Nigerian customs, such as traditional dances and festivals.

David Dale (1947 –) Flowers, 1975 Deep etching, 61 x 30.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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David Dale (1947 –) End of the World, 1975 Deep etching, 37 x 61.5 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London David Dale (1947 –) Leopard in Cornfield III, 1975 Deep etching, 38 x 65 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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David Dale (1947 –) Lobsters and Fish, 1975 Deep etching, 37.5 x 61 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London David Dale (1947 –) Desert Landscape, 1975 Deep etching, 39.5 x 67 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

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GODFREY ADUKU OKIKI (Minna, Nigeria, 1940 –)

Painter and printmaker Godfrey Aduku Okiki was educated at St Patrick’s Catholic School in Yaba and then attended the Yaba Technical Institute, where he obtained a diploma in fine arts, and the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, where he specialised in graphics, in 1962. He pursued further studies at Ahmadu Bello University in 1963 and Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1964-1965 (communication studies), from where he obtained a master’s degree in education in 1966. Active in Nigeria mostly in the 1960s, he was linked to the Zaria Art Society and participated in numerous exhibitions. Much of his work is figurative and addresses such themes as traditional African religion.

Godfrey Aduku Okiki (1940 –) Untitled, 1967 Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 39.5 cm Collection of Anastasios I. Leventis

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ERHABOR EMOKPAE (Benin City, Nigeria, 1934-1984)

Painter, sculptor and graphic designer Erhabor Emokpae was the son of a Bini chief and was profoundly influenced at an early age by the Benin guild of carvers. After graduating from school, he moved to Lagos, where he attended two years of art training at the Yaba College of Technology and also studied privately with a graphic artist. Three years later, he moved to Enugu, where he pursued his career as an artist; by the time of Nigerian independence in 1960, he was established as a member of the emerging Modernist art scene. He spent one year in England studying art, in 1963. He exhibited in Nigeria but also internationally, namely in Germany and Brazil. His style reflects his training as a graphic artist, while his originality has been linked to his lack of dependence on any particular African art school.

Erhabor Emokpae (1934-1984) Untitled, 1964 Acrylic on canvas, 45.5 x 122 cm Collection of George A. David Erhabor Emokpae (1934-1984) Untitled, 1965 Acrylic on canvas, 45.5 x 121.5 cm Collection of George A. David

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CHRIS OFILI (Manchester, UK, 1968 –)

The studio is a laboratory, not a factory.

Painter Chris Ofili was born in Manchester of Nigerian parents. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London from 1988 to 1991 and the Royal College of Art, London, from 1991 to 1993, obtaining a master’s degree in fine arts. Five years later, in 1998, he was awarded the Turner Prize.

By 2000 his work was in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Tate Gallery, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2003 he represented Britain in the 50th Venice Biennale. His works, which employ a variety of media, including paint, glitter, collage elements, resin and (famously) elephant dung, address such themes as gender, religion, social and cultural stereotypes and racial identity, often bridging the gap between high art and popular culture.

Chris Ofili (1968 –) Untitled (Afronude), c. 2006 Watercolour and pencil on paper, 63 x 42.5 cm Collection of Anastasios I. Leventis

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Chris Ofili (1968 –) Black Paranoia, 1997 Mixed media on canvas, 183 x 122 cm Collection of Harry G. David

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JUDE ANOGWIH (Sokoto, Nigeria, 1975 –)

Migration impacts on the fundamental transformation of human history. It is one of the diverse factors that prompt the growth of cities, its reorganisation, as well as transformed complexion in the society.

Multimedia artist Jude Anogwih studied creative arts at the University of Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria, and went on to read for an MA in art history at the University of Lagos. His works have been presented in several international exhibitions and he has participated in projects both in Nigeria and beyond, in South Africa, India, the UK, Poland, Northern Ireland, Cuba, Canada, Germany and Brazil. He was artist-in-residence at the Jardim Canadá Centro de Arte e Tecnologia, Minas Gerais, Brazil (2012) and at the Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (2013), amongst others. He was a Goethe-Institut Fellow at Documenta (13), Kassel, Germany. He is a founding member and cocoordinator of the Video Art Network Lagos.1 His works are in the form of experimental photopainting/drawings, videos, installations and maps and probe the concept of identity, mobility and migration.

Jude Anogwih (1975 –) Still images​from the video Emittere.

WAITING, 2012 Lent by the artist

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Artist’s Statement ‘Emittere. WAITING (2012) is part of a series of works from 2009 to date that interrogates the concept of movement, mobility, migration and border. It reflects on the dynamics in Africa and Africans’ forced, clandestine movement and, more recently, willingness to transverse the versed landscape to new destinations. The instability of our land as well as the fluidity of social, economic and political ideas reflects the perpetual migration of Africans to foreign lands. As the shores set the sail of Africa’s resources, her coastlines await your return. We are waiting...’2 My artistic interest is based on migration and movement of people, ideas and intelligence within and beyond their place of origin. I recreate my ideas and encounters metaphorically and realistically in installations, experimental photo-painting/drawing and video art that I produce during my personal travels and artistic engagements globally. My works reflect abstracted linear components in 2- and 3-D formations that describe the dynamics of socio-economic, political, cultural and diverse links and differences of a society.

I am primarily influenced by the impact of light and the linear patterns it creates as it spreads from the diminishing or near total dark of most African cities at night, especially Lagos, to the light pollution that characterises many Western cites. Light is an interesting attraction for most migrants, who move towards these lighted cities and infuse multiple changes in the landscape, architecture, culture, social, economic and political structures of the city. My installations, experimental videos and painting/drawings on surfaces including photographs replay these dynamics in landscape. They generate utopic landscapes, which describe our commonality as we move from one space to the other.

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ANDREW ESIEBO (Lagos, Nigeria, 1978 –)

Most photographers who come to Lagos want to go to the slums and do stories looking only at the problems [...] I’m interested in other stories.

Photographer Andrew Esiebo started out in photography by chronicling the rapid development of urban Nigeria, as well as the country’s rich culture and heritage. He was included in the Dak’Art 2014 international exhibition in Dakar and he was the winner of the 2011 Musée du Quai Branly Artistic Creations Prize. In 2010, he was selected for the ‘Road to Twenty Ten’ project to form an All-African dream team of 16 journalists/photographers to provide alternative stories from the World Cup in South Africa. His work has been exhibited widely – including in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Bangladesh and Mali – and published extensively in books, magazines and on-line. His images explore new creative territory, integrating multimedia practice with the investigation of themes such as sexuality, gender politics, football, popular culture, migration, religion and spirituality.

Andrew Esiebo (1978 –) The Barbers, Bamako, June 2012 Digital C-print mounted on aluminium, 53.8 x 80 cm Collection of Harry G. David Andrew Esiebo (1978 –) The Barbers, Accra, July 2012 Digital C-print mounted on aluminium, 53.8 x 80 cm Collection of Harry G. David

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Artist’s Statement My art practice and creative research explore humanity’s struggle. Through an intimate gaze and close-up details of urban African daily life, I seek to highlight and celebrate human experiences of empowerment manifesting in diverse strategies of creativity, survival, and in the power of bodies and emotions. I am particularly interested in the role of identity, culture, sexuality and spirituality in contemporary African societies and the African diasporas. Over the past years, I have been exploring the role of soccer in African societies, stories of hope and resistance of HIV people, sex workers, socio-political activists and religious leaders.

I am currently working on three projects. The first project, titled ‘God is Alive’, focuses on African spirituality and explores the emerging role of charismatic Christianity in Nigerian society and in the African diasporas in Europe. The work illuminates the emotional, sensorial, physical and collective experience of prayer and explores the ‘collective’ addressing of transcendental power.

Particular attention is paid to the material worlds of prayer, such as spaces, objects, olive oil, water, the Bible, sounds and images meant to create community and enact the transformative power of spirituality. The last phase of the project has been developed in collaboration with an academic institution and applies theories and concepts of different disciplines, such as sociology and anthropology of religions, with photography and multimedia methodologies. The aim is to potentially develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the sensorial and visual traditions of the African charismatic, spiritual, emotional, material and social worlds.

The second project, titled ‘Living Queer African’, seeks to spotlight the silent voices, struggles and everyday realities of homosexuals in Nigeria. I have been engaging members of the local homosexual community, interviewing them in their intimate spaces, such as homes, bedrooms, workplaces, churches, etc. The interviews aim to complicate local simplistic readings of homosexual subjects that perceive them only in terms of morality and sexuality. In so doing, the project deploys a variety of media, such as photography, video and audio. Their interviews disclose social realities, such as discrimination, hate, compassion, solidarity, social action and activism. Special attention has been paid to their religion and spirituality, as the subjects discuss their spiritual life and the importance of faith and religious community in their daily life.

The third project is titled ‘Pride’, a multimedia/photographic exploration of the phenomenon of male barbering and barber shops/salons within West African countries. The project investigates the relationship between hairstyles and individual and collective identities and highlights the social, spiritual and mystical impact of hair in African society. The pictures document the variety of hairstyles and capture in detail the spaces in which barbers operate throughout major West African cities. The project looks at the material and aesthetic worlds of barber shops/salons, and the iconographies and symbols that create an intimate public convergence of people from all walks of life. I have worked in eight West African cities (Lagos, Cotonou, Accra, Abidjan, Monrovia, Bamako, Dakar and Nouakchott), recording video and sounds, conducting interviews and taking photographs of barber shops, hairstyles and nuisances of the urban spaces where the salons are located.3

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TAIYE IDAHOR (Lagos, Nigeria, 1984 –)

The main vision for my art is for it to grow and become accessible to a larger and more diverse audience, because I love the discussions that art raises.

Contemporary artist Taiye Idahor studied fine art at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, graduating in 2007 with a Higher National Diploma (HND) after specialising in sculpture in her final years. She has studied and worked with Nigerian artists Olu Amoda and Kainebi Osahenye and participated in a number of exhibitions and workshops, both in Nigeria and abroad, in Cameroon, Japan and Dubai. Recently she has worked significantly within the concept of identity and feminism, using a variety of media, including collage. She continues to explore feminine identity in particular, tangled with issues of trade, the environment and globalisation, and examines how these factors build women’s identity in Africa and, in particular, in Lagos. She also works parttime with the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos.4

Taiye Idahor (1984 –) Shut Cut, Hairvolution series, 2014 Ink jet print, magazine cut outs and pen drawings on transparent paper, 83.5 x 79.5 cm (framed) Collection of Harry G. David

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Artist’s Statement Manthia Diawara: What does departure mean to you? Édouard Glissant: It’s the moment when one consents not to be a single being and attempts to be many beings at the same time.5 Shut Cut is one of several works that was shown at the solo exhibition Hairvolution in Lagos in 2014. Hairvolution began as a result of a simple but important question that I have been asking since I was a child, Is this your hair? In return, this perennial question about my long, black, wavy hair has elicited a journey of self-discovery, setting off from my family history. The process started with a series of meetings and conversations with my father and mother, asking questions about Ayie, my paternal grandmother – a Caucasian – from whom undoubtedly the characteristics of my hair seem to have originated. There is photographic evidence of three of my grandparents in the living room of our family house in Benin City, Nigeria, and I grew up hearing stories from family members who met and knew them, consequently validating their existence. However, this is not the case with Ayie. No physical trace of her existence can be found in our home. Her whereabouts remain elusive.

My hair is a signifier of Ayie’s presence, hence it is my path of navigation on this journey, and simultaneously it heralds her reintegration. My father believes she reincarnated through me, so I employ this concept of reincarnation, of being multiple, a belief strongly held within my Benin culture, to subsume her. At the same time, my quest for self-existence begins here, an unconscious reaction to Ayie’s disappearance to create a memory of myself through the act of repeating my portrait. Through Hairvolution, I began to explore the disconnection between memory and history, between truth and fiction, between the real and the imagined.

The real versus the imagined; the relationship and consequence of these two worlds is what the Shut Cut installation sought to explore. While I imitate and imagine being shut out of memory and cut away from history like Ayie, each portrait in the installation mimics the wearing of costumes, radiating falseness and artificiality; drawing comparison between a young woman in the 1930s (my grandmother), whose disappearance was most likely, and maybe arguably, based on circumstances of cultural differences, and another young woman of today, who is consciously disconnecting from her history. A change of location or death is no longer a criterion for a disappearing history as in the case with Ayie. To exist has become a choice rather than a norm.

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Figurine, 20th century Wood, 103.5 x 14 x 9 cm Collection of Anastasis G. David Contemporary figurine, 1970 Made by Erhabor Emokpae (1934-1984) Wood, 100.5 x 12 x 14 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Figurine, 20th century Wood, 48 x 20 x 10 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Yoruba ibeji figurine, 20th century Wood, 54 x 11.5 x 17 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Benin warrior, 20th century Brass, 91 x 20 x 23.5 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis Horse and rider, neo-traditional style, 20th century Metal, 81 x 40 x 13 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Benin head of a man, 20th century Brass, 52.5 x 34 x 22 cm Collection of Constantine Leventis

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Creative Visions: Anastasios G. Leventis and West Africa (pp. 19-36) 01 On the theoretical framework of the Zaria Art Society, see Uche Okeke, ‘The Search for a Theoretical Basis for Contemporary Nigerian Art’, Nigerian Journal of the Humanities l/1 (1977), pp. 60-66. See also Paul Chike Dike and Pat Oyelola (eds), The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness, Lagos: National Gallery of Art, 1998. On the Osogbo school, see Peter Probst, Osogbo and the Art of Heritage: Monuments, Deities, and Money, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2011.

02 A. G. Leventis, letter from Ikoyi (undated), A. G. Leventis Gallery archive, Nicosia.

03 On the Mitsis School, see Kostis Kokkinoftas, Η Εμπορική Σχολή Μιτσή Λεμύθου (1912-2004) [The Mitsis Commercial School, Lemythou (1912-2004)], Nicosia 2005.

04 A. G. Leventis, letter from Abeokuta, 22 April 1925, A. G. Leventis Gallery archive, Nicosia.

05 On the myth of the ‘dark continent’, see Patrick Brantlinger, ‘Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent’, Critical Inquiry 12/1 (1985), pp. 166-203.

06 Peter Thomas Bauer, West African Trade: A Study of Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly in a Changing Economy, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (May 1953), offprint of Ch. 6, repr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954.

07 Ibid.

08 On Leventis, the Association of West African Merchants and the Martindale and Sachs investigations, see Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann (eds), Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, Vol. IV, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975; reviewed in African Economic History 4 (Autumn 1977), pp. 186-190.

09 '20 Years of Human Effort', 'Graphic' Independence Souvenir (March 1957), p. 38.

10 See Anthony Griffiths herein, p. 89.

11 On African textiles as models for the export market, see the story of the Messrs Beving & Co. of Manchester and the Charles Beving Collection of African textiles at the British Museum, London, accessible online at: http://www. britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=41572.

12 Bauer, West African Trade, pp. 82-83.

13 Avgie Leventis, Αναπόληση [Recollections], n.p. 2001, p. 82.

14 On the Mainland Hotel as a Lagos landmark, see Kaye Whiteman, Lagos: A Cultural and Literary History, Oxford: Signal Books, 2012, which also describes the restoration of period buildings in Lagos with the support of the Leventis Foundation Nigeria.

15 Tom Forrest, The Advance of African Capital: The Growth of Nigerian Private Enterprise, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, p. 137.

16 ‘Lavish New Hotels Around the World’, Life International (24 September 1962), p. 45.

17 ‘That Hotel the Princess Dined in Last Night’, Daily Express (1 October 1960), p. 6; ‘From Europe to Nigeria: Spotlight on the Palace’, Daily Times (21 September 1960), p. 17; ‘Federal Palace Hotel’, Daily Telegraph (21 September 1960), p. 4.

18 A subscription slip within proclaims: ‘for the Nigerian [Nigeria Magazine] is an ideal way of keeping in touch with the rapid change taking place throughout the country’. On the role of Nigeria Magazine in shaping the critical discourse surrounding the emerging Modernist art movement, see Ozioma Onuzulike, ‘Nigeria Magazine in the Critical Discourse of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nigeria, 1946-1976’, International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences 7/2 (2014), pp. 66-76.

19 In 1965, in addition to the then recently renovated main marina department store in Lagos, there were five other stores, in Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan, Ebute Metta and Port Harcourt. On the place of the stores in popular culture, see Charles Adingupu, Emmanuel Edukugho and Ebun Ebun Sessou, ‘The Fading Funfare of Christmas: Nigerians Recall Great Moments of the Past, Vanguard (20 December 2014), accessible online at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/fading- funfare-christmasnigerians-recall-great-moments-past/#sthash.v6oz2PjM.dpuf.

20 Leventis, Αναπόληση.

21 From the Obadzeng programme, performance at the Opera Cinema, Accra, May 1961. On Obadzeng in the context of Ghanaian drama, see John Gassner and Edward Quinn (eds), The Reader’s Encyclopedia of World Drama, New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell, 1969, p. 6, and Albert S. Gérard, European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, Vol. II, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1986, p. 814.

22 For a scholarly reading of Fry and Drew’s Modernism, see Iain Jackson and Jessica Holland, The Architecture of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew: Twentieth Century Architecture, Pioneer Modernism and the Tropics, Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. See also Stephen Hitchins, Fry, Drew, Knight, Creamer: Architecture, London: Lund Humphries, 1978.

23 Commerce in Nigeria, Lagos: Lagos Chamber of Commerce, 1956, p. 65.

24 Ghana, One Year Old: A First Independence Anniversary Review (1958), p. 92.

25 ‘Leventis – Ghana’s Business Ambassador’, New Ashanti Times (27 August 1960), p. 8.

26 On the iconography of Osogbo artists as seldom drawing on the modern, urban world, see Probst, Osogbo and the Art of Heritage.

27 See Maria Varnava herein, p. 100.

28 Ibid., p. 102.

29 Toyin Falola and Christian Jennings (eds), Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Disciplines, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002, p. 177. On Yusuf Grillo, see also Chike Dike and Oyelola (eds), The Zaria Art Society, pp. 87-96, and Paul Chike Dike and Patricia Oyelola (eds), Master of Masters: Yusuf Grillo: His Life and Works, Nigeria: National Gallery of Art, 2006, p. 53.

30 Jimoh Buraimoh, The Heritage: My Life and Arts, Ibadan 2000, pp. 47-48.

31 Peter Probst, ‘From Iconoclasm to Heritage: The Osogbo Art Movement and the Dynamics of Modernism in Nigeria’, in Gitti Salami and Monica Blackmun Visonà (eds), A Companion to Modern African Art, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 306.

32 Bruce Onobrakpeya, ‘Lecture to Museum Society, Lagos, 28 May 1973’, as quoted in Emmanuel Okeke Eze, Bruce Onobrakpeya: A Research into the Print Experiments of a Contemporary Nigerian Artist, unpublished BA thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1976.

33 ‘Chris Ofili, Tate Britain: Exhibition, 27 January – 16 May 2010’, Tate, accessible online at: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats- on/tate-britain/exhibition/chris-ofili.

34 Roberta Smith, ‘Medium and Message, Both Unsettling: “Chris Ofili: Night and Day”, a Survey at the New Museum’, New York Times (30 October 2014), accessible online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/arts/design/chris-ofili-night-and- day-a-survey-at-the-new-museum.html?_r=0.

35 On the Asiko Art School, see the Centre for Contemporary Art webpage: http://www.ccalagos.org/asiko-art-school.

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The Photographic Archive of Anastasios G. Leventis (pp. 41-56) 1

2

3 4

The American photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) had a career spanning more than 60 years. Her black-and- white images of New York provide an extensive record of the city’s architecture.

‘TO MATI’ software was created in 2000 for the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia and is part of the larger software program that facilitates the documentation of objects – ‘TO ANTIKIMENO’ [The Object], photographs ‘TO MATI’ [The Eye] and books ‘TO VIVLIO’ [The Book]. We believed that as a first step we should start the documentation immediately. In time there will be revisions and readjustments, depending on the needs of the archive.

See herein, pp. 62, 64-65.

One of the objects found in the apartment on Avenue Foch was a Zeiss Ikon Symbolica camera of 1959 and its manual.

Gathering Memories from the Apartment of A. G. Leventis in Paris (pp. 61-72) 1 A late Louis XV kingwood and floral marquetry commode (AGLG 646) by Bernard II van Risenburgh [van Risamburgh; Van Risen Burgh] (c. 1696 – c. 1767). The identity of the initials of the stamp BVRB was uncovered only in 1957.

They represent a dynasty of ébénistes of Dutch origin. Bernard II van Risenburgh was the first to stamp his furniture using the monogram BVRB; he is now regarded as the greatest ébéniste of the reign of Louis XV. He specialised in ` furniture decorated with lacquer panels, which he first supplied to the French queen, Marie Leszczynska, in 1737.

He was also celebrated for his furniture veneered with floral marquetry, usually made from kingwood and tulipwood.

At the end of his career, he supplied the nobility with the innovation of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques. His production can also be recognised by the gilt-bronze mounts, which he designed himself. The novel forms of these mounts appear only on his works and help to distinguish his furniture from that of other cabinetmakers.

Throughout his career he worked almost exclusively with the important marchands-merciers (decorative arts dealers), such as Lazare Duvaux and Thomas-Joachim Hébert. As a result, although he worked for the court, he had no direct contact with his aristocratic and royal clientele. He kept a workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris.

2 Louis XV secrétaire à abbatant (AGLG 645) by Adrian Faizelot Delorme, made of kingwood with marquetry and breche violette marble on top. The shaped fall flap is inlaid with panels of ribbon-tied flowers, within scrolled borders and enclosing an interior, fitted with various open shelves, and two columns of three short drawers. The base is fitted with a pair of cupboard doors, inlaid with further panels of flowers, issuing from flower bouquets, within further scrolls, and enclosing a divided interior fitted with shelves, between canted angles and serpentine sides similarly inlaid, on a plinth base with squat cabriole supports and gilt-metal sabot, believed to be stamped Delorme. Adrian Faizelot Delorme, the eldest son of a maître ébéniste, was nominated a maître himself in 1748 and set up a workshop in the Rue du Temple in Paris. He specialised in fine marquetry and worked in both the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. He used the stamp Delorme and died around 1765.

3 Letter from A. G. Leventis to his brother George, dated 22 April 1920, brought to our attention by Mr George A. David, nephew of Anastasios G. Leventis.

4 Patroclos Stavrou (1933-2014), editor, writer, researcher, historian and columnist, was an Under Secretary to the President of the Republic of Cyprus for 30 years (1963-1993). He worked with four consecutive Presidents of the Republic of Cyprus, starting with the founder and first President of the Republic, Archbishop Makarios III, with whom he worked closely for 27 years. He was a close friend of Anastasios G. Leventis and as of 1989 a member of the Board of Directors of the Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation in Cyprus.

5 During his lifetime Anastasios G. Leventis received a number of honorary distinctions from monarchs, state presidents, clubs, associations and many other organisations. As it was not possible to identify all of them, only some are mentioned here: •Royal Order of King George I from King Paul of Greece •Commander of the Order of the Phoenix from King Paul of Greece •Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France •Gold Cross of the Order of St Stephanos from Meletios, Orthodox Bishop of France and Iberia •Gold Cross from the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras •Gold Medal of St Barnabas, Founder of the Church of Cyprus, from Archbishop Makarios III. Fofy Leventis was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Beneficence (Order for Good Deeds) by King Constantine of Greece.

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Thoughts on West African Modernism in the Context of the Exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa (pp. 99-105) 01 Modernism: in the field of art, the broad movement in Western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. Modernism gathered pace from about 1850 and proposed new forms of art on the grounds that they were more appropriate to the present time. Simon Wilson and Jessica Lack, The Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms, London: Tate Publishing, 2008, repr. 2012, pp. 130 -131.

02 Cited by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, ‘Making History: The Cultural Politics of African Modernity’, Chap. 6 of his Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008, p. 217.

03 Ibid., p. 219.

04 Salah M. Hassan, ‘African Modernism: Beyond Alternative Modernities Discourse’, South Atlantic Quarterly 109/3 (Summer 2010), p. 454.

05 Ibid., p. 460.

06 Chika Okeke, ‘The Question for a Nigerian Art: Or a Story of Art from Zaria and Nsukka’, in Olu Oguibe and Okwui Enwezor (eds), Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace, London: Institute of International Visual Arts, and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999, p. 145.

07 Uche Okeke, ‘Seven Stories’, in Catherine King with Nicola Durbridge, ‘Modern Art in Nigeria: Independence and Innovation’, in Catherine King (ed.), Views of Difference: Different Views of Art, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, p. 204.

08 While exploring Modernism in the context of this exhibition, which focuses mainly on Nigeria, it is important also to note the significance of Senegalese Négritude to West African Modernism. Négritude has been described as a movement encapsulating both the modern and the traditional within the context of post-colonial Senegal.

A prominent supporter was Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of the newly independent Senegal, liberated in 1961. It was Senghor who established the country’s vibrant, well-supported cultural system by establishing art schools, a national museum, festivals and touring exhibitions. A great example of the country’s new cultural policy can be found in a speech given in 1973 by Alioune Sene, Senegal’s then minister of culture: ‘…our research workers are busy evolving a style that will express the Negro-African conception of modern social life [based on Négritude]…

Senegal believes that culture is not an adjunct of politics but its pre-condition and justification.’ (Ima Ebong, ‘Negritude: Between Mask and Flag – Senegalese Cultural Ideology and the Ecole de Dakar’, in Oguibe and Enwezor [eds], Reading the Contemporary, p. 130.) Such thinking gave way to a new vision, which, supported by Senghor, positioned Négritude as the underlying ideology of Senegal’s cultural policy. Senghor supported and validated this vision by associating Négritude with modern art. This, however, resulted in two lines of conflicting thought: 1) that artists should position themselves in relation to their cultural environment and history, embracing ancestral traditions and traditional forms of art; and 2) that, at the same time, they should interact with outside influences and Western cultural values. (Ibid., p. 131.)

09 Chika Okeke-Agulu, ‘The Art Society and Making of Postcolonial Modernism in Nigeria’, South Atlantic Quarterly 109/3 (Summer 2010), p. 510.

10 Ibid., p. 511.

11 John Picton, commentary in Chika Okeke-Agulu, ‘Nationalism and the Rhetoric of Modernism in Nigeria: The Art of Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko, 1960-1968’, African Arts (Spring 2008), p. 37.

12 King with Durbridge, ‘Modern Art in Nigeria’, p. 200.

13 Stephen Folaranmi and Olusegun Ajiboye, ‘Mural Paintings in Ile-Ife: From Shrine Walls to Modern Walls’, The Nigerian Field 78/1-2 (2013), p. 29.

14 Okeke-Agulu, ‘The Art Society and Making of Postcolonial Modernism in Nigeria’, p. 505.

15 Ibid., p. 506.

16 Ibid.

17 Erin Haney, Photography and Africa, London: Reaktion Books, 2010, p. 13.

18 Ibid.

19 Notes from a lecture given by Dr Charles Gore at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 5 November 2010.

20 More specifically, as ‘...Africans [initially] got in contact with drawings, oil paintings, lithographs, lantern slides, engravings in illustrated newspapers, illustrated books and eventually with photographs’ and at the same time ‘...Europeans and Americans in Africa and at home...became acquainted with masks, sculptures, patterns and drawings on cloth, walls and bodies’; Jürg Schneider, ‘The Topography of the Early History of African Photography’, History of Photography 34/2 (2010), pp. 134-146, here pp. 135-136.

21 John Peffer, ‘Editorial’, History of Photography 34/2, (2010), pp. 115-118, here p. 116.

22 In Simon Njami (ed.), A Useful Dream: African Photography, 1960-2010, exh. cat., BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2010, p. 18. Moreover, it is worth taking this argument further to consider that, perhaps ultimately, the role of an African photographer was different to that of a European one operating within or out of Africa. For one, the African photographer never intended to cater for white viewers who had an interest in photographs depicting this exotic, different, unknown other, and at the same time, unlike the African photographer, the European photographer was driven in his creative activity, to a great extent, by the intention of artistic versus neutral photographs. Ibid.

23 Clare Bell et al., In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, exh. cat., New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1996, p. 43.

24 For example, the Jean Pigozzi Collection and the Walther Collection, amongst many others.

25 More specifically, ‘The boom of the 1990s [had] also [along with transforming the work of studio portrait photographers into contemporary art]...opened the space for a more self-consciously modernist art photography as well as for explorations beyond the conventional formats established by earlier portrait studios.’; Peffer, ‘Editorial’, p. 118.

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26 André Magnin (texts) and Martin Jaeggi (ed.), J. D.’Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs, Zurich: Scalo, 2000, p. 61.

27 The series has been described as having ‘...a distinct, highly stylised aesthetic, which lends the hairstyles a consciously stilled and abstracted sculptural presence both elegant and alien. While this may appear to belie the artist’s interest in movement, it allows the eye to weave and loop through the unending landscapes of forms and shapes undisturbed.’ See Willis E. Hartshorn, Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity – Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection, exh. press kit, Göttingen: Steidl, 2010, p. 16.

28 As he commented, ‘...all these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art life would be frozen.’ In André Magnin et al., African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, London: Merrell, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2005, p. 154.

29 Mary Tannen, ‘Structures: The Braided Bunch’, New York Times Magazine (20 May 2001).

30 In Brian Larkin, ‘Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 67/3 (1997), pp. 406-440, here p. 416.

31 ‘The Idea of Africa (Re-invented) #1, Kunsthalle Bern’, e-flux (15 Oct 2010), accessible online: http://www.e-flux.com/ announcements/the-idea-of-africa-re-invented-1/.

32 Magnin (texts) and Jaeggi (ed.), J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs, p. 58.

33 Bisi Silva (ed.), J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, Lagos: Centre for Contemporary Art, 2014, p. 201.

34 Ibid., p. 35.

Contemporary Artists’ Biographies and Statements (pp. 138-143) 1 Video Art Network Lagos (VANLagos) is a New Media art organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria, established by the artists Emeka Ogboh and Jude Anogwih and cultural producer Oyindamola Fakeye. VANLagos aims to promote New Media art in Nigeria, to develop educational and public programmes that promote and create New Media art awareness and to offer a sustainable platform for the screening and presentation of New Media art in the country.

See http://www.vanlagos.org.

2 Jude Anogwih, https://vimeo.com/59858113.

3 Reproduced from Pride (exh. cat., Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London, 2014, n.p.) by kind permission of the Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London. Founded in 2011, Tiwani Contemporary exhibits and represents international emerging and established artists, focusing on Africa and its diaspora. The Gallery presents work through its exhibition programme and participation in art fairs. In addition to its commercial activities, Tiwani Contemporary runs a public programme, Art Connect, supported by the A. G. Leventis Foundation, which provides a platform for discussing contemporary artistic practice through publications, talks and projects, both within the Gallery and in association with other organisations. Tiwani Contemporary works in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (see note 4 below), on both its exhibition and public programmes.

4 The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, was established in December 2007 with the aim of providing a platform for the development, presentation and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture. It focuses on media under- represented in Nigeria, such as photography, film, video, performance and installation, and supports and presents the intellectual and critical work of art and culture practitioners through exhibitions and public programmes. The Centre also collaborates with artists, curators, writers, theorists and national and international organisations in order to encourage and promote the professionalisation of art production and curatorship in Nigeria and West Africa. See http://www.ccalagos.org.

5 This extract is from a conversation between the Malian filmmaker Manthia Diawara and the cultural theorist Édouard Glissant aboard the Queen Mary II in August 2009, en route to Southampton from New York. Glissant (1928-2011) was a writer, poet and literary critic from Martinique, widely recognised as a key figure in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary.

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Pages 8-9: Anastasios G. Leventis in his office in Abeokuta, 1923 Pages 16-17: Anastasios G. Leventis, Abeokuta, c. 1930-1935

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Pages 38-39: Anastasios G. Leventis, Abeokuta, c. 1930-1935 Pages 58-59: Memorabilia from the Paris apartment, dated 1926-1978

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Pages 64-65: Memorabilia from the official ceremonies on the occassion of Ghanaian independence, March 1957 Pages 74-75: Henri Abraham Chatelain (1684-1743), Carte de l’Afrique selon les auteurs anciens enrichie de remarques historiques, Amsterdam 1719 Copperplate engraving Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

_CREATIVE VISIONS – A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

Pages 86-87: Man’s robe (kente), Ghana, c. 1900-1910 Collection of Antony Griffiths and Judy Rudoe Pages 96-97: Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) Untitled, c. 1960-1970 Coloured marker and embroidery on fabric, 91 x 130 cm Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation, London

This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Creative Visions – A. G. Leventis & West Africa held at the A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, from 6 May 2015 to 5 October 2015.

CREATIVE VISIONS — A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

A. G. LEVENTIS & WEST AFRICA

EDITED BY

DEMETRA THEODOTOU ANAGNOSTOPOULOU, MYRTO HATZAKI AND LOUKIA LOIZOU HADJIGAVRIEL