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Robert Loder Collection
Atta Kwami - Tana Painting
Object details
Artwork ID
187
Artist
Atta Kwami
Title
Tana Painting
Media
Acrylic On Hand Made Paper
Country
Ghana
Purchase price
Ownership
No 2 Settlement
Dimensions
50 x 63
Note
The tana paintings were made from flax and cotton fibres - I did this in Glasgow at the Jacquie Paris workshop. I'd been using my own shaped mould from printing plates - you have a frame and cut out the centre so when it's laid over the paper you can push out this ground. The organic shapes are the poisitives and the negatives. The bars are part of the paper - the kind of release you get, as in print making, when the paper and the ink are in balance - in harmony. You find that in music too - you can have inner harmonies - chords and shapes and patterns - it's child's play, effortless. It's a record of the performance - all these details. I like that the borders help it to breathe. The textiles I looked at in Northern |Ghana - the batakari (smock) - prestige dresses, made from vertical stripes - some of these motifs are on buildings as well. My interest in the North happened when my mother relocated from Volta to Tamale - I was schooled in the south but would travel north to see her. This exposed me to a different more simple way of life. In 1990 I was abe to research the women painters, who painted on the walls. Parallel with xylophone music from the north. My grandfather came form the north, and was ransomed by the Mohammadans - sent to the south - his son wrote about how he was captured - a village sent the money to free him with the Nord Deutsche Mission - they sang the gospel. Stefano (AK's grt grandfather) was named after Stefano village in Germany - he was born on Friday so called Kwami. He settled near the missions. He wrote his own biography - his son educated in Germany - came back to be a minister. Preceded the indepence mvt. In WW1 - the Germans had a meeting in the town - shd we carry on with the mission - his philosophy - you have to stand on your own feet. He became senior clark until 1945 when he passed. His name - Robert Stephen - he was a pianist and piano teacher. He came from the north - Gurensi or Mossi - I made a painting with this title. Spontaneouos and architectural - I had these affinities with things from that area and the pentatonic tones fo the xylophone. You can say a lot just using two colours. In the 1930s Robert Stephen Kwami (my grandfather) was invited to Germany - the church used him to justify why the missionaries should be in Africa. He was confronted by the Nazis in Oldenburg - said it was sacriligous for him to speak in church but went ahead anyway and spoke 60 times. Cartoon of man tried to stop -called Rover - showed him w axe 'who is wild man now?'. They needed someone to tell them what work they were doing in the missions. In the village int he hills where I came from they still remember him fondly for his sermons and what he did.
Year created
1992
Year acquired
1993
Classification
Transparency
No
Slide
No
Workshop - Residency - Art School
