Atta Kwami’s ‘Prelude to Mountains’ Concludes at Goodman Gallery New York, this is a selection of early works created over almost two decades (1990-2008). The presentation highlights Kwami’s significant contribution to non-Western expressions of modernism and showcases the pivotal moments that shaped his artistic practice which coalesced painting, printmaking and sculpture through vibrant compositions. In contrast to his later schematic geometric forms, these early works provide insight into Kwami’s most transformative period, during which the foundation of his practice was established.
The works featured in ‘Prelude to Mountains’ highlight a diverse range of pictorial elements, employing color and motifs through varied mark-making and brush strokes. The works exude a sensuous and playful quality, brimming with energy and a sense of freedom and experimentation. The earliest work, ‘Untitled (Murial Blue)’, created in 1990, features a powerful and unusual composition inspired by the wall paintings of northern Ghana, where women paint the outer walls of their houses to protect them from the elements, primarily using earth pigments and dung. Kwami discovered that the women incorporated a powder known as ‘washing blue’, an ultramarine-like substance traditionally used for whitening clothes and referenced it in the work. These influences significantly shape his stylistic language and are evident in both the choice of color and the title of the work.
Atta Kwami (b. 1956, Accra, Ghana, d. 2021, UK) composed works of vibrant geometric patterns that are inspired by a wide range of influences, from Ewe and Asante cloth to jazz, the tradition of mural painting and the design of street kiosks along the roads of West-African towns. Kwami is known for expanding the notions of painting, basing his practice both in the visual world of his native Ghana and in reflections on modernism. Kwami’s work embodies a connection between symbolism and formalism. Drawing from modernist approaches that prioritize structure and abstraction, he integrates rich cultural narratives into his use of formal elements — such as zig-zags and herringbone patterns found in Ghanaian fabric, the kiosks and shop fronts of informal traders. ‘East’ features rectangles and triangles arranged across three horizontal planes. This work is reminiscent of the architectural archways Kwami has painted throughout his career, beginning with his first archway created in Nairobi in 1999 and continuing with recent works like ‘Atsiaƒu ƒe agbo nu (Gateways of the Sea)’, showcased at the Folkestone Triennial in Kent, England in 2021. Painted in vibrant hues, these works blend sculpture and painting and are inspired by street vending kiosks found in many parts of Ghana and West Africa.
Although abstract in nature, Kwami’s works are highly conceptual and richly layered. His painting ‘Two Sisters’ features recurring edging stripes, a theme rooted in his earlier series of “Tana” paperworks created with coloured paper pulp in 1993. Rectangles, the vertex-transitive shape that suggests balance, appear frequently throughout his oeuvre. However, in his works, this shape conveys tension, emphasizing movement and transformation rather than symmetry and proportion. There’s an interplay between flatness, suggestions of landscape, horizons, and texture against seemingly floating and unrestricted forms, as seen in ‘Credential’. The works in this presentation highlight Atta Kwami’s transition while also revealing the ideas he was interested in early in his career. Thick, simple planes of color, along with lines and patterns on various materials—canvas, calico, and linen—showcase a small part of his long and rich career. During this time, Kwami established a confident and bold style, merging vibrant colors with structured brushwork. His approach to color is both deliberate and spontaneous, evident in the variety of works that trace his artistic journey.
‘Prelude to Mountains’ opened on the 16th of October and will be open until the 16th of November 2024 at Goodman Gallery New York. Kwami’s work has been exhibited widely, notably creating large-scale public art commissions such as at the Folkestone Triennial in 2021 for which the artist made short-term alien interventions in the landscape. Solo exhibitions include: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (1994-1995), SOAS, University College of London (1995), Geometric Organic, National Museum Accra (1998-1999) and Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2001). Collections include: the National Museums of Ghana and Kenya; the V&A Museum, London; British Museum, London; the National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.
