The Mondrian of African Textiles.

The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End continues at The Metropolitan Museum until 9th April, 2009. Included in this marvellous display is the work of Atta Kwami who combines his work as a fine artist with that of a historian of Ghanaian art. The title of his doctoral thesis is Kumasi Painting, 1951–2007.

His mother, Grace Salome Kwami, a gifted artist and educator, served as a critical formative influence. A sculptor, weaver, and painter, she submitted water-colours and gouaches to Ghanaian textile manufacturers in the 1960s.

WEAVER, PAINTER, PRINT-MAKER, HISTORIAN.

At the prestigious Achimota School, Atta Kwami studied weaving, among other art subjects, with an Ewe master. Kwami, born in 1956, holds degrees in painting and art history from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, the Royal College of Art in London, and The Open University, Milton Keynes, in the U.K., and a diploma from the Royal College of Art, London.

For more than twenty years he was Senior Lecturer of painting and printmaking at KNUST. His work is exhibited internationally and he has served as a major catalyst for bringing together Ghana's fine arts community.





Kpong, 2006





Kpetoe, 2006






Tsito, 2006





Vane, 2006





Juapong, 2006


"Over time, I have been better able to embody those aspects of my every-day life which have the greatest significance: kiosks, commercial (sign) painting, woven textiles, Ghanaian music (Koo Nimo) and jazz, all of which allow for serial composition in strips, stripes, grids. I have focussed on colour as my subject matter, perhaps taking me back to where I started with the perception of my mother's paints and textiles, but my art also resonates, I have seen, with the wider world of colour formalist painters, such as Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Sean Scully, and Ellsworth Kelly."

- Atta Kwami (Kumasi, January 2008)

EXHIBITION DETAILS ON THE MET SITE UNDER OUR FAVOURITE LINKS.