PORTFOLIO- 9

TWO FIGURES AT TABLE

By Nii B. Andrews [09/08/2017]

TWO FIGURES AT TABLE: George Afedzi Hughes, oil on canvas, 121x80cm; 1997. Signed and dated left lower corner. Verso- title, date and name of artist. Provenance- Private collection, purchased from the Artists’ Alliance Gallery, Accra.

If you like to see tropes and memes thoroughly deconstructed, then the art of George Afedzi Hughes is a must.

The African Art Market Report 2014 (published in 2015), documents his pieces as still undervalued and thereby presenting an opportunity for both  collectors and dealers.

The oeuvre of this polyglot Ghanaian born artist is a bulwark against the barbs and tirades of commentators who will stereotype or restrict contemporary African art or African art for that matter.

His work displays beyond any doubt the multiplicity, nuance and complexity of the African experience in arriving at its modernity and post modernity.

George Afedzi Hughes (in middle) with Ms. Damali and Dr. Andrews at opening of Urban Overtures Exhibition 2010; Artists Alliance Gallery, La, Accra.

Hughes is transvangarde.

His pieces will still be yielding their delightful covert universal messages long after the loudest pundit has gone quiet; long after the particularisms which appear to divide communities and nations have been jettisoned.

If we examine the composition closely, we could well imagine an earlier snippet of conversation between the diners.

  • Fish dish?
  • But of course, if you will choose the wine!

(Did anyone say tilapia? I hope not).

Hughes’ figures in this painting – and in almost all his paintings-  (and akin to his own eclectic nature) always appear to have a lot more than the thoroughly mundane on their mind.

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