[On her educational Instagram account that addresses the lack of African Artists & Art in mainstream Art History, @africanarthistory.]
I started this page about a year ago and it’s a little side project that I work on outside of my job.
Obviously, my day-to-day environment is very commercial and mostly focused on the business side of things: selling, consigning, valuing…
But I realised whilst working in this industry and department that African art still isn’t as well-known as it could be, which goes back to education as it’s still not well-represented in traditional art history courses.
So, I thought I could make an easy and accessible platform that will educate people and perhaps open a door for those who may want to learn more and continue their research beyond my posts. It’s sort of an artist guide.
I try to include a lot of women and artists working in different mediums to make it as diverse as possible so it’s easy for people to explore and see if they find artists that they resonate with.
I’m also very aware that auction houses can be super intimidating, so I’m trying to encourage people to come to auction previews since it’s such an easy way to see a broad variety of art for free.
A lot of people are still not comfortable in that setting, which I completely understand, so I’ve turned to social media instead.
……Well, my overall goal is to break boundaries in this industry and not let it be as intimidating and elitist as it currently is.
I’m so passionate about raising awareness of African art, a subject I believe is still considerably overlooked in various senses, so I want to drive that change in the industry through my daily job at Bonhams and my side project, @africanarthistory.
……….I think people often think of auction houses as commercial only, but there’s so much research and connoisseurship that goes into every sale.
We spend the majority of our time developing in-depth catalogues so it’s very educational.
I like to take my learnings from the auction house and make them more accessible through social media.
I often feel like I’m wearing two hats—the commercial one and the educational one—and I’m passionate about both.
HELENE LOVE-ALLOTEY.
ARTCapital Ghana
****NBA COMMENT
After launching ARTcapital GHANA in 2009, it was almost the same sentiments so eloquently expressed by Ms. Love-Allotey that prompted us to start this blog.
Those ideas were documented in our very first post five years ago, “Why ban2art?”. [http://www.artcapitalghana.com/ban2art/]***