Atta Kwami

Beardsmore Gallery, London

The Estate of Michael Raw

Private Collection, UK, acquired from the above 

Dr Atta Kwami (1956–2021) was a celebrated Ghanaian painter, printmaker, and art historian whose work seamlessly bridges African artistic traditions with modernist abstraction. Born in Accra to artist Grace Kwami, Atta Kwami was steeped in West African visual culture, and throughout his career produced work which reflects the panoply of colour and form commonly observed in both rural or urban West Africa. Kwami’s work reflects a deep engagement with both his Ghanaian heritage and firm grounding in the Western canon. His PhD thesis, now adapted into the seminal text, Kumasi Realism, 1951-2007: An African Modernism, highlights the global influences on local art production in Kumasi, an urban creative hub in Ghana, and contextualising this within the development of the street art traditions throughout the city. Kwami dual contribution to Ghanaian art and African art history have established him as an important and highly coveted artist, especially within the African Modern and Contemporary art market.

The present lot exemplifies Kwami’s signature style, his compositions characterized by their grid-like forms, stripes, and rhythmic patterns. The artist’s extensive visual influences include Asante and Ewe traditional strip woven Kente textiles, various wall murals in rural settlements, as well as the dappled market kiosks and taxis in the urban centres of Ghana, offering a powerful visual commentary on the intersections of tradition and modernity. Kwami's distinctive visual language is rooted in his careful observations of everyday Ghanaian life, yet his abstract forms and use of colour place him in dialogue with modernist and post-war movements, a factor which no doubt has contributed to the desirability and esteem of the artist and his work.

Kwami’s works are held in major international collections, including the National Museum of Ghana, the V&A, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, Brooklyn Museum, The National Museum of Kenya, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. the Venice Biennale and major museums such as the British Museum and the Smithsonian. He was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Wolfson Fellowship, Cambridge; Fifteenth Triennial Symposium on African Art, University of California, Los Angeles; Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan; and 1st Thoyer Distinguished Visiting Scholar, New York University, New York.