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Modern African Art : A Basic Reading List

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Rychner, Rose-Marie. Contemporary art in Uganda. Neuchâtel: Ugandan Artist Promotion Committee, 1996. 71pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. (pp. 67-69). Text in English, French, and German. N7397.6.U26R93 1996 AFA. OCLC 40519658.

Seventeen Ugandan artists are featured in this compilation of contemporary Ugandan aritsts. A brief introductory essay discusses Ugandan artists in the post-war renaissance and the origins of the modern art movement in Uganda.

The seventeen artists are: Francis Xavier Ifee; Samuel Kakaire; Jak Katarikawe; Rose Namubiru Kirumira; Maria Kasule Kizito; Romano Lutwama; Fabian Kamulu Mpagi; Lydia Mugambi; Geoffrey Katantazi; Theresa Musoke; Fred Mutebi; Lilian Nabulime; Francis X. Nnaggenda; Joseph Ntensibe; Pilkington Ssengendo; Gertrude Idah Kusek Ssekabira; and Elly Tumwine. For each artist there is a capsule biography and illustrations of one or more works. A slightly more comprehensive "List of Ugandan Artists" (pp. 64-65) is appended.



Sanyal, Sunanda K. Imaging art, making history: two generations of Makerere artists. PhD dissertation, Emory University, 2000. [Atlanta: the author], 2000. 238 leaves. bibliog. (leaves 231-238). N7397.6.U26S26 2000a AFA. OCLC 55214489.

Margaret Trowell is the seminal figure in the foundation of the school of art at Makerere University that now bears her name. She is also the central figure in this dissertation, which investigates the history of art at Makerere from the precursor days of the 1930s up to the 1990s. Sanyal situates this history within the colonial context, its missionary impulses, and its (now regarded as racist) attitudes about Africans and about their abilities to make art. The author frames the narrative as two generations, dividing roughly at 1970. The decades of the 1950s and 1960s were ones of growth and optimism, but the reputation of the Makerere school of art declined in the 1970s and 1980s. This divide also marked the decrease of European instructors at Makerere and the decrease of non-Ugandan students (attributed to the political upheavals in Uganda from the 1970s). By the 1990s, a certain rejuvenating spirit emerged and a more international outlook characterized the Makerere artists.

Woven through the narrative are the artists singled out to exemplify changing Makerere style, content, and iconography. Among those highlighted in the earlier period are Gregory Maloba, Sam Ntiro, Elimo Njau, James Bukhala, Severino Matti (Sudan), Berlings Kaunda (Malawi), Theophilus Tabbaro, Muhammed Kamulegeya, and Peter Mulindwa. The three key faculty artists after Trowell were Cecil Todd, Jonathan Kingdon and Ali Darwish.

In the tumultuous years of the 1970s, 1980s and renaissance of the 1990s new names and faces emerged at Makerere: Francis X. Nnaggenda, Kizito Kasule, Muwonge Kyazze, Francis Iffe, Godfrey Banadda, Pilkington Ssengendo, Ignatius Sserulyo, Richard Kabiito, and Rose Namubiru Kirumira.