This collection introduces artists from Africa and the African diaspora, focusing on the figures of Black people depicted in paintings from the 1920s to the present. It was published in conjunction with an exhibition held from November 2022 to September 2023 at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa.
This book, which introduces more than 200 paintings by 161 artists, was edited by curator Koyo Kouoh. Kouoh served as the executive director and chief curator of the museum, which opened in 2017 as the largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, and was appointed director of the visual arts section for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2026, but passed away in May 2025 before the event could take place.
Artists: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Zandile Tshabalala, Jacob Lawrence, Chéri Samba, Danielle McKinney, Archibald Motley, Ben Enwonwu, Kingsley Sambo, Sungi Mlengeya, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Cyprien Tokoudagba, Amy Sherald, Mmapula Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Joy Labinjo, and more.
This major new study of Black figurative art and self-representation from Africa and the African diaspora features more than 200 paintings by 161 artists. These carefully selected works explore the many ways in which artists have imagined, positioned, remembered and asserted African and diasporic experiences from the early 20th century to now. In particular, they demonstrate how painters have contributed to the ongoing discussions around pan-Africanism, civil rights, African liberation and independence, the Anti-Apartheid and Black Consciousness movements, Black Lives Matter and, more recently, Afropolitanism.
A series of thematic sections – on subjects such as sensuality, spirituality and emancipation – is interspersed with specially commissioned stories and poems by leading writers Ken Bugul, Maaza Mengiste, Bill Kouélany and Robin Coste Lewis. These percipient reflections on the Black experience work with the paintings to deepen the debate about Black subjectivity.
The book coincides with a landmark exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa), Cape Town.
