Jay Walker

African Shirt IV

2016

acrylic on African fabric

acrylic on African fabric

ink, pastel on paper

Machine sewn fabric collage

This tribal cloth was created by an unknown artist from the Fulani tribe in Gambia, Africa. This tribe has a population numbering between 20 and 25 millio...

The Ewe people from Ghana are master weavers. People of means commission cloths called adanudo ("skilled/wise cloths"). Ewe adanudo textiles often display a tweed effect by twisting ...

Artist: Julius Njau – Tanzanian (1961- ) Title: Untitled Year: 1987 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Sight size: 27.5 x 36.5 inches. Framed size: 29 x 38 inches Signature: Signed, dated lower right Condition: Very good Frame: Framed in original frame. Frame in fair condition This colorful painting of figures is by the well-known Tanzanian artist Julius Njau. It is in very good condition and signed “Julius N” and dated 1987 in the lower right. The frame is simple unfinished wood. It has a few small scratches Tanzanian artist Julius Njau was born in 1961 Marangu, Moshi in Tanzania. He attended the Primary School Kilimanja. In 1972, a serious fracture of the leg caused him to spend two years in hospital where he began to paint and his career as an artist commenced. Julius was encouraged by a Finnish radiology specialist who supplied him with material and purchased his works. She also organized his first exhibition in Finland in 1983. The first works of Njau are very representative, inspired by the nature and the traditional aspects of his country. In 1984 his technique changed and his style transformed. Julius Njau paintings are characterised by the interaction of primary colors and the mixture of forms. Julius Njau's artworks works are part of the collection of Osaka Prefecture and Toyama Museum of Modern Art in Japan. They are also in the Frankfurt Museum of Ethnology (fur Volkerkunde), in the ZAK Gallery (Zeitgenossische afrikanische Kunst), Furth in Germany, in the Amos Anderson Helsinki Gallery, Finland, and in the 5th British Museum in England. In 2002, Julius Njau received a Nagoya City Hall Award and in 2003 the Grand Prize at the Toyama Prefecture International Competition at the "Sukiyaki Encounter the World" Poster Design Festival. Julius Njau is President and a founding member of the Marafiki group. EXHIBITIONS 1983 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland 1984 'Group Exhibition' Gallery of Denmark 1985 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Danish Volunteer Training Centre, Tanzania 1985 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Tynset, Norway 1985 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Gallery of Sweden 1986 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Danish Volunteer Training Centre, Tanzania 1987 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1988 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Vogue Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 1988 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Centre culturel francais, Nairobi, Kenya 1989 'Julius Njau One Man Show' National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya 1990 'Into the Nineties' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1990 'Portraits of Kenya' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1991 'Gallery Artists' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1991 'The Custodian's View' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1991 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Nairobi Safari Club, Kenya 1991 'Julius Njau One Man Show' Nagoya City Network Centre, Nagoya, Japan 1991 'Julius Njau One Man Show' National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya 1991 'Julius Njau One Man Show' The German Culture Centers, Goethe Institut, Nairobi, Kenya 1992 'Julius Njau One Man Show' International Gallery, Madrid, Spain 1992 'Through the Artists' Eyes' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1992 'Rafiki wa zamani' Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya 1992 'Kenya Art...

Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Untitled, 1983. Ink on paper, measures 17 x 23 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower left. Ayers holds the distinction of having participated in the first important survey of African-Americans, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a 1971 show at The Whitney. Biography: Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...