Will the real African Lorenzo de Medici please stand up?

Kenya Mon 30-06-2008

Will the real African Lorenzo de Medici please stand up?
www.AfricanColours.com

The blindfold by Elkana Ongesa 2008

The arts have an intangible place in our twenty-first century lives. The price of unsustainable agricultural policies, and the fuel to transport the 24x7 tomatoes, other by-products of these policies as well as ourselves, is finally depleting people’s purses, leading to the further globalisation of poverty.

Already-paid taxes are being diverted into propping up irresponsible banks. So the arts are being pushed lower down the priorities of huge swathes of the population.

But at what cost? Indeed, is it not in times of trouble that the soul needs the kind of nourishment that only a gallery (or library or concert hall) can provide?

Much has been written about enlightening the young or those with disposable wealth in the direction of the contemporary African art scene. One needs to be discerning – or, at the very least, curious - but that can be cultivated.

Yet are we missing the point? There is little benefit in freeing the common man from the shackles of philistinism if you do not have sufficient means to generate, indeed provoke, a continual wave of original, inspirational, inspired, uncompromising art in the first place.

You may think I am contradicting myself. How can one be creative if one is not leading a hand-to-mouth existence? Haven’t the most impoverished artists produced the most revolutionary work, and that not always recognised in their lifetime?

Fine. Let’s not put artists into ivory towers. But, as of today, African art is still largely dependent on foreign donors. Organisations that require lengthy proposals and spreadsheets and accounts. Understandable, of course, as any charitable foundation, like an institutional investor, wants to ensure where its money is going and, later, if where it has gone is where it was supposed to.

However, it is arguably this control that is stifling the very scene it is supposed to be patronising. Donors often do work in ivory towers, with guaranteed salaries, some degree of accountability (but seemingly a diluted version of what they impose on their beneficiaries) and a need to justify next year’s existence.

Even corporates will have limitations on what they will display. No politics, murder, torture, whether actual, figurative or looming.

What any art scene must have is individual sponsorship. A Lorenzo de Medici (or his modern-day avatar, Jean Pigozzi), if you will.

Granted, this may be a romantic, even retrograde, idea. After all, how can you be independent if you are reliant on a single benefactor? Perhaps we need a more ‘African’ way of doing it, with a small club of benefactors supporting multiple artists.

Taking it a step further, there will be no permanent members, only a handful of criteria to determine who can participate for a limited time. This includes rules on the patrons. Maybe we can even adapt the speed-dating model, where each potential patron his three minutes to chat online with an artist.

It is because of, rather than despite, today’s economic climate that a Monet can fetch US$ 80m from a private buyer. This shows that art is once again a refuge away from stock markets and banks.

Few people have that kind of cash, but, in our context, even 1% will do. The point is, it’s this league we want to attract.

If you think you are qualified to be a contemporary African art benefactor and would like AfricanColours to hook you up with one of our artists, contact andrew@africancolours.com.

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