88 | african arts AUTUMN 2021 VOL. 54, NO. 3 In his later years dancing fgures (Figs. 4–5) therefore became central in his artworks. Te center of the exhibition featured a video flm by Kemang Wa Lehulere, Where, If Not Far Away, Is My Place? (2015), based on ex- cerpts of the famous interview by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, and including artists’ commen- taries with text and animation. In the video, Mancoba discusses the turning points of his life and the discrimination existing in society. It is a unique resource and a wonderful experi- ence to learn more about Mancoba’s political, artistic, and individual thoughts, as he saw art “as a struggle for human liberation” and “as urgent as working for political evolution,” as he said in his interview with Obrist. Other archival materials also enriched the exhibition, such as Man Ray’s flm footage about African art collector and art historian Carl Kjersmeier, who was a friend of Sonja Ferlov’s family, and the reason for her interest in African art and Africa. Te exhibition also included works by younger artists such as Mo Laudi, Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Mihindou, and Chloé Quenum as both a homage and a very personal dialogue between Mancoba and the artists as well as a response to his infuence upon them. But Mancoba’s inspiring efect was not limited to artists from Africa or Black artists. With the cooperation of the art magazine Afrikadaa and the participation of artists Myriam Mihindou, Fabiana Ex-Souza, Chris Cyrille, and Yann Cléry, Quand les artistes dialoguent avec les ancêtres (When artists interact with ancestors), a performance event and talk with Pascale Obolo and exhibition curator Alicia Knock, was organized on September 11, 2019. Afer visiting the exhibition, one might also question how Mancoba’s retrospective might afect the Centre Pompidou’s collection and its policy about exhibition making in the long term. A simple online search in April 2021 reveals the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou has twelve works by Sonja Ferlov and only three works by Ernest Mancoba. Most of Mancoba’s works were acquired by the institution in recent years. In the back room of the exhibition, articles, radio conversations, the artist’s camp diary (which I found import- ant and which contains information about his imprisonment from December 1940–February 1941 at Saint Denis Camp during World War II) were bound as a spiral book. Unfortu- nately, the exhibition did not have a catalogue, even though one had been announced. In contrast, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba’s exhibition was accompanied by a rich and beautifully illustrated catalogue and a documentary flm about her (En dansk billedhuger i Paris, 1977) that could be bought from the museum shop. Ernest Mancoba’s exhibition had nothing of rememberance to buy and keep afer visiting the exhibition. Nonetheless, Mancoba’s retrospective exhi- bition is clearly an acceptance of his presence and importance as a European/African/world modernist in an European museum. While it did not take place during his lifetime as he wished, his struggle and his art will be an inspiration to artists coming from other parts of the world who search for acceptance as he did. It is also an opportunity for a wider audi- ence not only to linger on Mancoba’s erasure in art, as is mostly done, but to talk about his artworks, as rightly deserved. Esra Yıldız teaches at İstanbul Bilgi University and is the director of the Cultural Manage- ment MA Program. esra.yildiz@bilgi.edu.tr References cited Araeen, Rasheed. 2010. “Modernity, Modernism and Africa’s Authentic Voice.” Tird Text 24 (2): 277–86. Obrist, Hans Ulrich. 2003. “An Interview with Ernest Mancoba.” In Interviews, Vol. 1, pp. 560–73. Milan: Edizioni Charta. Smalligan, Laura M. 2010. “Te Erasure of Ernest Mancoba: Africa and Europe at the Crossroads.” Tird Text 24 (2): 263–76. 5 Ernest Mancoba Untitled, undated Ink and watercolor on paper; 46 cm x 29.3 cm Collection Mikael Andersen Photo: © Courtesy of the Estate of Ferlov Mancoba exhibition review Ìgwèbúiké: Exhibition of Sculpture in Honour of El Anatsui at 75 Years curated by Chijioke Onuora National Gallery of Art, Enugu February 3–10, 2019 reviewed by George C. Odoh and Nneka S. Odoh For his phenomenal achievements in the contemporary art world, the second decade of the twenty-frst century may be considered as the decade of El Anatsui, Africa’s foremost sculptor. Te artist’s 2019 touring exhibition, Triumphant Scale, capped an eventful decade of international awards and recognitions for the artist, including the Golden Lion for Life- time Achievement (2015), the Lorenzo il Mag- nifco Lifetime Achievement Award (2017), and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award (2017). Triumphant Scale marked a milestone in Anatsui’s life, as he turned 75 in February 2019. His experiences in the uni- versity town of Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, where he has lived and worked for most of his adult life, ofer insightful narratives on his life and art. From 1975, when he came to Nigeria from Ghana, till his recent retirement, he taught at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. On February 3, 2019, Ìgwèbúiké: Exhibition of Sculpture in Honour of El Anatsui at 75 Years opened at the outstation of the National Gallery of Art in the coal city state of Enugu, Nigeria. Te show, organized by staf of the sculpture section of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, provided a cryptic gaze into stylistic correspondences among artists whose creative sensibilities have been shaped by encoun- ters with El Anatsui. Te exhibiting artists, Chijioke Onuora, Eva Obodo, Chike Aka- buike, Uche Onyishi, Ekene Anikpe, Sabastine Ugwoke, Amuche Ngwu, Livinus Ngwu, and Sunday Odoh, were taught by Anatsui at diferent times. In what may be considered the manifestations of the long arm of Anatsui’s infuence, the show was, in an uncanny way, a retrospective reading of Anatsui’s stylistic developments, particularly his wood panel experiments of the late 1980s and his found wood installations, which On Teir Fateful Journey Nowhere (1995) emblematizes. Stylistic echoes of Anatsui’s breathtaking monumental bottle-top sculpture installations also reverber- ated loudly in the show. Although the participating artists projected diverse experimental foci, a uniting force that Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/afar/article-pdf/54/3/88/1955007/afar_r_00604.pdf by guest on 02 September 2021