http://arthistorynewsletter.com/blog/?p=2209 News for Art Historians Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:57:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://arthistorynewsletter.com/blog/?p=2209&cpage=1#comment-139090 Travis Nygard Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:14:48 +0000 http://arthistorynewsletter.com/blog/?p=2209#comment-139090 After reading Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie’s analysis I was left with the feeling that he is angry about something that went unstated. It is legitimate to debate the merits of continental versus diasporic definitions of Africa, and I agree that Enwezor has often focused on the diaspora. I don’t, however, think it is fair to scapegoat Enwezor’s work as a regime that disempowers both African artists and African American scholars. No one curator or scholar has that much power. Instead I see Enwezor as someone who is to be commended for his work to open up dialogues across cultures. The claim that Enwezor is “legitimizing a notion of Africa that dispenses with the continent itself as a historical theater of contemporary art and visual culture engagements” seems particularly hollow to me, given that one of his major exhibitions was the Johannesburg Biennale of 1997. Similarly, the idea that Enwezor focuses almost entirely on the west is dubious, given that his innovative approach to Documenta 11 was to host conversations about contemporary art across the world—including in New Delhi and Lagos. Full disclosure: I took two courses from Enwezor in graduate school, but I have only heard Ogbechie speak once. After reading Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie’s analysis I was left with the feeling that he is angry about something that went unstated. It is legitimate to debate the merits of continental versus diasporic definitions of Africa, and I agree that Enwezor has often focused on the diaspora. I don’t, however, think it is fair to scapegoat Enwezor’s work as a regime that disempowers both African artists and African American scholars. No one curator or scholar has that much power. Instead I see Enwezor as someone who is to be commended for his work to open up dialogues across cultures. The claim that Enwezor is “legitimizing a notion of Africa that dispenses with the continent itself as a historical theater of contemporary art and visual culture engagements” seems particularly hollow to me, given that one of his major exhibitions was the Johannesburg Biennale of 1997. Similarly, the idea that Enwezor focuses almost entirely on the west is dubious, given that his innovative approach to Documenta 11 was to host conversations about contemporary art across the world—including in New Delhi and Lagos. Full disclosure: I took two courses from Enwezor in graduate school, but I have only heard Ogbechie speak once.

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