Atta Kwami (14 September 1956 – 6 October 2021) was a Ghanaian painter, printmaker, independent art historian and curator. He was educated and taught at the

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is a public University of Ghana that focuses on science and technology. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is the public university established in the country, as well a ...

(KNUST),

Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is the ...

, Ghana, and in the United Kingdom. He created works that improvise form and colour and speak to uniquely Ghanaian architecture and African strip-woven textiles, including those of the

Kente Kente ( ak, kente or ''nwetoma''; ee, kete; Dagbani: Chinchini) refers to a Ghanaian textile, made of handwoven cloth, strips of silk and cotton. Historically the fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion by royalty among ethnic groups such as the ...

, the Ewe and Asante of Ghana.

Early life and education

Born George Atta Kwami in 1956 in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

to Robert Kwami, a music teacher, and prominent first generation Ghanaian contemporary artist Grace Kwami (nee Anku), he studied, and later taught, at the KNUST in Kumasi, Ghana. In 2007 he received a PhD in art history at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

for his work for contemporary Ghanaian artists, now published as ''Kumasi Realism, 1951–2007: An African Modernism'' (Hurst & Company, 2013).

Career

Kwami was awarded the title of 1st Thoyer Distinguished Visiting Scholar in

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, New York, from 30 September to 8 October 2008. Kwami also held the Philip L. Ravenhill Fellowship (UCLA) at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

, Washington, DC, from 1 March to 31 May 2010. He was Artist-in-Residence at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, Graduate School of Art & Design, in January 2011. Kwami won the Janet L. Stanley Travel Award to attend the Fifteenth Triennial Symposium on African Art entitled "Africa and its Diasporas in the Market Place: Cultural Resources and the Global Economy" at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, from 23 to 26 March 2011. Between 14 and 26 August 2011, he undertook the Howard Kestenbaum/Vijay Paramsothy International Fellowship at

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, commonly called "Haystack," is a craft school located at 89 Haystack School Drive on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine. History Haystack was founded in 1950 by a group of craft artists in the Belfast, Maine area, ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, USA. In 2021, he won the Maria Lassnig Prize from the Maria Lassnig Foundation in Vienna and the

Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

in the UK.

Exhibitions

Kwami's work has been exhibited in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York,

National Museum of Ghana The National Museum of Ghana is in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It is the largest and oldest of the six museums under the administration of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). The museum building was opened on 5 March 1957 as part of ...

National Museum of Kenya The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, archeology, ethnography and biodiversity ...

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

World Museum World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...

, and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Personal life

In 1992, Kwami married Pamela Clarkson, a painter and printmaker who he had met in 1991 when she set up a printmaking studio at the College of Art,

. They divided their time between Kumasi, Ghana, and Loughborough, United Kingdom. He died of cancer in the UK on 6 October 2021.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwami, Atta 1956 births 2021 deaths Ghanaian artists Ghanaian painters Ghanaian curators 20th-century Ghanaian historians Ghanaian art historians People from Accra