acrylic paint on canvas with mixed media , burlap , paper (fiber product) , metal , wood , glass , leather and fur with silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
Dimensions:
H x W x D (framed): 95 1/2 × 76 × 3 3/4 in. (242.6 × 193 × 9.5 cm)
H x W (canvas ): 92 × 72 × 1 1/2 in. (233.7 × 182.9 × 3.8 cm)
Type:
collages
paintings
Place depicted:
Ghana, West Africa, Africa
Date:
1992
Caption:
The work of Guyanese-born ceramicist and mixed-media artist Donald Locke reflects a blend of Guyanese culture, West African arts and traditions, and European aesthetic conventions.
Courtesy of fellowships and scholarships, Locke studied in the United Kingdom, where his best-known work is the Plantation series, which includes sculptures linked together as a metaphor for a system where one group of people is held down by another. He later moved to the United States. His last 20 years were spent in Atlanta, Georgia, sculpting, painting, and teaching. Landscape with Kwame N’Krumah is Locke’s homage to the first the first African leader to break free from British colonialism when he was elected the president of independent Ghana.
Description:
A contemporary artwork made of acrylic and collage on canvas. This artwork is comprised of three (3) canvases connected together to form a T-shape. Down the center of the artwork, across all three (3) canvases, is painted a large, vertical splash of black acrylic and tar mix, which partially or fully covers all of the elements of collage and mixed media. The attached elements include burlap, photocopied images on paper, metal, a plank of wood and two small wood doors, pieces of cut glass, leather and fur. Many of the photocopied images are of conflict or military themes, while others are images of sculptures and other artworks, and a cluster of images at the center-right of the artwork are of the Ghanaian former President Kwame Nkrumah. Underneath the areas painted with the black acrylic and tar mix, a wash of gray, blue, and brown acrylic paints swirl around the canvases in thick brushstrokes. Each of the three (3) canvases is predominantly bare along its left and right borders. The canvases are framed together in a shadow box style within a black, custom-built frame.
