Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1908 Mampong, Gold Coast (now Ghana)

Died: 1998 Mampong, Ghana

Year of Migration to the UK: 1933

Other name/s: Edward Oku Ampofo, Dr. Kwaku Oku Ampofo

Biography

Sculptor and doctor, Oku Ampofo was born Edward Oku Ampofo on 4 November 1908 in Mampong, Gold Coast (now Ghana), the son of Chief Kwasi Ampofo and Madam Akua Adwo. In 1932 he won the Gold Coast Government Medical Scholarship, making him the first Ghanaian to ever win a government medical scholarship.

Ampofo subsequently moved to Edinburgh, Scotland in 1933 and studied medicine at both the University of Edinburgh and the medical Royal Colleges of Edinburgh and Glasgow. At the same time he took night classes in sculpture at Edinburgh School of Art under sculptor Norman Forest, producing pieces depicting cultural and socio-religious aspects of the Ghanaian way of life, combining themes associated with traditional African life with a Western-derived abstraction. While living in the UK, Ampofo was able to tour European museums with major African art collections. He later commented: ‘It was as though the African had to go all the way to Europe to discover himself’(as cited in Ruwona 2021). Ampofo was in Sweden at the outbreak of the Second World War, where he carved a Death Mask (1939, Oku Ampofo Foundation) reflecting the frightening effects of the war on him.

In 1940 Ampofo returned to Ghana and established both an art studio and a medical clinic. He worked as a physician from 1940 until 1961, when he decided to dedicate his time to researching plant medicine as well as working on his art. As a sculptor, Ampofo worked with painted wood as well as with cement and terrazzo. He described his work as ‘a step in the direction of a further development of a typical African identity’ (as cited in MacClancy 1997, p. 37). Ampofo was an ardent supporter of the Pan-African movement and advocated for traditional styles as opposed to those influenced by Western art. He recruited artists practicing in different mediums throughout Ghana, which would later come to be known as the Akuapim Six. The aim of the group was to promote the appreciation of indigenous and Akuapem art as well as ‘healthy conditions for free expression of thought through the arts (Labi 2013). With the support of the British Council, the group organised the first national art exhibition in Ghana, New African Art, which premiered in 1946. The show was a major success and garnered a second iteration two years later. In 1958 Ampofo was elected a member of the Ghana Arts Council; he would go on to serve as chairman from 1969 to 1971. He presented a solo exhibition at the Union Carbide building, New York in 1965. In 1977 his carved elongated ebony figures were included in the exhibition Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952–1977 at the Commonwealth Institute, London, featuring 27 artists from 17 countries. The show focused on ‘independence and inter-relation’, demonstrating ‘that when it comes to art ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ don’t correspond to economic progress. It’s not a matter of folk art versus sophistication […] but of growth over 25 years in cultural confidence, subject matter and technique’ (Richards 1977, p. 7). Other artists included in the show were Henry Moore, the Australian émigré painter Sidney Nolan, Indian painter F N Souza and the Tanzanian minister of culture, and former Slade student, Sam Nitro.

Ampofo remained in Ghana after the military coup of 1966 and the subsequent military dictatorship, when many Ghanaian academics left the country. He charged nominal fees and on many occasions provided services for free to his rural patients as well as personally driving critically ill patients to hospitals in Accra. In 1975 he founded the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine. Born out of Ampofo’s studies of traditional African treatments, the Centre subsequently served as the official resource for the World Health Organization (WHO) on plant-based medicine. Ampofo’s sculptures were exhibited in Senegal, Nigeria, Israel, Brazil, and the USA. His sculpture Woe to You, Mother Earth , made after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, is displayed in the Africa Room at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, USA. Oku Ampofo died in Mampong, Ghana on 18 February 1988. His work is not currently represented in any UK public collections.

Related books

David Owusu-Ansah, Historical Dictionary of Ghana (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), p. 42
Kwame Amoah Labi, 'Afro-Ghanaian Influences in Ghanaian Paintings', Journal of Art Historiography, December 2013
Ruti Talmor, Crafting Intercultural Desire: Transforming Nation, Art, and Personhood in Ghana, dissertation, New York University , 2008, p. 198
Janet Berry, Imagining Culture: Art and Nationalism in Ghana Hess, thesis, Harvard University, 1999, pp. 102-103
Jeremy MacClancy, Contesting Art: Art, Politics and Identity in the Modern World (Berg Publishers, 1997)
Oku Ampofo, My Kind of Sculpture (1991)
Robert W. July, An African Voice: The Role of Humanities in African Independence (Duke University Press, 1987)
Alberrt Kayper-Mensah, 'Artists Keep an Eye on their Heritage', The Guardian, 23 August 1978, p. 16
Margaret Richards, 'Regional, Cross-cultural', Tribune, Vol. 41, 17 Jun 17 1977, p. 7
Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952-1977, exhibition catalogue (Commonwealth Art Gallery, 1977)
Oku Ampofo, 'The Akwapim Six', in David Brokensha ed., Akwapim Handbook (Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1972)
'Art Exhibit', Chicago Daily Defender, 14 December 1965, p. 13

Related organisations

Akuapim Six (member)
Edinburgh School of Art (student)
Ghana Arts Council (member, chairman)
University of Edinburgh (student)

Selected exhibitions

Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952-1977, Commonwealth Institute, London (1977)
New African Art, Accra, Ghana (1948, 1946)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Oku Ampofo]