Kofi Antubam was born to a distinguished Ghanaian family from the Akan lineage, in Oppong Valley, Ghana, in 1922. He won a scholarship in the late 1940s and arrived in London in 1948 to start professional art training at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Returning to his homeland, Antubam subsequently established his career as an important Ghanaian African Modernist artist, profoundly influenced by his time studying in the UK.
Artist Kofi Antubam was born into a distinguished Ghanaian family in the Oppong Valley, Ghana, in 1922. His initial education took an unexpected turn after his father, an Asante Chief from Akan royalty (Graham-Stewart, 2016, p. 20), died in Antubam's early childhood. His uncle relocated the boy to Kumasi, Ghana, to continue his primary schooling and he later moved to Jos, Nigeria - a period that included attending an Anglican boys' boarding school, St. Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College). Attending a boarding school was a prerequisite for the children of the elite and aspiring African middle classes, who sent their children away from home to attain a good, solid education under the colonial system. Antubam thrived at St. Nicholas', earning a highly competitive scholarship to attend Ghana's most acclaimed educational institution, Achimota College, in Accra. It was at Achimota College that Antubam began to develop his creativity and art practice, with the encouragement of his art teacher, the esteemed Russian-Jewish sculptor, Herbert Vladimir Meyerowitz, (Kwami, 2013, p. 41). At Achimota, Antubam was a diligent learner, honing technical skills in painting, art design, and craftwork, and earning a teacher training certificate. By the late 1940s, Antubam applied for and was awarded a scholarship for further education in London, England, at Goldsmiths College, University of London, one of the UK's leading art schools.
Antubam attended Goldsmiths College in south east London from 1948 to 1950, where he was immersed in the arts, participating in academic lectures and seminars in art history and receiving specialised training in fine art painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and typographical design. Antubam's own artwork drew on his Ghanaian heritage, his distinctive personal interpretation engaging with the nuances of African themes through the use of African realism, while challenging the colonial conception of African art as merely abstract or focused around Western notions of primitivism. In 1949, whilst at Goldsmiths, Antubam produced a delicate artwork, using ink and wash on paper, depicting a scene from the Royal Akan Courts, Akan Court Horn Players Rehearse (Graham-Stewart, 2016). In this work Antubam employed dark lines to accentuate the figures, a tall drum, and the carved horns lying in a small heap, and applied the modernist technique of hazying the background, where - almost invisible to the viewer, faintly concealed in ink wash - he melted into the composition, an ancient Akan harp-lute, seemingly abandoned against the wall. Antubam's poignant piece was included in the group exhibition, Cosmopolis: The Impact of Refugee Art Dealers in London, held at Ben Uri Gallery and Museum in 2024. The exhibition featured examples of modernist art held by Jewish art dealers who immigrated to London after fleeing Nazi persecution and who channelled their collecting passion into modernism. A leading figure in modernist Ghanaian art (Kwami, 2013, p. 42). Antubam's art exemplified African Modernism, combining African realism with techniques acquired during his art education at Goldsmith, in which he applied elements of modernist styles, such as cubism and Fauvism in his portrayals of Akan Ghanaian society
Antubam returned to Ghana from London, and although his stay in the English capital was brief, his encounter with British art education helped him to become an important figure in the development of African Modernism, with his work collected by London Art dealers and displayed in exhibitions in Europe. Antubam's reputation was first established through his earlier achievements in Ghana, with greater accolades received upon his subsequent return to his homeland. In 1951, he was made Director of the Art Department at his alma mater, Achimota College (Kwami, 2016, p. 42). Antubam then came to the attention of Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah, who successfully ended British Colonial rule in 1957 and who commissioned him to design objects and emblems that represented Ghanaian heritage and culture. These included the ancient symbols of power associated with the wood-carved state of seat, public sculptures, paintings and murals on government buildings (Graham-Stewart, 2016, p. 20). Antubam worked tirelessly to uplift his fellow Ghanaians in various capacities; he taught reprographic skills to workers at the Abura Printing Press and held positions of cultural importance, including as founding President of the Ghana Society of Artists and Chairman of the Arts Council of Ghana. In 1963, Antubam wrote Ghana's Heritage of Culture, published by Koehler & Amelang. Antubam's writing laid the foundation for the global recognition of African Modernism, Ghanaian arts and pride in Ghanaian national identity. Kofi Antubam died in Ghana in 1964, aged 45. In the UK public domain is held by the Government Art Collection; archival material is held by the Smithsonian Institution, USA.
Joy Onyejiako.
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