Tom Krens Gets His Wish: "100% Africa"

Chéri Samba, "I Like Color," 2003, Courtesy of CAAC---The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva
© Chéri Samba

In 1996, back when the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, a ballyhooed home for multimedia art, was just opening, director Tom Krens and I shared a cab, talking about his dreams for that now defunct museum and also about his desire to mount a show of contemporary African art.

The latter dream has just been realized, although not in New York.

What had sparked Krens' interest 10 years ago was the new lavishly illustrated Abrams-published catalogue, "Contemporary Art of Africa." More than half the works in that 192-page tome came from the collection of Jean Pigozzi. One of the contributors of entries about the individual artists was Italian designer Ettore Sottsass. Pigozzi was inspired to collect by the landmark 1989 exhibition, "Magiciens de la Terre," at the Pompidou Center, Paris.

Now the Guggenheim Bilbao is presenting (to Feb. 18) 100% Africa, an exhibition of works by 25 artists from 15 sub-Saharan countries. As described by the museum's press release, it features "the most important works from the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) owned by collector Jean Pigozzi and considered one of the world's finest private collections of modern art from the African continent. Also included are several artworks created exclusively for display at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao."

And Sottsass is again involved, creating a "very distinctive setting" for the exhibition. A spokesman in Bilbao knew of no travel plans for the show.

Africa (not to mention Antarctica) is a continent for which, to my knowledge, there has not yet been a proposed Guggenheim.

"Guggenheim Ghana" does have a nice ring to it.

(CultureGrrl Disclaimer: My above-linked "Antarctica" piece, from the Wall Street Journal, is just a spoof. Some readers actually did take it seriously!)