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“Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”

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Raw, imaginative, larger-than-life original art and an absolute treasure of a collection.

  • KING KONG LIVES
    Leonardo (Edward Lamptey), 1992
  • PREDATOR
    Leonardo (Edward Lamptey), 1993
    Leonardo removed Arnold’s T-shirt from the original film still, showing off more of his bare chest. He also replaced Arnold’s gun with a massive serrated knife. The biggest addition, however, is the presence of a bodacious female nude held by the monster – an entirely nonexistent part of the movie
  • JASON GOES TO HELL
    Alex Nkrumah-Boateng, 1994
    Severed body parts were a frequent addition to Ghanaian movie posters. They reference the local superstition that modern-day businessmen only obtain their money and success through the purchase of body parts on the black market, which they would then have a witchdoctor perform rituals upon as part of the ”occult economy”. Wealth was seen as a potential sign of evil and corruption during Ghana’s economic freefall.

    Few of the details of this poster correlate to anything which occurs in the film
  • FREEJACK
    Alex Nkrumah-Boateng, 1994
    Boateng is famous for his extreme attention to detail, naturalistic expression, and three-dimensional perspective, as well as the zig-zag edges of his canvases created through the use of pinking shears to keep the poster’s edges from fraying
  • ALIENS
    D.A. Jasper (Daniel Anum Jasper), ca. 1990
  • VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN
    Joe Mensah, 1996
    More so than Mensah’s other posters, this design draws from the official PAL box cover; however, the has replaced the New York skyline in the lower register with an image of Eddie Murphy in a coffin – a scene that does not appear in the film but which would be attractive to Ghanaians who participate in elaborate, multi-day funerary practices.

    The Asanbosam and Sasabonsam are vampire-like figures existing within Asante folklore in Ghana, which may explain the popularity of vampire films in the region
  • HUNDRA
    Joe Mensah, 1993
  • TERMINATOR 2
    Joe Mensah, 1994
    Mensah is best known for a vibrant colour palette, lavish detailing, and heavy, voluminous figures. He also is credited with inventing dozens of imaginary firearms to bring excitement to his posters

    The ability to recognize a billed star was of little importance in most Ghanaian movie posters – if not for his name in the upper right, Arnold Schwarzenegger could be any action hero
  • GHOST
    D.A. Jasper (Daniel Anum Jasper), ca. 1990

    In Ghana, the concept of ghosts coming back for revenge is a powerfully-held belief. Dozens of locally-made films have been made promoting this idea since the mid-1990s. This is one of the rare posters by Jasper which does not replicate a scene from the actual movie
  • SPLASH
    Designer Unknown, ca. 1990

    Splash is one of the few American comedies that found success in Ghana. This is primarily because the lead character closely resembles the deity Mami Wata (Mammy Water)

    While worshipped throughout Africa, Mami Wata in Ghana is typically depicted as a woman with a fish tail. She is thought to control a paradise under the sea, filled with exotic treasures that she can bestow upon her followers

    Her face has been almost entirely worn away because passersby have touched it in veneration
  • SHEENA
    Gilbert Forson, 1995
  • SUPER GIRL
    Bright Obeng (D.A. Obeng), 1999
  • CHILD’N OF THE CORN 3
    Bright Obeng (D.A. Obeng), ca. 1993
  • TERMINATOR 2
    Ridwaas Arts, ca. 1992
  • EVIL DEAD 2
    Death is Wonder (Kofi Kuwornu), ca. 1990
  • INVASION USA
    Dan Nyenkumah, 1994
  • RAMBO 3
    Dan Nyenkumah, 1996
  • THE SPY WHO LOVE ME
    Designer Unknown, ca. 1990

    While the artist behind this poster is unknown, the presence of the video club’s name indicates that it originated in Teshie, a coastal town just outside of Accra

    It is interesting to note that several mistakes have been painted over, including the word ”you” in the title and the original placement of the video club’s name, now covered by the head of a giant fish
  • CAPTAIN AMERICA
    Lawson Chindayen, 1991

    Interestingly, the artist chose to make both Captain America and the villain, Red Skull, black, when they are both white in the film

    The building in the lower right more closely resembles many of the Ghanaian Slave Castles – buildings along Ghana’s coast where slaves were imprisoned before being shipped abroad – rather than Red Skull’s Italian villa
  • CONAN
    Francisco (Samuel Mensah), ca. 1990

    The tableau of figures emulates a version of the tape box cover; however, the artist has curiously removed Grace Jones, the one black actor from the scene
  • TICKS
    Francisco (Samuel Mensah), 1993
  • KICK BOXER
    Muslim (Muslim Mohammed), 1994
  • THE BLACK COBRA
    Muslim (Muslim Mohammed), 1994

‘‘In 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from its colonial power, the United Kingdom. As the world’s leading exporter of cocoa and provider of one-tenth of the world’s gold, its economy was one of the strongest on the continent; however, the complex and unstable political climate that came after independence threw Ghana into decades of economic collapse. Government corruption and financial mismanagement caused established agricultural businesses to fail, and the currency was continuously devalued. Ghanaians needed new, creative ways to make money.

One surprising industry that emerged to meet this need during the 1980s and 1990s was an independent, unregulated network of video distribution that presented pop-up movie screenings in ad hoc movie halls around the country. Many of these spaces had also been used as open-air places of worship for decades. To introduce an audience to this new form of entertainment, posters were hand-painted by local artists on cotton flour sacks and traveled with the films across the countryside.

Baptized by Beefcake presents the work of 22 artists whose posters tell the story of how Western movies not only became symbols of modernity, but also vehicles for religious experience. Each artist’s signature style reflects Ghana’s rich tradition of painting, as well as the influence of Western commercial graphics portrayed on VHS and PAL box covers. The eye-catching, sometimes shocking graphics reference a hybrid of indigenous and Pentecostal symbology, where Rambo and the Terminator become messengers of moral ideologies in a larger-than-life mashup of pop culture and religion” [source]

Poster House

December 28th, 2019

Vera Paints a Scarf

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”Vera Paints a Scarf was a selection of the work of artist Vera Neumann (1907-1993) and her contributions to the field of American design. Neumann was among the most successful female design entrepreneurs of the 20th century, and an originator of the American lifestyle brand. Over the course of her career, which spanned from her label’s debut in 1942 to her death in 1993, Neumann produced an iconic line of women’s scarves all signed with a cursive “Vera” and stamped with a ladybug, as well as thousands of textile patterns based on her drawings, paintings, and collages. This exhibition was the first to comprehensively examine her career—and highlights the keys to her success: her joyful and inventive aesthetic, democratic design ethos, fusion of craft and mass production, and clever marketing.”

Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)

December 26th, 2019

Prickly Pear Don’t Care

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Artworks

Salvador Jiménez-Flores
Nopales híbridos: An Imaginary World of a Rascuache-Futurism, 2017
Terra cotta, porcelain, underglazes, gold luster, and terra cotta slip

When Jiménez-Flores moved to the United States he spoke limited English. Art became his primary method of communication and means of commemorating his heritage. His practice prioritizes the depiction of Latinx people to ensure their representation in art for future generations. The “Nopales” series (nopales is Spanish for “prickly-pear cacti”) uses humor to challenge existing Latinx stereotypes in the United States. Likenesses of the artist, wearing shiny sunglasses and sticking out his tongue, are portrayed on cactus pads made of terra cotta and porcelain. This irreverent aesthetic references the work of Robert Arneson, father of funk ceramics, and also draws on the rich history of portraiture in Latin American visual culture, from Frida Kahlo’s paintings to Peruvian Moche vessels. The nopal, notable for its resilience in extreme conditions, is an important icon in Mexican culture—so much so that it is emblazoned on the country’s flag. For the artist, the cactus’s endurance symbolizes hope for the future.

Amber Cowan
Dance of the Pacific Coast Highway at Sunset, 2019, Flameworked American pressed glass
Snail Passing Through the Garden of Inanna, 2019, Flameworked American pressed glass

Two of the finalists for the Burke Prize 2019, in recognition of an artist’s extraordinary achievement in craft.

Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)

December 26th, 2019


Art to lift the spirits

The Humble Fabulist1 Comment

I think we can all use a booster

  • Frank Lloyd Wright || The San Francisco Building. Project, 1913
  • Frances Stark || Chorus Line, 2008. Cut-and-pasted printed and coloured papers on paper
  • Daniel Grataloup || Urban Proposal with Multi Thin-Shell Capsules. Project, 1974
  • Sonja Sekula || The Town of the Poor, 1951. Oil on canvas
  • Florine Stettheimer || Procession: Zizim of Persia, Agnes of Bourganeuf, the Unicorn, and Pierre d’Aubusson. Costume design for artist’s ballet Orphée of the Quat-z-arts, c. 1912
  • Florine Stettheimer || Family Portrait II, 1933. Oil on canvas
  • Florine Stettheimer || Portrait of My Mother, 1925. Oil on canvas
  • Hilma af Klint || The Dove No. 2, Series UW, Group IX, 1925. Oil on canvas
  • Metastadt-Planungsgesellschaft, est. 1969
    Richard Dietrich – Bernd Steigerwald
    Metastadt-Bausystem (Metacity Building System), 1965-72

MoMA New York

December 8th, 2019