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Kimathi Donkor

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Kimathi Donkor
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Bournemouth, England
EducationBournemouth and Poole College of Arts
Goldsmiths College, University of London
Camberwell College of Arts
Chelsea College of Arts
OccupationArtist

Kimathi Donkor (born in 1965) is a London-based contemporary British artist whose paintings are known for their exploration of global, black histories. His work is exhibited and collected by international museums, galleries and biennials including London's National Portrait Gallery,[1] the British Museum,[2] the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial,[3] the 29th São Paulo Art Biennial[4] and the 15th Sharjah Biennial.[5] He is of Ghanaian, Anglo-Jewish and Jamaican family heritage,[6] and his figurative paintings depict "African diasporic bodies and souls as sites of heroism and martydom, empowerment and fragility...myth and matter".[7]

Early life and education

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Donkor was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1965.[4] He has said of his background: "I was born in the UK to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Ghanaian father, but was raised by my adopted parents who were from Jamaica and the UK. We lived for a time in Zambia, Central Africa, where my adopted dad worked as a vet. I finished my schooling in the west of England, then moved to London, where I eventually settled. In the meantime, my adopted parents had divorced and remarried, so the family diversity actually increased, as Zambians also joined the party. This smörgåsbord life induced an early sense of the wondrous, and sometimes maddening, complexity of identities and histories, which, I think, has been reflected in my artworks. Precisely because I was such an intimate witness to the multiple crossings and re-crossings of stories, images and journeys from around the world."[8]

Donkor received an Art Foundation Diploma from Bournemouth and Poole College of Arts followed by a BA (Hons) degree in fine art from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a master's degree in fine art at Camberwell College of Arts.[9][10] He earned his PhD at Chelsea College of Arts in 2016.[11][12] He also participated in community education initiatives such as Black History for Action.[6] In 2011, he was the recipient of the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship for the British School at Rome.[12]

Career and works

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Kimathi Donkor's paintings have featured in prominent international exhibitions, including at London's National Portrait Gallery, the 15th Sharjah Biennial, UAE,[13] the Dulwich Picture Gallery,[14] the 29th São Paulo Art Biennial, the Institute of Contemporary Arts,[15] the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the International Slavery Museum. Examples of his art are held by significant international public and private collections, including at the British Museum, the International Slavery Museum,[16] Wolverhampton Art Gallery,[17] the Sharjah Art Foundation, the collection of CCH Pounder[18] and the Shariat Collection.[19]

Black History Paintings

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Donkor's artwork is primarily known for his figurative paintings about significant people and events from Black History. Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak noted that "As a genre, history painting has remembrance and societal education as its chief objectives. Donkor adds unexpected lyricism and delicacy to the mix".[20] And, writing for Third Text in 2023, critic Akin Oladimeji described Donkor's 2004 painting Toussaint L’Ouverture at Bedourete as a "Highly atmospheric... haunting work" that depicted renowned freedom fighter Toussaint L'Ouverture as "devoid of doubt, resolute and determined to bring about the end of slavery with his men clearly ready to die by his side."[21] In an analysis of the 2005 painting Coldharbour Lane: 1985, art historian Eddie Chambers asserted that Donkor's history paintings "fearlessly tackle key, dramatic, monumental moments of African diaspora history ... with a painterly preciseness that borders on aesthetic frugality".[22] And, according to art critic Coline Milliard, Donkor's works are "genuine cornucopias of interwoven reference: to Western art, social and political events, and to the artist's own biography".[23] In 2005, Time Out magazine reported that officers from London's Metropolitan Police had entered the Bettie Morton Gallery to demand the removal of one of the artist's paintings, Helping With Enquiries (1984), from his solo exhibition Fall/Uprising (which addressed policing controversies). Gallery staff refused to comply and police later issued a statement that "no further action" would be taken against the painter.[24]

The artist's "Queens of the Undead" paintings[25] depict historic female commanders from Africa[26] and the African Diaspora,[27] but with contemporary Londoners as models.[28] Prior to featuring in Donkor's 2012 solo show at London's Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), works from the series were exhibited at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo, Brazil, for the 29th São Paulo Biennial in 2010.[4]

Caroline Menezes suggested that Donkor's work, "articulates a hidden history, tales of the past and chronicles of suppressed voices",[6] with figures such as Nanny of the Maroons, Nzinga Mbande, Stephen Lawrence, Joy Gardner, Toussaint L'Ouverture[29] and Jean Charles de Menezes among the subjects addressed.[30] Writing about his 2013, London solo show, Daddy, I want to be a black artist, Yvette Greslé proposed Donkor as “one of the most significant figurative painters, of his generation, working in the United Kingdom today”.[10] In 2017, writing about his work at the Diaspora Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale, Phil Brett noted that Donkor, "known for his dramatic figurative art of key moments of black history, whether the subject is the murder of Stephen Lawrence or Nanny of the Maroons leading slave rebellions in Jamaica, has a direct style, which never tries to over-complicate". In 2019 he won the DiLonghi Art Projects Artists Award at the London Art Fair.[31]

Curating and art teaching

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In 2008, Donkor was commissioned to curate the touring group show Hawkins & Co at Liverpool's Contemporary Urban Centre,[32] featuring 70 works by 15 artists, including Raimi Gbadamosi, Keith Piper, George "Fowokan" Kelly and Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy MBE. The show, which toured to Liverpool from London, marked the bicentenary of Parliament's Act to Abolition the Slave Trade.[33] In 2009, Donkor embarked on a three-year project at Tate Britain, Seeing Through, which engaged a group of young people from London foster homes in producing and exhibiting art at the museum.[34] Dr Donkor is a Reader in Black Art and Contemporary Painting[35] at the University of the Arts, London and in 2019 was appointed as Course Leader for the BA (Hons) in Painting at Camberwell College of Arts.[36]

Selected solo exhibitions

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Selected group exhibitions

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References

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  1. ^ Adrian Searle, "The Time is Always Now review – striking shades of brilliant black figurative art" (review) The Guardian, 21 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Artwork Yaa Asantewaa Inspecting the Dispositions at Ejisu". British Museum. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  3. ^ Brett, Phil (29 October 2017). "Beyond the boundaries: A review of the Diaspora Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale". Culture Matters. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Agnaldo Farias; Moacir dos Anjos; Adrian Piper; et al. 29th Bienal de São Paulo catalogue: there is always a cup of sea to sail in. São Paulo: Fundac̦ão Bienal de São Paulo, 2010. ISBN 9788585298333; ISBN 8585298332.
  5. ^ https://sharjahart.org/biennial-15 title= Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present|access-date=18 March 2024|language=en-gb
  6. ^ a b c Menezes, Caroline (5 December 2012). "Retelling history through art – an interview with Kimathi Donkor, Studio International". Studio International. The Studio Trust. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  7. ^ Bernier, Celeste-Marie (1 January 2019). Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965–2015. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520286535.
  8. ^ Philip Kaisary, "An interview with Kimathi Donkor", Lacuna Magazine, 18 February 2015.
  9. ^ "CV" (PDF). Kimathi Donkor. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  10. ^ a b Yvette Greslé, "Kimathi Donkor: ‘Daddy, I want to be a black artist’ @ Peckham Space"[usurped], FAD, 3 October 2013.
  11. ^ "Kimathi Donkor". ICF International Curators Forum. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Black art and activism". IRoyal Academy. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  13. ^ Nadine Khalil, "Sharjah Biennial 15 delivers important postcolonial narrative—but loses its experimental edge" (review), The Art Newspaper, 20 February 2023.
  14. ^ Nancy Durrant, "Soulscapes at Dulwich Picture Gallery review: balm for the soul, food for the mind" The Standard, 13 February 2024.
  15. ^ Aurella Yussuf, "Charting Black Resistance in the UK Since the 1940s" (review) Hyperallergic, 9 September 2021.
  16. ^ Bernier, Celeste-Marie (2017). "Tracing Transatlantic Slavery: In Kimathi Donkor's UK Diaspora". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (41): 108–124. doi:10.1215/10757163-4271674. S2CID 194832436. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Artwork Madonna Metropolitan: the death of Cynthia Jarrett". Black Artists & Modernism. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  18. ^ CCH Pounder; Sarah Anita Clunis; Samantha Noel; et al. Queen : from the collection of CCH Pounder. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art, 2018.
  19. ^ "The New African Portraiture. Shariat Collections". Kunsthalle Krems. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  20. ^ Waldemar Januszczak (2024), "Black art is too good to be a fad" (review), The Sunday Times, Sunday March 31 2024.
  21. ^ Oladimeji, Akin (2023). "Performing History: Jelili Atiku's performances, Lubaina Himid's and Kimathi Donkor's 'Toussaint Louverture', Steve McQueen's 'Carib's Leap' and Yinka Shonibare's 'Mr and Mrs Andrews'". Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  22. ^ Eddie Chambers (2013): "Reading the Riot Act", Visual Culture in Britain, Volume 14, Issue 2, 2013. DOI:10.1080/14714787.2013.782156.
  23. ^ Coline Milliard, "Kimathi Donkor - 'Queens of the Undead'" (review), Blouinartinfo, 2 November 2012.
  24. ^ Rebecca Taylor, "Brixton Gallery raided by Met", Time Out, 9–16 November 2005, p. 16.
  25. ^ "Kimathi Donkor: Queens of the Undead" Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 12 September – 24 November 2012, iniva.
  26. ^ Lara Pawson,, "Kimathi Donkor - Iniva, London" Archived 28 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Frieze Magazine, 19 November 2012.
  27. ^ Lara Pawson, "The black ghosts haunting Downton Abbey", The Guardian, 14 November 2012.
  28. ^ Hazelann Williams, "Resurrecting The Past", The Voice, 29 September 2012.
  29. ^ Derek Turner (2013): "Modernity in a medieval city", Quarterly Review, 17 January 2014.
  30. ^ Annie Ridout, "Queens of the Undead – Black history brought up to date", Hackney Citizen, 1 October 2012.
  31. ^ "Kimathi Donkor wins the De'Longhi Art Projects Artist Award 2019". Art Daily. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  32. ^ Sandra Gibson (2008): "Hawkins & Co" (review) Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Nerve.
  33. ^ Untold London Archived 14 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ "Seeing Through Display: Motion and Material", Tate Britain: Exhibition, 14 July – 6 August 2009.
  35. ^ "Dr Kimathi Donkor, Reader - Programme Director in Painting,Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts". UAL. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  36. ^ McLean, Sarah (1 April 2019). "Meet Dr Kimathi Donkor, new Course Leader, BA Fine Art Painting at Camberwell". UAL. Retrieved 26 June 2019.

Further reading

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  • Anderson, L., 2024, Soulscapes, Dulwich Picture Gallery (London), ISBN 9781855145580
  • Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, 29th Bienal Documentation, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, ISBN 978-85-85298-37-1
  • Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, 29th Bienal Catalogue, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, ISBN 978-85-85298-33-3
  • Barbrook, R., 2014. Class Wargames: Ludic subversion against spectacular capitalism, Minor Compositions; distributed by Autonomedia (New York), ISBN 978-1-57027-293-6
  • Benci, J., 2012, Fine Arts 2011-2012, British School at Rome (Rome), ISBN 978-0-904152-64-7
  • Bernier, Celeste-Marie, 2019. Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965–2015. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520286535
  • Dibosa, D., et al. 2012, Kimathi Donkor: Queens of the Undead Iniva (London), ISBN 978-1-899846-54-2
  • Chambers, E., 2014, Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present, I.B.Tauris (London and New York), ISBN 978-1-7807-6271-5
  • Eshun, E., 2024, The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, National Portrait Gallery (London), ISBN 9781855145580
  • Kaisary, P., 2014, The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination, London and Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, ISBN 978-0-8139-3546-1
  • Miranda, M., & A. Páscoa, 2014, Offline: Between Transits and Journeys, Lisbon: XEREM Associação Cultural, ISBN 978-989-97183-1-9
  • Miller, M., 2013, Seeing Through, London: Tate Young People's Programmes
  • Parker, R., 2021, A Brief History of Black British Art, Tate Publishing (London), ISBN 978-1849767569
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