Art world expands under Okwui Enwezor's leadership
Okwui Enwezor: A Pioneer in Globalizing the Art World
Okwui Enwezor, a renowned figure in the art world, passed away in 2019, leaving behind a legacy that has transformed the way we perceive and experience art. Born in Calabar, Nigeria in 1963, Enwezor was an artist, poet, writer, curator, theorist, educator, and museum director.
Enwezor's work was characterized by his antithesis to "suffocating enclosures" such as "First/Third World, Center/Periphery, Black/White, and High/Low." He believed that the complex dynamics in cultural production did not allow for such simplistic categorizations. Instead, he championed a more pluralistic, global perspective that embraced African, Asian, and Latin American art histories.
One of Enwezor's most significant contributions was his role in decentering the Western art canon. He curated large-scale exhibitions that foregrounded artists from across the world, offering a foundational challenge to Western-dominated narratives by emphasizing the plurality and interconnectedness of global art. His 2016 exhibition, Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965, co-curated with Katy Siegel and Ulrich Wilmes, showcased 218 artists from 65 countries, including Ben Enwonwu from Nigeria, Carmen Herrera from Cuba, Uche Okeke from Nigeria, and Fahrelnissa Zeid from Turkey.
Enwezor's approach connected the histories and realities of formerly marginalized regions with global artistic discourses, encouraging cultural self-determination by reinforcing local authorship, accountability, and control within global networks. He founded the journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art in 1994, providing a platform for African art to be recognized and discussed in the global art world.
Enwezor's curatorial method often embedded art within larger, sometimes opposing currents of history, politics, and culture, creating avenues for exhibition-making and for a contemporary art that was bound to its context. This can be seen in exhibitions such as "Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art" and "Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life."
In 2002, Enwezor was selected to curate the Documenta 11, a significant quinquennial exhibition in Germany. Instead of focusing on the exhibition in its home city of Kassel, he remapped the entire project into five platforms across four locations around the world. This decision was a testament to his belief in the importance of a global perspective in art.
Enwezor's perspective evolved from a more hopeful, sanguine view of a gathering world in the '90s into one that lucidly analyzed the crises of the new neoliberal era and the partly technological problem of "intense proximity" that prompted the rising authoritarianism and creeping nihilism of the 2010s. His writings often focused on examining artistic differencing through a form of curatorial counterinsurgency.
Enwezor's collected writings, spanning the years 1994 to 2019, have been published in a two-volume edition. His work continues to inspire and influence the art world, making it more inclusive and diverse. His legacy as a "world-builder" will undoubtedly live on, as he mobilized new ways of seeing and living in our times.
[1] Adriana Blum, "Okwui Enwezor: A Pioneer in Globalizing the Art World," Artlyst, 2021. [2] Okwui Enwezor, "The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994," Artforum, 2015. [3] Okwui Enwezor, "Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965," Artforum, 2016.
- Okwui Enwezor's work in photography, art, and curation challenged simple categorizations in cultural production, embracing a global perspective that encompassed African, Asian, and Latin American art histories.
- As an educator and museum director, Enwezor founded the journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, providing a platform for African art to be recognized and discussed in the global art world.
- Enwezor's curatorial approach often embedded art within larger historical, political, and cultural contexts, creating avenues for contemporary art that was bound to its context.
- His contribution to the art world extended to the art fair scene, as he curated the 2002 Documenta 11, decentering the Western art canon by remapping the entire project into five platforms across four locations around the world.
- Enwezor's written works, spanning from 1994 to 2019, have been published in a two-volume edition, continuing to inspire and influence the art world, making it more inclusive and diverse.
- Art history books and entertainment media often feature Enwezor's exhibitions, such as "Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art" and "Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life."
- As a pioneer in globalizing the art world, Okwui Enwezor's legacy as a world-builder will undoubtedly live on, mobilizing new ways of seeing and living in our times, not just in contemporary art galleries, but also in museums and online platforms.
