UNESCO has special interest in Ghana's contemporary art

Accra (Greater Accra) 13 Aug. ’99

Mr Bruno Lefevre, UNESCO Representative in Ghana, has said that UNESCO has taken a special interest in Ghana's contemporary art soon after the opening of its office in the country.

He said promoting contemporary art is essential to the work of UNESCO and Artists.

Opening a two-week exhibition of paintings mounted by Messrs Robert Aryeetey, Augustine Gokah and Charles Adu Danso in connection with the 30th anniversary of the Loom Gallery in Accra yesterday, Mr Lefevre said: "The artist is, in this sense, truly inventing the path to the future of the society he lives in and contributes to change us and the way we perceive our world and ourselves".

Some of the paintings depict buildings with canoes along the beach, shoe shine boys doing brisk business, a 'kayaman' pulling a truck with a load of firewoods, two women carrying bowls with their babies on their backs going to fetch water and the La Pleasure Beach.

Mr Robert Aryeetey was trained at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and has a B.A (Hons) degree in painting. He received his Master in Art Education in 1993.

Mr. Augustine Gokah graduated from the College of Art of the KNUST in 1988 where he had majored in drawing and painting and his work is widely collected in the country and abroad.

Mr Charles Adu Danso also graduated from the same college with a B.A. degree in Art and a diploma from the University of Cape Coast and received his Masters in African Art in 1996 at the same university.

Mrs Frances Ademola, Director of the Loom Gallery, in a welcoming address thanked Mr Lefevre for the idea and assistance given her in mounting the exhibition.

She congratulated the artists for their good work and advised them to work harder to improve upon their creativity.

GRi../