Spirituality and contemporary African art

Whereas contemporary artists in Europe and America have used giant steel spiders, captured sharks and little statues of Hitler kneeling in prayer to make a point about the modern world, African artists draw hugely on the spirit world for inspiration. In “Making Art in Africa 1960-2010” (published by Lund Humphries) Polly Savage, a British curator, interviews Qes Adamu Tesfaw on Ethiopia’s Orthodox tradition, Tapfuma Gutsa of Zimbabwe on biblical tales about Lazarus and the Book of Genesis, and the Uganda-born master painter, Jak Katarikawe, who dreams of cows with a direct line to God (pictured).