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March 20, 2019

Okwui Enwezor, Noted Curator and Promoter of African Art, Dies at 55
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And renowned Nigerian art curator Okwui Enwezor has died at age 55 after
a battle with cancer. Enwezor was the director of the Haus der Kunst
museum in Munich, Germany, until last year. He was also an art critic,
educator, editor and writer. He worked to put African art and artists
center stage, as well as women artists. In 1994, he founded Nka, a
magazine for contemporary African art. His exhibit "The Short Century,"
celebrating African art and independence movements, was hailed as a
landmark exhibition. Enwezor was the first African-born chief curator of
the Venice Biennale and was widely credited for bringing political art
back to the prestigious festival. Democracy Now! spoke to Okwui Enwezor
in Venice in 2015.

Okwui Enwezor: "Art matters in many, many different ways, and I think
it's both in the large and small ways, that one can begin to see the
utility of art not as something to be appropriated as propaganda or for
ideological purposes, but the utility of art as a learning tool, as a
teaching tool, but also as a way for the public to learn how to kind of
expand their view of the world."

That was Okwui Enwezor, who died Friday at the age of 55 in Munich,
Germany. Click here to see our whole interview with him at the Venice
Biennale.


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