Someone said to me a while back that he was sick of paintings of struggling African market women. Too grim. I understood.
I’ve also always preferred the expression of markets and market women as something other than toil and hardship.
Amon Kotei’s Accra market paintings offer us the joy and warmth of the women in the market. He painted these women with love and admiration and brought a certain lightness to their portrayal.
He always said, with a mischievous twinkle, that he loved the big and lovely women of Accra. He adored them completely and painted them with the eyes of an adoring lover.
The women in his paintings were robust and full yet they seemed like they could float away from the canvas any second.
He rarely titled these canvases. He felt the viewers might engage more with the artwork if there was no title to lead them in a pre-determined direction.
The canvases may not have had titles but there was no mistaking the warmth and adulation that inspired them.
You can find some of our Amon Kotei artworks here.