Farmer Saved by an Angel; Concert painting for the play Some Rivals Are Dangerous by Super Yaw Ofori’s Band

Artist Mark Anthony Ghanaian, born 1943

Date1995

MediumAcrylic and/or industrial enamel on plywood board

Dimensions72 × 84 in. (182.9 × 213.4 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from various donors, by exchange

Object number2020.10

On View

On view

Label TextNot surprisingly, many artists create works to enliven sonic and theatrical performances--even traveling ones. This massive but mobile billboard advertised a traveling nightlong concert party. A multidisciplinary staple of Ghanaian popular culture, parties incorporate musical selections ranging from Christian hymns to Ghanaian highlife, a comedic and often vulgar interlude, and a morality play, which is often the main attraction.

This particular play revolves around two jealous wives. It depicts the Hand of God (Onyame) emerging from a tree stump with a Christian angel above. Opposite is a (Hindu) giant throwing a spear at a man, the giant having been sent by the angry co-wife to kill the man and the son of her rival wife. The man dodges--saved by God and the angel. This painting thus presents the conclusion of the Concert Party and the tale.ProvenanceCommissioned for Super Yaw Ofori’s Band of Ghana, 1995; created Agona Swedru, Ghana, 1995. Michelle Gilbert, Trinity College, CT, 1997–2020; sold to NCMA, 2020.
Published ReferencesMichelle Gilbert, “Concert Parties: Paintings and Performance,” Journal of Religion in Africa 28, no. 1 (February 1998), 92, illus. fig. 6.

Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, Contemporary African Art (New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 33.

Dominique Malaquais, “Exhibit Review: Hollywood Icons, Local Demons,” American Anthropologist 102, no. 4 (2001), 873, illus. fig. 5.

Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, Contemporary African Art, 2nd ed. (New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 2020), 37, illus. (color) fig. 23.
Exhibition HistoryHollywood Icons, Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark Anthony, traveling exhibition, curated by Dr. Michelle Gilbert, Trinity College, CT.

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