Art History Research Lecture: Dr Angelo Kakande 'Beyond Portraits: Tradition, Art and Activism in the Kifaananyi Kya Kabaka'.

Join us on the 13 September at 4pm in School 2 of St Salvator's Quad for ‘Beyond Portraits: Tradition, Art and Activism in the Kifaananyi Kya Kabaka'.

You are also welcome to join a wine reception afterwards at the School of Art History, 79 North Street.

‘Outfit for Muteesa' by Sanaa Gateja (2016-17) is based on a photograph taken by John Speke, during his visit to the palace of Kabaka (king) Muteesa I of Buganda, in 1862. Gateja is a modernist Ugandan artist. He presented his work in an exhibition hosted at Makerere Art School in 2017 in which many artists returned to Speke's photograph to produce a variety of artworks in which they went beyond celebrating the kingdom of Buganda, and its kings, and began to critique social issues. My talk will start from this exhibition but will also cover other artist who have used the portrait of the kings of Buganda to make art in which they celebrate traditions and campaign for social and political justice.

Biography:
Dr Angelo Kakande (Associate Professor, Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere University, Uganda) is visiting the School of Art History in September 2023 as part of his 2023-2024 Global Fellowship at the University of St Andrews. Dr Kakande is an artist, art historian and lawyer, and an expert in histories of modern and contemporary art in East Africa. His artworks and publications have particularly engaged with the ways in which art functions in defense of individual and collective rights. He joins us at St Andrews in connection with Dr Kate Cowcher's ongoing research project, Dar to Dunoon, investigating the African modern artworks in the Argyll Collection.