Lot 3: * Amon Kotei (Ghanaian, 1915-2011) Reclining woman reading

Amon Kotei (Ghanaian, 1915-2011)
Reclining woman reading
signed and dated 'Kotei 94' (lower left); dated '10/94' (verso)
oil on canvas
100.5 x 100cm (39 9/16 x 39 3/8in).
Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Lagos.


Since his death in 2011, Amon Kotei has secured a reputation as one of Ghana's finest artists. Born in 1915, Kotei has enjoyed a long and diverse career. Following his service in the Royal West African Frontier Force in World War II, he enrolled at the London College of Printing and Graphic Art in 1949. On completing his studies in 1952, he returned to Ghana to take up a position in the Government Printing Office.

Whilst in London, Kotei was exposed to the modernist aesthetic then dominant in Europe. His use of bold outlines and intense colours reveal Fauvist influences, as well as his training as a print maker. Although his style derived from Europe, Kotei drew his subject matter from daily life in Accra. The recumbent figure depicted in the present lot is one of the full-bodied women he encountered at Makola market.