Art book lovers, don’t miss our recommended reading list in the current issue of Elephant, which includes African Artists by Phaidon. “Encompassing 120 years and more than 300 individuals, African Artists is a valuable addition to critical conversations concerning representation and anti-colonialism, where the pervasive idea of an Anglo-American centre is slowly being shifted,” writes Holly Black. The book features this eye-catching work by South African artist Gavin Jantje, starring the central figure from Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. This, the book explains, is depicted “floating in space, tied by an infinite umbilical cord to an African mask like those that inspired Picasso, but whose influence he emphatically denied”.
