Lot 4
Kwame Akoto "Almighty God"(Ghanaian, born 1950)'Nana Kwabena Owusu' (1992)
23 November 2020, 16:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £255 inc. premium
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Kwame Akoto "Almighty God" (Ghanaian, born 1950)
'Nana Kwabena Owusu' (1992)
signed and dated 'ALMIGHTY GOD/ARTWORKS KWAME - JUNE/ K51' (lower left); bears Saba Saba Collection, Verona Italy' (verso)
oil on plywood
122 x 69cm (48 1/16 x 27 3/16in).
signed and dated 'ALMIGHTY GOD/ARTWORKS KWAME - JUNE/ K51' (lower left); bears Saba Saba Collection, Verona Italy' (verso)
oil on plywood
122 x 69cm (48 1/16 x 27 3/16in).
Footnotes
Born in Kumasi in 1950, Kwame Akoto (later known as Almighty God) demonstrated a facility for drawing from an early age. When he was only fifteen, the artist was employed by two local painters who taught him the techniques of sign painting, creating advertisements for taxis and lorries. Following this apprenticeship, Akoto set up his own workshop in the mid-seventies in bustling heart of Kumasi.
At this time, the artist embraced Christianity. He joined a Pentecostal sect known as the House of Faith Ministries and became a fervent preacher as well as a renowned healer. It was at this point that Kwame Akoto began to refer to himself as Almighty God, the name with which he signs all his works.
In 2006 Almighty God held a solo exhibition at Alliance Française in Accra. His work was also featured in Susan Vogel's contemporary African art exhibition titled Africa Explores.
The current lot bears an inscription along the top margin:
"Nana Kwabena Owusa, Edwesohene, Ashanti, dressed in his batakarikesee, a smock decorated with ornamented talismans, with its corresponding hat and neck-wear, with a sepo knife in his mouth holding a gun."
The Sepo is a small knife traditionally used for execution, one of the six state swords of the Asantehene (the traditional ruler of the Kingdom of Asante).