Ataa Oko

Ataa Oko Addo (* 1919, † December 9, 2012 in La, Greater Accra, Ghana) was a Ghanaian coffin and litter farmer and an artist of the Art Brut.

Life and work

Ataa Oko worked as a freelance coffin and litter farmer and as a painter in LA. At age 13, he began as a fisherman and on cocoa plantations in the Asante region and was from 1936 to train as a carpenter at Sowah Obu in Accra. He introduced since 1945 ago figurative coffins and settled there had been inspired by the figurative litters that have already been used in 1930 by the leaders in Accra. He was in Ghana as one of the pioneers of the Ghanaian coffin art. In 1951 he opened his first carpenter's workshop in LA. Here he came into contact with Kane Kwei 1970. Since 2006 Ataa Oko presented only rarely coffins ago, but devoted himself to drawing. He painted his former figurative coffins and litters, his dreams, religious ceremonies and bizarre monsters and developed into an Art Brut artists.

Solo and group exhibitions

• 2012/13. MEN Musée d' ethnography de Neuchâtel Hors- Champs.
• 2011/12. Miracles of Africa '', Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna and Oulu Museum of Art, Grandma, Finland.
• , 2011. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich. Ghanaian ' fantasy coffin ' 27 September - 4th December 2011. Griff Rhys Jones.
• 2010/11. Collection de l' Art Brut, Lausanne. Solo exhibition Ataa Oko et les wit.
• 2006 and 2007 /2008. Kunstmuseum Bern and the Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden. Show Six Feet Under: Autopsy of Our Relation to the Dead.

Sources, References

• 2013th "The Figurative palanquins of the Ga. History and Significance. " Regula Tschumi, in: African Arts, 46 ( 4), 2013, pp. 60-73.
• , 2013. Hors- champs. Exhibition catalog. Hg Musée d' ethnography de Neuchâtel MEN. Neuchâtel: Atelier Pretexte. (French).
• 2012 " Collection de l' Art Brut, Lausanne ," Lucienne Peiry (ed.), Skira Flammarion 2012, pp. 26-27, 164
• , 2010. Ataa Oko. Exhibition catalog. Hg Collection de l' Art Brut. Gollion: Infolio. (French).
• 2006th The last honor comes first. Ghanaian funeral rituals and figurative coffins. Regula Tschumi in Bern Art Museum (ed.), Six Feet Under. Autopsy of Our Relation to the Dead. Exh. Bielefeld, Leipzig: Kerber, p.114 -125.
• 2006th The buried treasures of the Ga. Coffin Art from Ghana. Regula Tschumi. Bern. Benteli. English: 2008 The Buried Treasures of the Ga. Coffin Art in Ghana.. French: 2011 Les trésors enterrés of Ga. L'art of Cercueils au Ghana..

Film, video presentations

• , 2010. Ataa Oko et les wit. Philippe Lespinasse, Regula Tschumi, Andress Alvarez. Lausanne / Le Tourne, Parti de l' Art Brut / Lokomotiv film, 20 minutes (French / English. Subtitles).
• , 2009. Sépulture sur mesure, Philippe Lespinasse, Grand Angle Production. Photo and video archives Regula Tschumi (French).
• 2006-07. Video Presentations: The doyen Ataa Oko in the production of Henn coffin and buried treasures of the Ga. The Cinematic Impressions in the exhibition " Six Feet Under " at the Kunstmuseum Bern and the German Hygiene Museum Dresden and the Théâtre Forum Meyrin - Geneva on.

Gallery

Figural litter of Ataa Oko 2010

Spirits drawn by Ataa Oko 2010