From a distance, an Ablade Glover painting looks like a crowd. Up close, it becomes blocks of colour laid on with a palette knife. The market women, umbrellas and headloads emerge only when you step back.
Glover, born in Accra in 1934, is one of Ghana’s most celebrated painters. He trained as an artist and teacher in Ghana and abroad, and for many years taught at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, where he influenced generations of Ghanaian artists.
The style
Glover’s best-known works show crowds: markets, lorry parks, festivals and townscapes, full of movement and colour. He applies thick paint with a palette knife, building up textured surfaces. His paintings of women in bright cloth, seen from above or in dense groups, have become an image of Ghanaian urban life.
He has also painted landscapes, flowers and more abstract compositions.
Artists Alliance Gallery
Glover founded the Artists Alliance Gallery, housed in Omanye House on the coast road near La, not far from Labadi Beach. The gallery shows paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles and crafts by Ghanaian and African artists, and it has become one of the main places in Accra where visitors and collectors can see and buy contemporary Ghanaian art.
International reach
Glover’s work has been exhibited widely abroad and is held in public and private collections. Many foreign visitors to Accra take home a print or original, and his paintings appear in embassies, hotels and offices.
Accra’s art scene
Accra’s art scene has grown rapidly in recent years, with new galleries such as Gallery 1957 and the Nubuke Foundation, and artists such as El Anatsui and Amoako Boafo gaining global fame. Glover belongs to an earlier generation that built the foundation, teaching young artists and creating spaces to show their work.
The Kumasi art school where Glover taught also trained El Anatsui in the 1960s. Anatsui went on to become one of the most celebrated artists in the world, known for vast hanging sculptures made from bottle caps and scraps of metal.
Visiting
The Artists Alliance Gallery is open to the public and is a good place to spend an afternoon, with several floors of art. Prices range from affordable prints to major works.
Glover’s crowds are always busy, always moving, never finished. Anyone who has walked through Makola on a Saturday recognises them at once.
