Elsbeth Joyce Court has a many-faceted career as a teacher, consultant in art and
development, lecturer in African art, curator (most recently, Hassan Musa The Artist’s
Stamp, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, 2019), researcher and writer, primarily in ‘middle Africa’,
starting in Ghana followed by eastern Africa (for 17 years) until her resettlement in London.
She has co-edited/jointly-authored publications such as Drawing, Art and Development
(London, 1992), Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa (London, 1995), Jak Katarikawe
Dreaming in Pictures (Frankfurt, 2001), Critical Interventions Special Issue on Kenya Art
Worlds. 2017, 11 (1). She has contributed to numerous artist catalogues, most recently “An
Annotated Chronology for the Visual Arts of East Africa” for Michael Armitage Paradise Edict
(Munich: Haus der Kunst, 2020). Her articles are found in Art Education, JADE Journal of Art
and Design Education, African Artsamongst others. She is currently completing a text for
Oxford University Press (on Kenya) and continuing with the platform Vizazi (Swahili:
generations) which researches modern and contemporary art in Tanzania, her focus being
an art and heritage project in the Kilimanjaro region.
Grace Salome Kwami (1923-2006), undoubtedly a forerunner of modern art in Ghana, was one of the first women to undertake academic training in fine art. Elsbeth Court takes a closer look at her artistic formation, key work and restitution.
