Pangaea: New Art From Africa And Latin America

Saatchi Gallery, London SW3

3/5

Pangaea — Greek for “entire” — refers to the time about 300 million years ago when all the continents were huddled together into a single land mass.

All this took place well before nature decided, at its own peril, to evolve humans who in turn decided that practising art ennobled the species and domesticated the environment.

But such facts must not stand in the way of a good advertising gimmick so beloved of the marketing fraternity as demonstrated in this case. 

The title of this exhibition in reality only intrigues superficially and there’s relatively little on show possessing much gravitas or indeed the “wow” factor.

There are exceptions, though. David Koloane’s paintings and large drawings of mostly urban scapes are distilled from the realities of South Africa and his native Alexandra neighbourhood of Johannesburg in particular.

His canvases are as political and deeply humane as they are insightful — mesmerising work with an understated, nourishing intimacy that speaks directly to the soul.

Benin photographer Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou’s Demoiselles De Porto Novo series are an open response to Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon.

His models, attired in richly ornate traditional robes but with naked breasts, populate a grand colonial house that itself has elaborate interiors with fascinatingly patterned mosaics of wall and floor tiles.

The “demoiselles” gaze at us enigmatically from behind hand-held ritualistic masks that so fascinated Modigliani and Picasso himself.

Their thoughts, however, remain their own. They are no longer colonised.

Colombian Fredy Alzate’s gigantic spherical wall, Lugares En Fuga — Places On The Run — also merits attention.

Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities it is an alluring complement to the book’s intriguing imagery, poetry and political allegories of inverted urban worlds.

Runs until August 31. Free. Opening times: www.saatchigallery.com.  An interview with David Kolane by Christine Lindey runs in the Morning Star on May 1.