Urban Claims and Visual Sources in the Making of Dakar's Art World City

AbstractDakar in Senegal is one of the African continent's premier contemporary art metropolises. The city's history as an art world center dates to the 1960s when President Léopold Sédar Senghor established a number of cultural institutions in Dakar linking modernist artistic production to Senegal's post-independence nationalist project. Whereas rich scholarship has dealt with art, independence, and nation building, this article addresses the relationship between visual production and Dakar's urban environment by positing artistic projects in Dakar as necessarily urban projects productive and expressive of the city's resources, possibilities, and connections.1 Just as visual producers sourcing the city abound in Dakar, beaux-arts practices and their exhibition are mediated and constructed by their relationship to the processes and networks constituting their city. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJoanna GrabskiJoanna Grabski is associate professor of art history at Denison University. She has researched Dakar's artists and art institutions since 1998 and has contributed essays to several edited collections and to journals including African Arts, Nka, and Présence Francophone. She was guest editor for a special issue of Africa Today dedicated to visual experience in urban Africa and is completing a book manuscript on Dakar's art world city.