'Take your road and travel along' is a quote from a poem by Gerard Sekoto, and it aptly describes the difficult and lonely journey that the pioneers experienced both in trying to study art in their home countries and in leaving Africa to study in Europe.

The assimilation of the European painting tradition into an African idiom resulted in a rich genre of work that is rarely researched and exhibited, even though it challenges and undermines many of the prevailing assumptions about modernism, modernity and the conception of the modern artist.

The black pioneers of painting in sub-Saharan Africa have only recently started to be recognised. This exhibition for the first time pairs well-known South African artists including Sekoto, George Pemba and Ernest Mancoba, among others, with their contemporaries from other parts of Africa, such as Ben Enwonwu from Nigeria and Sam Ntiro from Tanzania.

The exhibition also includes the work of the next generation of artists who came to prominence around the time that many African countries gained their independence from colonial powers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These include artists who were closely associated with the Zaria Art Society and Oshogbo workshops in Nigeria, the Polly Street Art Centre in Johannesburg, Frank McEwen’s workshops at the National Gallery in Harare and the initiatives of Pancho Guedes in Maputo.

The paintings by these artists continue the dialogues between the aesthetic traditions of Europe and Africa which intersected when European artists such as Pablo Picasso and the German Expressionists discovered traditional African art and continued when these young black artists came across the work of the European artists. This exhibition offers us an opportunity to look afresh at this complex and intertwined history.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 144-page hardback catalogue with an essay and commentary on the works by Michael Stevenson and Joost Bosland.

Kalifala Sidibé Malian Women Not for sale

Akinola Lasekan Dancers Sold

John Mohl Dilapidated Cottage, Lady Selborne Native Township, Pretoria, TVL

John Mohl The Moon behind the Miners, Crown Mines (SA) Sold

John Mohl Bushveld Fire, with Blackbirds Consuming Insects, W Tvll

Gerard Sekoto Three Men Walking

Gerard Sekoto The Waiting Room Sold

Gerard Sekoto Going Home Sold

Gerard Sekoto Street Musician in District Six NFS

Gerard Sekoto Self-portrait Sold

Gerard Sekoto Township Street Scene

Gerard Sekoto Township Street Scene NFS

Ben Enwonwu Hunters in the Jungle Sold

Ben Enwonwu Figures on a Forest Road Sold

Ben Enwonwu Girl with Blue Headscarf Sold

Ben Enwonwu Boy with Hands Folded Sold

Ben Enwonwu Four Dancing Figures Sold

Ben Enwonwu Abstract Figures Sold

Ben Enwonwu Dancing Figure Sold

Ben Enwonwu The Blue Boy Sold

Ben Enwonwu Crucified Gods Galore NFS

Ben Enwonwu River Niger Landscape

Ben Enwonwu Portrait of Ben Enwonwu's Driver

George Pemba Portrait of a Man in Traditional Dress Sold

George Pemba In the Mood NFS

George Pemba Trek Sold

George Pemba Inkanyamba NFS

George Pemba Self-portrait

Sam Ntiro Agony in the Garden NFS

Sam Ntiro Market Day

Sam Ntiro Working on a Winding Road

Sam Ntiro Log-cutting in the Forest

Sam Ntiro Gathering in the Village

Sam Ntiro Collecting Wood in the Forest

Thomas Mukarobgwa When you live very good in the world you will be taken up to heaven when you die NFS

Peter Clarke On the Dunes NFS

Peter Clarke The Mourner Sold

Valerie Desmore The Family Sold

Simon Lekgetho Self-portrait Sold

Valente Malangatana Ngwenya The Farewell NFS

Valente Malangatana Ngwenya Three Figures

Twins Seven-Seven Mythical Figures

Twins Seven-Seven Untitled

Yusuf Grillo Trickster Sold

Yusuf Grillo Two Friends Sold

Yusuf Grillo Blue Moon Sold

Ephraim Ngatane Sanatorium Sold

Welcome Koboka The Guitar Player Sold

Welcome Koboka Gathering Storm Sold

Ernest Mancoba Untitled Sold

Ernest Mancoba Untitled

Ernest Mancoba V5

Uzo Egonu Past and Present in the Diaspora #14