On November 22, Galeria Zé dos Bois receives Alda Costa, museologist and historian of Mozambican art, for a conversation about the exhibition “Black ink on white background” by João Ayres. The exhibition presents a set of paintings and drawings by Ayres, produced between 1947 and 1959, the period in which the artist lived in Mozambique. In her book “Art in Mozambique – Between nation building and the world without borders 1932-2004”, Alda Costa analyzes the Mozambican art scene at that time and the work of João Ayres, writing that he “(…) did not claim to be an African artist or a Mozambican artist, but his work, and the influence he exerted, occupies an important place in the history of art in Mozambique and this place should be reclaimed”[1]. In this conversation, we will reflect on Ayres’ role as a precursor of Modernism in Mozambique and the place of his work in the contemporary scene.

[1] Alda Costa, “Art in Mozambique – Between nation building and the world without borders 1932-2004” p. 43

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