Researchers have found that some artworks from a collection of art recently discovered in a remote town in Western Scotland belong to some of Africa's notable painters of the 20th century modernist art movement.

Ten of the artworks, formerly misidentified, have now been correctly attributed to eastern and southern African artists such as South Africa's Lucky Sibya, and Zambia's famous painter, Henry Tayali. This conclusion was reached by the researchers from the University of St. Andrew after the artworks were discovered by Kate Cowcher, a lecturer of art history at the university.

While researching for a lecture, Cowcher had seen that a painting which she recognized as the work of Tanzania artist Sam Joseph Ntiro was being categorized as part of a collection in rural Scotland. Her curiosity led her to a high school in Lochgilphead, where among the 173 works stored there, a group of 12 paintings, drawings and prints were from Africa. The whole collection had been amassed by Scottish artists in the 1960s and 1970s.

How did Modernist African art get lost in rural Scotland?

Further studies showed that the African artworks in the Agryll Collection were acquired by the author Naomi Mitchison, who had traveled the East African subcontinent in the independence years, visited several of the region's leading art schools and galleries at the time and bought works by undergraduate students, some of whom would later become prominent artists, at relatively cheap prices (about £100 for each which estimates to £2000 of today). This was partly because her budget was small and collecting Modernist African art wasn't an attractive venture in the global art market at the time.

According to Cowcher, "She (Mitchison) collected Modernist African art at a time when it wasn't seen as exciting. Most people on their travels to the region brought back traditional textiles and artefacts, not art."

But as the times changed, the painters whose works she had collected in the 60s and 70s soon rose to become internationally recognized artists and their works highly coveted. For example, the earlier mentioned Tanzanian artist, Sam Joseph Ntiro, rose to become Tanzania's cultural commissioner with his latter works on exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Meanwhile, the works collected by Mitchison remained unknown to the larger world and they laid wrongly-attributed, poorly-attributed or unattributed as part of the Argyll Collection, which was set up by Mitchison in collaboration with the Argyll County Council with the aim to provide children in rural Scotland with access to art.

Thus, as the years rolled past and the Agryll Collection traveled into obscurity, so did the identities of the African artists who created the works as in many instances their signatures had been mistranscribed. Until the fateful day Cowcher stumbled across the Ntiro painting. 

 So began a journey back into relevance for these long-lost Modernist African art. 

Using Mitchison's archived personal letters as well as insurance claims—many of which stated the artists' names in full - and consultations with specialists from London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, Cowcher and her colleagues were able to reinstate the proper attributions for ten of the twelve artworks and even contact contact the artists, like the Ugandan printmaker Catherine Nankya Katonoko Gombe, or their descendants, such as Henry Tayali's son Rhodrick.

What's next?

The twelve Modernist African paintings discovered in the Agryll Collection, including two whose creator are yet to be identified, will be going on exhibition at the Dunoon Burgh Hall from 21 May to 13 June in an exhibition titled Dar to Dunoon: Modern African Art from the Argyll Collection.

"There is going to be a balancing act with this exhibition," Cowcher says. "There will be mention of the post-colonial context and the dynamics of Western collecting in the region. But equally what I want viewers to take away is the sense of energy and excitement that existed around African independence, as well as the wide ranging Modernist art practice that developed there."

Marvelling at the discovery, Bonham's African art specialist Giles Peppiatt,  said: "Discoveries of African Modern works of this nature are rare anywhere, but especially in somewhere like Scotland." Peppiatt further clarified that the likelihood of the artworks being forged is very low as the African Modern art market is relatively nascent and unlucrative.