Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa

MoMA, opened Jul 5, runs to Jan 2. The first major show of West African modernism from the late '50s to the early '80s — Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo. Roughly 450 objects, 50-plus lenders across 17 countries, four years of fieldwork. Most of it has never been shown publicly, and most of the architects have never appeared in any exhibition or scholarly publication. La Pyramide in Abidjan, the BOAD tower in Lomé, children outside Bolgatanga Library in 1967. Stierli and Ikem Stanley Okoye put the weight on the first generation of trained African architects — named, not credited to a European office. That naming is the show.