Internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artiste and educator, Prof Ablade Glover, who turns 90 years old, is set to display his new artworks in an art exhibition in London and Ghana on his birthday.
When asked if he had truly made a significant contribution or achieved a sense of fulfillment, he said he was not done yet.
“I’m trying to get there, to the highest point. I’m still working. I’m still painting. I’m working now hard because next year I’ve got to exhibit in London with my gallery in London.”
He was speaking on Drive Time on Joy’s Personality Profile on Thursday, November 3, 2023.
“Working presently to show where I have reached at the age of 90. By that age-wise, but by work-wise, I’ve reached there.”
He told Lexis Bill “I have a gallery in London that promotes my work. And I need to be there to do my 90th birthday exhibition.”
“Then I need to open one here also, one in this building, also to celebrate that same thing in Ghana. So I need a lot of work. And at my age, you can see my legs, my feet are swollen. I stand all the time, when I go to the house, I get to stand there and paint and all that.”
Already, Prof. Ablade Glover has exhibited widely, building an international reputation over several decades and is regarded as a seminal figure on the West African art scene.
His work is held in many prestigious private and public collections, including the Imperial Palace of Japan, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
“People look at what I did 20 years ago, people look at those catalogs and look at what you’re doing now and they say, oh, he’s going back. And we get to see some artists like that.
“You’ve got to wake him up and say, hey, the work you did last year is better than what you’re doing now. So my achievement, what I want to achieve, perhaps, my work will be recognized more than me. I’m not me. I’m nothing, really. It’s the work, what you leave behind. And that work will stand the test of time. I think that is, if they wake me up in my grave, I’ll say, OK, thank you very much. Let me sleep. But yes, it’s the work. In all my life, that’s what I’ve worked for, that the work will be recognized in time.”
Professor Ablade Glover also expressed his appreciation for recently receiving the ‘Lifetime Achievement Honoree’ at the EMY Africa Awards.
“I’m grateful. You don’t see them watching you. But such things wake you up and say, hey, people are looking. The nation is appreciating it. So I’m glad that people are appreciating.”