Artists, Collectors, And The Expanding African Art Market

EDITORIAL

Collectors of African Art You Should Know

Art collectors play a vital role in the local and global appreciation of African art. There are art collectors with massive collections that have made an impact on the African art market. Over the years, these four art collectors have established themselves as leading acquisitors of African art:

Jean Pigozzi

Jean Pigozzi started collecting contemporary African art in 1989. Since then, his private collection has become one of the largest in the world and is known as the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC – the Pigozzi Collection). Up to 2008, the collection was curated by independent curator and art dealer André Magnin. It is an ever increasing collection. There are thousands of artworks featuring paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, installations, and videos from contemporary artists living in sub-Saharan African countries. Artworks from Pigozzi’s private collection has been exhibited across the world. In 2019, Pigozzi donated 45 contemporary African artworks to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Works from Pigozzi’s collections have been exhibited at institutions including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2005); National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (2005–06); The Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (2006–07); Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011); CNAC–Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (2011); and Foundation Cartier, Paris (2015–16), among others.

Installation view of the exhibition “Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination” (December 14, 2025 – July 25, 2026), featuring Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Jean Depara, amongst others. Image courtesy of MoMA.

Emile Stipp

Emile Stipp is one of the prominent art collectors in South Africa’s art scene. He is on the African Acquisitions Committee of Tate. His collection, which focuses on contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, includes major artists who work in painting, sculpture, and photography, like Zanele Muholi, David Goldblatt, Nicholas Hlobo, and Edson Chagas. He is also interested in video art and has collected works from Dineo Seshee Bopape, Kudzanai Chiurai, Emeka Ogboh, and Donna Kukama. Stipp has collected African art for more than 20 years. He has also donated works to the Tate Modern and the Art Institute of Chicago.