No. 04 / 20 · Movements, by Gastón Solís
The Weight of the Day
post-independence Ghanaian impasto
The Loom · Accra · 1987

Only the one who carries the load knows its weight. Attributed to half the African continent, and, in one source, to the Yiddish, this proverb is perhaps most true in Ghana, where market-goers carry the day’s necessities on the tops of their heads. The load is visible to all, balanced on the body’s highest point in the city’s most public place. The weight is known only to the carrier, who holds it, without comment, until somewhere is found to put down the weight of the day.
Provenance
The artist’s studio, Kumasi, where the painter was then head of the Department of Art at the University of Science and Technology; exhibited at The Loom, Accra, in The Weight of the Day, 1987, under the auspices of the Arts Council of Ghana; acquired from the artist by a private collection, Accra, 1988; thence by descent; the present collection.



















