Few
hours ago, OYASAF, in collaboration with WOTASIDE Studios hosted one of Nigeria’s
leading art historians, who took Lagos art community on
retrospection of the country’s contemporary art.
Under the theme Contemporary Art In Nigeria: Contextual Navigation Through The Web Of
History, the guest lecturer, Dr Kunle Filani and his host Omooba Yemisi Shyllon had a full house of
attendance at the Maryland, Lagos office of OYASAF. Guests included top art
patrons Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi and Mr Sammy Olagbaju; poet and social critic, Odia Ofeimun; art historian,
Dr Frank Ugiomoh; art patron and gallerist, Olasehinde
Odimayo; artist and art teacher, sculptor and art art educator, Raqib Bashorun; Dr Kunle Adeyemi; culture advocate Jahman Anikulapo;
president of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Oliver Enwonwu, artist and art
educator, Dr Ademola Azeeez among
others.
Few months ago, OYASAF and WOTASIDE
organized the first of the series lecture when Dr Frank Ugiomoh delivered a lecture titled On African Art And Identity Logging: A Historical Perspective.
Prince Shyllon, few hours ago assured guests that the
OYASAF-WOTASIDE Studios Lecture Series “will be a regular event, most likely
four times in a year.”
Excerpts from Filani's paper
ABSTRACT
The dynamics of change in the 20th
century Africa, considerably transformed the art forms that are typical of the
earlier artistic traditions found in the various creative cultures that
constitute the present day Nigeria. Within this paradigm shift however, is
located the tensile strings of continuities that unify the past with the
present; thereby justifying the maxim that culture is a continuum. Despite the staggered beginnings of contemporary Art
Historical Studies in Africa, a more systematic classification and articulation
of formal and contextual genres seems to be emerging. For the artist, form is
the outward expression of nuanced experience. It is therefore plausible to
examine contemporary art in Nigeria on a historical construct that is premised
on contextual narrative.
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Guest Lecturer, Dr Kunle Filani and
host Omooba Yemisi Shyllon, during the lecture. PHOTO BY ARIYO OGUNTIMEHIN
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CHALLENGES IN ART HISTORICAL STUDIES:
Up till date, there are national challenges affecting
robust scholarship in Nigeria. The challenges include lack of infrastructural
facilities such as power/ energy supply, Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), transportation and funding of research activities. These are
self inflicted problems that have far reaching consequences for national development.
However, the most significant challenge is the
mind-set of early researchers who were mainly ethnographers and
anthropologists. The study of African art, especially traditional sculptures,
made mostly in local materials and for extra-aesthetic cultural uses was
premised on anthropological approach which emphasized the cultural significance
at the neglect of form. According to Adepegba Cornelius (1995) the
unsuitability of the ahistorical methodology for the study of contemporary arts
created a dilemma for art scholars.
Another major impediment to the study of contemporary
African art was the reluctance of Western scholars in accepting that African
artists in the 20th century created their own peculiar and unique modernity
as did their counterparts in Europe and America. According to William Fagg
(1963), contemporary art in Africa was an extension of Europe. When acceptance
came, it was with tokenist prejudice. The exhibitions titled Primitivism in Twentieth Century Art (1984) at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and Magiciens de
la Terre (1989) at the
Pompidou Centre in Paris were typical examples of pejorative support.
Nevertheless, the exhibitions according to Janet B. Hess (2006) made art
historians and critics struggle to accommodate contemporary African art within
the discourse of Modern and African art history. Such scholars before and after
the 80’s include Marshall Mount, Ulli Beier, Susan Vogel, Sidney Kasfir among
others. They attempted to find common elements in contemporary African art, but
such art remains tied to specific histories and colonial and postcolonial
conditions. Janet B. Hess concluded by noting that what appears to be a
dazzling heterogeneity of art styles is the consequence of the plural modernisms
and national styles that emerged after the end of diverse experiences of
colonialism and independence.
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A section of the audience during the
lecture. PHOTO BY ARIYO OGUNTIMEHIN
Globalization had opened up the creative space in
Africa. There are more access to artists from all over the world and their
works through the electronic media. The diasporic perspective also added pep to
the enlightenment both in theory and practice. Contemporary artists in Africa now
engage and experiment with new media, including installation, performance,
video art and other formats once exclusively Western. Gifted artists now have
acclaimed sites for the unveiling of new innovative and modern art forms to
international audience outside and within Africa. For example, the Dak’Art
Biennale, the Johannesburg Biennale, the Bamako Biennale, and lately the Abuja
ARESUVA (Visual Arts Summit) have become avenues for international creative
displays within Africa.
Contemporary African artists; both local and diasporic
are increasingly being invited to International Biennales in the West. All
these paved way for individual recognition of contemporary African artists and
inevitably generated more profound art historical approach to the study of contemporary
art in Africa. Of significance is the role played by academic artists who
either trained abroad or in Africa in the early and middle 20th
century. They insisted on being acknowledged on the same page with their
foreign counterparts through series of efforts including insightful writings on
art. The contributions of Aina Onabolu, Akinola Lasekan, Ben Enwonwu and the
Zarianist artists such as Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko and Yusuf
Grillo are typical of such efforts.
Towards the last quarter of the 20th
century, many African scholars have acquired sufficient art historical
knowledge to properly situate the study of contemporary African art within the
appropriate methodology that contextualizes form for aesthetic purposes. Joined
by some sympathetic European scholars such as Roy Sieber, Ulli Beier, Evelyn
Brown, Jean Kennedy, Marshal Mount, Susan Vogel, Henry Drewel, John Picton, Simon
Ottenberg e.t.c. African art historians with their indigenous knowledge further
strengthened research in contemporary art history.
Prominent among Nigerian art historians who have
written insightful books and articles are Babatunde Lawal, Dele Jegede, Pat
Oyelola, Cornelius Adepegba, Chike Aniakor, Ola Oloidi, D.O. Babalola, Nkiru
Nzegwu, Moyo Okediji, Osa Egonwa, Kunle Filani, Olu Oguibe, Okwi Ewenzor,
Sylvester Ogbechie, Peju Layiwola, Ohioma Pogoson, Ronke Adesanya, Chika
Agulu-Okeke, Krydz Ikwemesi, Ademola Azeez, Sehinde Ademuleya and Kehinde Adepegba
among few others.
The interdisciplinary approach employed by some
Nigerian researchers gave tremendous depth to art historical studies and criticism.
Notable among such scholars are Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Abiodun Rowland,
Ekpo Eyo, Toyin Falola, Niyi Osundare, Isidore Okpewho, Frank Ugiomoh e.t.c. It
seems that we are gradually overcoming what Ali Mazrui regarded as “the
tyrannies of intellectual import substitution”.
DYNAMICS OF CREATIVE TRANSITION IN NIGERIA.
Nigeria is artistically rich and her cultural legacy
is significant and unique in Africa. Her traditional sculptures, craft
traditions and outstanding technical skills have survived the ravages of
modernity. The archeology of Nigeria has come up with great finds that proved beyond
doubt the antiquity of traditional African sculptures. According to Adepegba
(1995), cross-sectionally, the time and spatial spread of the Sub-Saharan
African sculptures is in form of a capital T. The top horizontal line of it
represents recent ethnographic objects found distributed over West Africa from Guinea
to Angola, while its vertical support represents older archeological objects In
terracotta and cast metal got mainly from Nigeria.
The variety of materials and the accompanying
techniques used in prosecuting art in ancient Nigeria is quite astonishing. The
materials included terracotta, stone, metal, ivory, wool, leather, bead,
raffia, plants and mineral paints, soil e.t.c.; and the techniques were as
varied as the materials. There is no doubt that what constitute most part of
the present day Nigeria was the artistic centre of excellence in Africa before
and even after the European contact. Nigeria produced the greatest volume and
variety of outstanding sculptures and craft traditions in Africa. Typical examples
of enduring and classical artistic contributions are the Nok, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife,
Owo, Tsoedo, Benin, Akwanshi and the more recent wood carving master pieces
that are predominant in the Southwestern part of Nigeria.
Nigeria is an amalgam of many nationalities. She is
a geographical entity created by colonial partitioning of Africa by the
Europeans. There are significant cultural, social and religious differences
among the major ethnic groups and sub-groups. It is therefore necessary to
examine basic philosophies, creative and artistic characteristics that unify
the country and lend credence to the use of the noun “Nigerian Art” as a
collective. In spite of the obvious heterogeneity of interests among the
various ethnic groups in Nigeria, there are still some ramifying Africa
identify and canons of culture that bind the people together. It is therefore
important to note that in many areas of the diverse culture, there is sufficient
“confinement of similar” that necessitated the use of “Contemporary Nigerian
Art” as significant conceptual qualifier that is descriptive of the peculiar
modern traditions (Aniakor, 2003).
CONTEMPORARY LABEL
The term Contemporary Nigerian art,
Modern Nigerian Art and New Nigerian Art are often interchangeably
used by many historians and critics. A convement and largely acceptable period
for contemporary Art in Nigeria can be defined as covering the whole of the
twentieth century. This hundred year-long range made Frank Willet (1971) point
out the significance of continuing relevance and viability of particular
traditions together with the emergence of novel practices. This continuity is
tradition characterized contemporary art in Africa and renders irrelevant those
who bemoan the death of African art. (Filani 2005). The preference for contemporary
in this paper is to avoid the underlying prejudicial artificial binary of
strong and sometimes noxious words that are critical to be understanding of the
initial Western bias for modern art in Africa. Terminologies such as
traditional/modern, primitive/sophisticated, Western/Non-western e.t.c. were
used with the intention of creating opposing creative notions between Africa
and Europe. There is also the issue of overlap or simultaneous occurrences in
both traditional and modern canons within the contemporaneous period.
“Contemporary” in this context is therefore more inclusive of the artistic
practices that occurred in Nigeria within the last one hundred years
irrespective of the binary differentiation.
This contextualized navigation of historical
occurrences will inevitably allow for a fecund understanding of the individual
and group classification of Contemporary Art in Nigeria. At the dawn of the 21st
Century; with about a century of modernity behind art in Nigeria, it is more
plausible to penetrate into the events and ideas that probably shaped the
peculiar and definite art forms that emerged in the contemporary period. The
narrative will be contextual and as much as possible rendered in historical
sequence. It may however overlap if the modern tendencies did not exist in
relay.
The aim
of this paper therefore is not to merely recount the evolution of modern art in
Nigeria, rather, the focus will be to elucidate on some nuanced perspectives
that informed the sensibilities of the artists towards the peculiar styles that
they adopted. For example, on the surface, Aina Onabolu and Akinola Lasekan
engaged in Euro-traditional naturalism to paint portraits and landscapes, but
the reason for their engagement was essentially nationalistic. They wanted to
proof a political point that colonized African artists can equally paint like their
European counterparts. It is therefore myopic to bemoan Onabolu’s efforts as an
extension of European art just because his style is derivative of European
naturalism. One wonders why Picasso’s art was not criticized as an extension of
African art based on his adaptation of African masks and sculptural forms for
modernist concepts. Also, Okediji argument (2002) that Onabolu accepted and
helped to impose Western materials and method and unwittingly contributed to
the assault against indigenous forms of art making may be over looked based on
a more plausible reason given by Nzegwu (1999) she opined that Onabolu may have
strategically developed European upper-class mannerisms and used his newly
acquired European naturalistic style to fight the battle of racial difference.
The remarkable change that African countries experienced in the 20th
century due to colonial and post-colonial influences was so impactful that the
entire fabric of the people’s culture became completely overwhelmed. The
spiritual essence that defined life in African communities was nearly uprooted
by the European’s rationalistic approach. Western education being the most
beneficial of the colonial offerings opened vistas of opportunities and
possibilities for robust search for globalised knowledge, expanded creative
expressions and gave profound fulfillment.
If Nigeria is yet to realize her full potentials in
the areas of science, technology, politics and economy, the case is not
applicable to artistic creativity. The tremendous resourcefulness of the
traditional artist(es) of the past seems to have manifested as continuing
legacy from creative progenitors to ingenius inheritors. The diversity of
contemporary creativity obviously derived from the plurality of the dynamic
traditions found within those ancient kingdoms that constitute the present day
Nigeria.
Many honours have been won in creative disciplines
such as contemporary literature, poetry, drama, music and the visual arts.
Notable names that will forever be engraved in the
heart of culture enthusiasts include Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, D.O Fagunwa,
Christopher Okigbo, Niyi Osundare, Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan, Sunny Ade,
Ebenezer Obey, Fela Anikilapo-Kuti, Rex Lawson, Victor Uwaifo, Ladi Kwali, Aina
Onobolu, Lamidi Fakeye, Ben Enwonwu, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, Yusuf
Grillo, Uche Okoke, Nike Okundaye to mention a few.
The above listed creative personalities must have shaken-off
what Ikejiani-Clark (2004) described as “the persistence of the structures of
underdevelopment evident in the paradox of articulation of Westernization as
modernity in the arts and atmospheres of African life”. They thereby decidedly “exorcised
this unfortunate orientation and decolonize this deleterious modernity in their
consciousness”.
ETHNIC LINES:
Contemporary art in Nigeria seems to have developed
along ethnic lines considering the fact that each ethnic group in Nigeria has
peculiar artistic traditions that are enduring. Some scholars have argued that there is no collective style
that could be described as Nigerian art. William Fagg had earlier claimed that “there
is no Nigerian art but Igbo art, Yoruba art and Benin art”. This is
corroborated by the “Nigeria ethnic arts construct” that was proclaimed by
Chike Aniakor (1998) who argued that apart from political exigencies,
traditional art (and to a large extent, contemporary art) are formulated and
executed based on ethnic – historical factors. Pat Oyelola (1989) also
confirmed that ethnicity still plays a major role in the understanding of
contemporary Nigerian art by categorizing artists under the ethnic base from
which they derived inspiration. Krydz Ikwuemesi (1990) in his submission on
Nigerian art and the politics of identity elaborated on the ethnic tendencies
of contemporary Nigerian artists. Filani (2005) summarized that it is therefore
evident that artistic development in Nigeria is marked by a distinctive
indigenization of forms that reflect the ethnic orientation of the artists.
Modern African art according to Basil Davidson ( )is
as much the child of its own past as any other part of the world reaching back
through countless centuries and is in the process of action and ongoing
reaction to European contact. This was why Chike Aniakor (2001) concluded on
the issue of identity in contemporary African art that “there is an African
physical, metaphysical and ontological landscape which provides the frame for
artistic expressions whether we choose to refer to them as expressions of
modern sensibility or not”.
CLASSIFICATION:
Many scholars had classified contemporary Nigerian
art into plausible compartments from where intelligent interrogation could be
done. Dele Jegede (1983) gave a broad framework based on two major forms of
training methods namely the “formal school” and the “informal school”, i.e.
training that occurred in the school system and the training done at workshop
centres. Filani (2002) had also proposed classification by chronology where
artistic practices were interrogation based on historical sequence. We shall
discuss the latter since it also incorporates the former in its broad analysis.
Contemporary art in Nigeria can be classified into
three broad chronological periods that reflect creative and conceptual
landmarks in the 20th century. The classification includes the Early
Period (1900 – 1940s), comprising the continuation of traditional forms with
considerable shift in themes to reflect prevalent colonial experience. It also
comprises the pioneering efforts of European – trained artists who reacted to
influx of foreign concepts, styles, materials and techniques and mainly chose
the exploration of naturalistic forms but with local subject matter.
The second phase of the chronological classification
is the Middle Period (1940s – 1970s). This era witnessed a radical departure
from the past and was also the beginning of the establishment of both “formal”
and “informal” modes of training for contemporary artists in Nigeria.
The academically trained artists, i.e. those who
were formally – trained, started to articulate art concepts, propelled by the
struggle for independence, they imbibed the negritude philosophy espoused by
Leopard Senghor and similar ideas by other notable politicians such as Kwame
Nkruma, and Nnamdi Azikwe to agitate for African identity. The artists of this
period eventually came out with a novel admixture of both traditional and
modern forms. This new visual expression derived from what is now known as the theory of natural synthesis and represents the core of
Nigerian modernist tendencies.
The workshop trained artists, i.e. those informally–trained,
also forged a unique visual image in art that straddled tradition and modernity
in its expressiveness.
The last phase of the classification of contemporary
art in Nigeria is the Late Period (1970s – 2000). This era is characterized by
diverse artistic activities that summarize 20th century Nigerian
art. The euphoria of independence waned in the 70s, and indeed Nigeria had
witnessed a civil war (1967-1970) while containing the separatist Biafra from the
Eastern Region. Exploration of crude oil brought unprecedented wealth to the
country, thereby consolidating the economy. Many art departments were created
in the universities and colleges. There arose a new middle class that showed
interest in modern art and thus increased patronage of artists. The enthusiasm
for the promotion of indigenous culture reached its peak during the second
world Black Festival of Arts and culture (FESTAC) that took place in Lagos in
1977. The effect of the military take-over of national leadership since 1966 eventually
started manifesting negatively on the economy and infrastructural development.
The impacts of the teaching of the synthesis of the
middle period started yielding results. Many younger artists became more
radically inclined in both style and concept. They articulated better the
indigenous forms and philosophies and used them to experiment and explore new
visual possibilities. Alongside the more conceptual artists grew those who
perfected the exploration of day – to – day activities and popular culture as subject
matter using naturalistic styles.
While the conceptual tendencies were more noticeable
in the university – trained artists, the exploration of naturalism was more
peculiar to those who trained in the polytechnics. (Filani: 2003). It is
important to note that it was in this late period that the activities of
Nigerian artists and scholars in diaspora also became noticeable and it added
fresh breath to art discourse.
CONTINUING TRADITIONS AND WESTERN INFLUENCE
Two streams of major influence on contemporary art
in Nigeria persisted in the 20th century. The first is the influence
of continuing traditions and the other is the western influence.
Before the 1914 amalgamation, the various ethnic
groups in Nigeria had developed high level culture that included visual arts of
sculpture, wall and body painting, and profuse use of motifs especially in the
craft traditions. Most of the canons of tradition applicable to these arts
continued to be practiced and adapted by contemporary artists in the 20th
century.
For example, a good number of art historians have
documented the efforts of the wood-carvers of northeastern Yoruba land,
especially Ekiti and Igbomima master carvers, who worked in historically
traditional modes but lived and worked in between the late 19th
century and early 20th century. The anthropological and
ethnographical studies conducted on them attempted to obliterate their
individual significance by attributing their works to their ethnic origin,
rather than to the individual artists. They therefore bore anonymous labels in
spite of the classical sculptures made by them.
Art historians later identified some individual
talents and analyzed their works as being distinct in style even if they all
derived from a common Yoruba canon. Some of the so called anonymous artists
were later identified as prominent contemporary carvers such as Areogun of
Osi-Ilorin (1880 - 1935) Olowe of Ise (1875 - 1930) and Lamidi Fakeye (1928 -
2009) among others.
Onyema Offoedu-Okeke (2012) exposed the paradox and
ambivalence of the Western representation of African contexts of modernity that
defines African artists of the 20th century in binary labels of
“traditional / modern”. He noted
that one of the key factors of modern Nigerian art is that the professional and
modern practice of Olowe and other notable artists thoroughly negates the
colonial attempt to render African artist anonymous. He therefore submitted
that we must consider traditional artists such as Olowe of Ise and Lamidi
Fakeye as modern artists. Whether these artists who worked in predominant
canons of tradition fit into “modern artists” label or not, they remain
contemporary artists since they worked within the confines of the 20th
century and even adopted prevalent themes in their adapted forms. Other
examples of notable artists in transitional web from other ethnic groups
include Festus Idehen, the Benin bronze caster and Ladi Kwali the famous Abuja
potter.
Apart from those who engaged in the synthesis
experiment in the middle period, many artists of the late period further
enhanced the adaptation of indigenous forms and motifs in peculiar but distinct
styles. The Uli, Ona and Nsibidi movements are typical examples of successful
adaptation of cultural elements into viable modernist artistic genre.
In another peculiar though seemingly naïve format,
the artists that emerged from the workshop centres in Osogbo (organized by the
German Ulli Beier and his wife Georgina Beier and later Susanne Wenger
introduced a novel compositional arrangement that defied perspective and with
forms that derived from folklores. The mythical allusion to the spirit world
which is characteristic of African tales seems to come alive in the
disproportionate images made by artists such as Taiwo Olaniyi, Jacob Afolabi
and Rufus Ogundele.
Susanne Wenger an Austrian woman later became an
Osun priestess and encouraged many local artists to produce sculptural images
and paintings reminiscent of the Oshogbo forms. She also produced paintings and
sculptures that were surrealistic in forms to suit the religious ambience of
the spirit world from which she derived inspiration. She changed her name to
Adunni Olorisa and naturalized through a thorough indigenization process.
A more refined articulation of forms by the workshop
trained artists could be seen in the works of Jimoh Buraimoh, Muraina Oyelami
and Nike Okundaye. The continuing African canon is apparent in the works of these
informally – trained artists. However, the new style offered by workshop
artists including that of Ori-Olokun at Ile-Ife such as Segun Adeku and Wale
Olajide does not in any way justify the common propaganda by the West that the
most interesting African art is that of the untrained artist, a belief that
equates such art with the naïve art of Europe and America as noted by Ottenberg
(1997).
WESTERN INFLUENCE:
According to Simon Ottenberg (1997), in terms of
European influence, the southwest region, including Lagos, the country’s major
port and its erstwhile capital early felt the impact of British in conquest,
education, Christian influence, and European economic development. Lagos since
early 20th century became the centre for contemporary Nigerian art.
The south eastern area was opened to European influence at a somewhat later time;
Ottenberg also wrote that the largely Muslim north showed a slower response
until after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. He concluded that it is not
surprising that most of the earliest contemporary Nigerian artists were Yoruba
from the country’s southwest.
Filani (2005) claimed that the pioneering efforts of
Aina Onabolu (1882-1963) to modern art in Nigeria, as documented by Ola Oloidi,
are a major contribution to the development of naturalistic representation.
Onabolu and other academically-trained artists such as Akinola Lasekan
(1916-1974), Chief Akeredolu (1915-1984) and later Omotayo Aiyegbusi
(1921-1994), explored accurate proportion and perspective to propagate
naturalism in modern Nigerian art. According to Cornelius Adepegba (1989), Aina
Onabolu was not only a naturalistic painter, he equally pioneered art education
by pressuring the government to appoint more art teachers in the 1920’s.
Akinola Lasekan
was a well known portrait and scenic painter. He became famous for illustrating
political newspaper cartoons that criticized the activities and policies of
the-then British Colonial administration. He later became close to the first
ceremonial President of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe because of his political cartoons
for the West African Pilot, and his engagement as a lecturer in the Art
department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Lasekan employed naturalism in
the service of critical political drawings and as noted by Ottenberg (1997) he
painted images based on Yoruba myths scenes and also the portraits of elites
and of ordinary people, as well as doing commercial art in Lagos.
There were others such as Akeredolu Justus who
pioneered in creating naturalistic thorn sculpture from silk-cotton tree, with
themes of traditional African scenes and activites. The style quickly gained
popularity as tourist art.
Chukueggu S.A.O. born in (1915), in Mbaise, Eastern
Nigeria displayed innovation away from traditional Igbo sculptural forms. He sculpted
unusual, often fantastic, wooden human animal forms and Igbo spiritual figures
based on tales and myths. Omotayo Aiyegbusi, who trained as a graphic artist in
the United State of America and in London is known for generating motifs that
are adapted from indigenous art and craft objects. These pioneer artists created
in diverse styles and media, a trait that Ottenberg (1997) described as “characteristic
of contemporary Nigerian art since they located themselves as artists within
the framework of colonialism, indigenous cultures, and the emerging
consequences of relationships between the two”.
The shift from traditional Yoruba/ Igbo stylized
forms to naturalism has been argued by Nkiru Nzegwu (1999) to be of political
significance. Artists efforts at depicting naturalism debunked the racist
prejudices of some colonialists that assumed that Africans were incapable of
realistic representation. Nzegwu pointed out that a central part of Onabolu and
other pioneers of contemporary art in Nigeria as artists were to use art as a
critical tool to confront and challenge the “racist rhetoric of colonialists”.
Although naturalism had earlier occurred in Ife and
Owo art, the two dimensional type that was practiced by Onabolu and others did
not constitute a continuum in style that can be regarded as typical of
contemporary Nigerian art. Naturalism is still popular and continues to be
explored as a mode of creative expression by many contemporary artists in
Nigeria.
The Western influence became predominant in the
middle period (1940s-1970). Apart from the artists that went to Britain and
United States of America for studies in art, the first sets of academic artists
trained in Nigerian universities and colleges started graduating and
registering their presence as contemporary artists with individual identities.
Prominent among the academic artists of this era was Ben Enwonwu (1921-1994)
who studied art in England and Paris. Enwonwu painted advanced naturalistic
portraits, sculpted busts of elite Africans in wood and metal, and in 1957, he
finished a portrait sculpture of Queen Elizabeth at Bukingham palace.
Ben
Enwonwu imbibed the political and cultural movement of the French colonized
countries called Negritude, with centers in Paris and Dakar of which the
Senegalese poet and former president Leopold Senghor was the leader. Negritude
extolled the virtues of the black Africans and emphasized the inherent beauty
of culture. Enwonwu thereafter started making elongated and elegant human
figures who often engage in local activities such as festivals, dancing,
masking and masquerading. This style was then known as “African style” and was
part of the rapidly changing art scene in the 1950’s and 1960’s which saw the
growth of other art forms especially the significant synthesis that was
espoused by the Zarianist in the 1960’s. Ben Enwonwu restored the dignity of
artists as professionals who were articulate and sophisticated. He later became
the first Nigerian professor of art at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi
Awolowo University Ile-Ife.
Formal art training in Nigeria began at Yaba
Technical Institute, Lagos (now Yaba College of Technology) in 1952. In 1953,
the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST) began art courses
at Ibadan and the art programme was transferred to NCAST, Zaria in the north in
1955; this college later became Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The University of
Nigeria, Nsukka commenced art training in 1961 and the University of Ife,
founded in 1962 at Ile-Ife began offering art courses in 1969. There are now
art and design related courses being run by many Nigerian universities,
polytechnics and colleges of education across the nation.
It is important to state that along the substantial
growth in the number of skilled artists in this period, there were several
so-called neo-traditionalists, standing intermediate between traditional and
contemporary styles. There were Ovia Idah and Festus Idehen, both Benin
sculptors who worked in wood and in cement and concrete murals respectively.
Felix Idubor also from Benin sculpted human heads in wood.
Lamidi Fakeye was part of the famous Oye-Ekiti
workshop experiment in 1947 under the guidance of Reverend Fathers Sean O’
Mahoney and Kevin Caroll. They brought together many indigenous wood-carvers,
weavers, bead workers and other craftsmen to create a vast array of forms and
motifs that were adopted for Catholic Church uses. Lamidi Fakeye, a neo-traditional carver and a
prominent product of the Oye-Ekiti experiment, became internationally famous
for employing indigenous tools, materials and iconography which have been in
use for centuries to depicit modern and foreign themes. A more radical
departure from the classic Ekiti style advanced by Lamidi could be found in
Bisi Fakeye’s cosmopolitan images. Bisi trained under his uncle Lamidi, but his
long stay in Lagos and interaction with younger artists who lived in modernist
milieu influenced his forms and themes.
About the time that Ulli Beier’s experiment, with
workshop artists was taking place in the early sixties came a burgeoning zeal
by educated artists to express modernity through indigenous modes. Some artists
who trained in formal schools either at home or abroad focused their research
in both form and content on the reactivation and revitalization of the artistic
glories of the past. Their efforts manifested in unique modern expression.
The forms of their paintings, sculptures and even
architecture derived from artistic imagination that was grounded in African
aesthetics. These graduate artists charted a more radical course by jettisoning
the academy–tradition and employing varying degrees of hybridization of Western
formats with African cannons of creativity.
Prominent “radical” artists such as the members of
the Zaria Art society in Nigeria namely Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko and
Uche Okeke who
were in Zaria in the late 50s and early 60s named this peculiar admixture
approach to art “natural synthesis”. Synthesis manifested in their individual
works with unique ethnic typologies; for example Bruce Onobrakpeya’s ability to
translate ancient forms into modern finds appropriate idiom in his Urhobo
culture. He modifies graphic forms, recreates ideograms and alphabets and
re-codifies normative patterns (Filani 2012). He continues to add value to
universal culture through modernist interpretation of Uhrobo and other African
indigenous forms. He currently runs the Harmattan workshop series in Agbarha –
Otor, Delta State, Nigeria.
Yusuf Grillo inspired younger generation of artists
with his excellent drawing skills. He was revered as a lecture at the Yaba
College of Technology, Yaba, where he taught new generation of painters and
sculptors. Famous for his stained–glass works in cosmopolitan churches, Grillo
advanced a peculiar elongation of human figures with carefully structured
angularity of forms that echoes Yoruba classic carvings.
Demas Nwoko didn’t only adapt the traditional Igbo/
Delta images, but also explored Nok culture of the northern Nigeria in creating
sculptures and paintings. His genius equally excelled in the use of indigenous
spatial aesthetics for architectural dimensions.
Uche Okeke was the intellectual of the group that
articulated the theory of natural synthesis. He manifested this knowledge in
the championing of the use of Uli designs for modernist construct in
contemporary aesthetics. Uche Okeke is reputed for his pen and ink drawings.
His interest in indigenous tales coalesced with the calligraphic nature of Uli linear
design that he adapted. Other prominent artists of same generation that
explored Uli include the late Chuka Amaefunah and Chike Aniakor whose
outstanding scholarship limited his practice of fluid and mobile drawings and
paintings.
According to Bruce Onobrakpeya in Whitechapel (1995)
in 1964, members of the disbanded Zaria Art Society began to come together
again, in a new association called the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA). Its
first president was Grillo, and many of the original Zaria members were
involved with it along with Solomom Wangboje, Isiaka Osunde and T.A. Fasuyi,
who were acquainted with the Zaria activities. Onobrakpeya noted that four new
members sympathetic to Zaria earned the tag “Kindred Rebels” – they were
Erhabor Emokpae, El-Anatsui, Ben Osawe and Abayomi Barber. The criterion for
the label however is uncertain.
There were other artists such as Uzo Egonu (1931 -
1996) whose career unfolded in Europe and reconfigured an Igbo heritage of Uli
into a highly distinct and personal aesthetic. (Offoedu – Okeke 2012). El
Anatsui, the obviously most famous sculptor and installation artists from
Africa relocated and lived in Nsukka, Nigeria since 1975. He also shared in the
Uli phenomenon but incorporated Adinkra patterns derived from his original
country, Ghana. Anatsui has worked with clay, wood, bottle caps, aluminum
strips and any other material that is amenable to his conceptual
sophistication. He has won international acclaim for his excellent imagination
in deconstructing and reconstructing indigenous textile traditions.
In the southwestern Nigeria, the middle period was
quite dramatic. Apart from Yusuf Grillo, there was Solomon Wangboje (1930-1996)
who graduated earlier in 1959 from Zaria and later became a notable printmaker,
art educationist and university administrator. He was part of those who coordinator
the 1968 Ori-Olokun workshop at ile-Ife and indeed founded the Faculty of
Creative Arts, University of Benin, Benin-City in the 1970s. Wangboje interrogated
forms in a naturalistic manner with echoes of Northern landscape in the
background of many of his prints.
Agbo Folarin studied at the Yaba College of
Technology in the late 50s and later in London in the early 60s. According to
Pat Oyelola (1998), he used Yoruba mythology as direct inspiration for many of
his monumental metal panels.
Ben Oyadiran, born in 1931 typifies the spirit of
modern Yoruba artists. He explored Ifa motifs and poetry in the form and
content of his paintings, thereby re-inventing tradition in modern times. Ayo
Ajayi, born in 1935 trained in Ghana in the early 60s. He was one of the early
academic artists who integrated Yoruba forms into their paintings (Allagoa:
1967). He also used a lot indigenous motifs and patterns in his graphic works.
The middle generation of contemporary Yoruba artists
who trained in the colleges and universities has consciously continued to
transform their particular visions of Yoruba culture into relatively new
formats, thereby providing fresh insights into the transformative aesthetic
process in Yoruba society (M. Harris: 1994). Ibitayo Ojomo was a graduate of
the Yaba School in the 60s who later trained as an architect abroad according
to Harris; his works are “metaphorical political statements through the
illustration of proverbs and the use of allusion”. The angularity of forms in
his paintings could have been influenced by Yusuf Grillo and the classic Yoruba
wood-carving tradition.
Abayomi Barber was born in 1934 and schooled in
London in the 50s. He is an acclaimed photo-realist painter and sculptor. He
seems to derive inspiration from Ife classical heads; Ile-Ife being his
hometown. He ventured into surrealism using Yoruba myths and legends to define
his engagement with super-realistic forms. He headed the Creative Arts Centre
at the University of Lagos where he trained some artists in naturalistic and
surreal rendition of images derived from indigenous myths and tales. The
artists who belong to the Abayomi Barber School excelled in photographic
realism inspite of the basically informal nature of their training. Famous
among them are Muri Adejimi and Olu Spencer.
Josy Ajiboye is largely self-taught. His style is
Akin to the Barber school. He excelled in themes that are culture related. A
photo-realist painter and popular cartoonist in the 70s, Ajiboye created a
niche for himself as a notable naturalistic artist.
In the Late Period (1970s-2000), Western influence
continued among the academically trained artists and also the activities of
Nigerian artists in diaspora became topical. The global space opened up for
creative interactions among artists and art scholars. This warranted a cross-fertilization
of ideas among artists from all over the world. More avante-garde experiments
continued and many Nigerian artists both at home and abroad responded to
globalization in various ways that still emphasized the issue of identity. The
underlying political and economic collapse of the 70s to 90s became the
thematic structure on which many conceptual artists constructed their forms.
Many prominent and promising artists and
scholars left the country in search of greener pastures. These departures to
Europe and United States of America left some gaps in the continuing
development of scholarship and creativity in Nigeria since many of those that
“brain-drained” were among the best. Apart from the initially disruptions of
resettlement, diasporic artists and scholars are inflicted with the scar of
“split identity” as described by Adepegba (1996). The allegiance to home
country often reduces with time not only because of the new environment, but
also for survival strategies. However, the form and content of their art works
still share kinship affinities with contemporary artist living in Nigeria.
Prominent among the talented artists who continue to practice in diaspora are Dele Jegede, Obiora
Udechukwu, Moyo Ogundipe, Moyo Okediji, Osi Audu, Bolaji Campbell, Olu Oguibe,
Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, Sokari Douglas–Camp, Yinka Shonibare, Victor Ekpuk,
Wilfred Ukpong and Marcia Kure among others.
The Zaria school graduates of the 70s who are now
renowned include late Shina Yusuf, Kolade Osinowo, David Dale Ellis Erimona and
late Gani Odutokun. The 80s witnessed the burgeoning of young graduates who
continued with the Zaria zest for unique compositional arrangement that
depicted northern landscape especially at the background. Example of such
artists include Jerry Buhari, Tony Okpe (sculptor), Jacob Jari, Duke Asidore ,
Abraham Uyobisere and a host of younger ones such as Ayo Aina, Hassan Aliyu and
Ojo Olaniyi. Most of them worked in naturalistic styles with moderate expressiveness.
The eclectic styles they employed sometimes reflect indigenous activities
including scenic township landscape, festivals, and ceremonies which Pat
Oyelola (1998) described as “culture specificity”. Odutokun and the younger
ones engaged in socio – political themes that were prevalent during the
military decadence as against the ebullience of themes that some artists
displayed in post – war 70s when the money from crude oil exploited from the
Niger–Delta area created what was known what was known as oil boom. |
The
Nsukka School became the most experimental with younger artists consolidating
on the efforts of Uche Okeke, El–Anatsui and Obiora Udechukwu. A group of
highly creative and poetic artists developed the Uli concept into a seminal
movement. Notable among them were Tayo Adenaike, Ndidi Dike the dynamic lady
painter sculptor and installation artist, Olu Oguibe, Chris Echeta and Ozioma
Onuzulike (ceramists), Nkechi Nwosu–Igbo and other. It is interesting that the
experimental zeal of the Nsukka school artists continues in their engagements
with installation and video art till date.
Yaba and Auchi schools represent the expanded
variants of photographic and impressionistic naturalism respectively. The
affinity of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu (IMT) with the Nsukka
School seems to have overwhelming influence on the art of Enugu School (a
polytechnic). The graduates are more reflective in their stylization of naturalistic
forms.
The Ife School developed based on the culture
oriented philosophy of the Fine Art department of the then University of Ife
and now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. The department started graduating
students with Fine Art single honours in 1976; having graduated some in Fine
Art / Education since 1971. Prominent among those that graduated from the Ife
school in the 70s are Moyo Ogundipe, and Nkiru Uwechia-Nzegwu. Ogundipe’s abstract
and fluid style of the early 80s was encouraged to align with the culture
oriented forms and motifs of the Ona group. The Ona experiment typifies the
spirit of the Ife School considering the tremendous impact it has on many
artists who appropriated aesthetic values in Yoruba and other indigenous
traditions by adapting and adopting forms and patterns of culture.
The Ona group of artists was founded in the late 80s
by Moyo Okediji, Kunle Filani, Tola Wewe, Bolaji Campbell and Tunde Nasiru.
They all graduated in the late 70s and early 80s. They are experimental artists
who critically interrogated indigenous forms and appropriated its quintessential
values for conceptual and modernist interpretations. According to Adepegba
(2000) the group has not only expanded but has also coalesced into a movement
virile enough to be reckoned with in contemporary Nigerian art. Those now
working in Ona style include artists from all over Nigeria, especially from Ife
school such as Victor Ekpuk who employed Nsibidi ideograms, Wole Lagunju, Steve
Folaranmi, Rasheed Amodu, Demola Ogunajo, Abiodun Akande and Mufu Onifade with his Ara variant. Other
notable Ife artists who are more eclectic but use cultural themes include Idowu Otun, Ope Arije (a potter), Tunde Ogunlaye, Segun Ajiboye, and
Kunle Osundina
to mention a few.
The University of Benin started its Art department
in the 70s. the major mover of the first Faculty of Creative Arts in Nigeria
was Solomon Wangboje who ensured the employment of expatriated such as Doris
Rogers, Ermma Francis, Clarry Nelson-Cole and notable Nigerian lecturers
including Madam Ngbodaga-Ugu (the only Nigerian teacher in Zaria in the 50s).
The diversity of the teachers’ orientation led to the eclectic approach
noticeable among the graduates. Some
of the prominent names are El-Dragg Leonard Okwoju, Akin Onipede, Peju Layiwola, and a few others.
The influence of Yusuff Grillo, Isiaka Osunde and
Kolade Osinowo is significant for the Yaba School graduates. They excelled in
naturalistic rendition of paintings and sculptures. The big names from the
school that popularized urban and ceremonial themes include Biodun Olaku, Ayorinde
Olotu, Tolu Filani, Bunmi Babatunde, Raquib Bashorun, Edosa Oguigo, Kunle
Adeyemi, Lara Ige-Jacks, Tayo Quaye, Kehinde Sanwo, Segun Adejumo, Rom Isichei,
Ibrahim Hamid, Koko Ayi, Ato Arinze, Sam Ebohan, Samuel Ajobiewe, Felix Osieme,
Deola Balogun, Pius Oghiolament, Gbenga Offo, among several other.
Auchi School stands tall in expressionistic painting
and impressive metal sculpture. The artists from this school started making
impact on Nigeria art scene in the 80s. Notable among the painters are Edwin
Debebs, Mike Omoighe, Sam Ovraiti, Zinno Orara, Olu Ajayi, Ben Osaghae,
Osaheyen Kainebi, Lekan Onobanjo, and Ini Brown among others. Olu Amoda typifies
the impressive energy of Auchi sculptors who engage in metal art. Others are Fidelis
Odogwu, Emmanuel Mbanefo and the multimedia Reuben Ugbine. Essentially, their
themes are based on the exploration of human forms in varying poses, while some
use it to express socio – political realties of Nigeria.
There are also several artists from other
institutions who are trying to establish school identity for themselves. It is
equally important to note that many of the artists mentioned earlier from
different school backgrounds also developed or studied outside their first alima-mata.
Oftentimes they work beyond the initial group style, while some created their own
personal identities. For example Raquib Bashorun from Yaba School has
introduced his personal style in wood work and design after furthering his
study in the USA. Tayo Quaye and Joe Amenechi from Yaba and Ojo Olaniyi from
Zaria having apprenticed under Bruce Onobrakpeya now emulate his plastocast
style.
KINSHIP IN DIASPORA:
Okediji (1999) pointed out a resent development
where ethnic reality often transcends the borders of the Nigerian nation-state.
He cited the arm of Yoruba people living in francophone Benin republic, excised
by the colonial divide from the body of Yoruba people in Anglophone Nigerian .A
more complex example cited is the transatlantic kinship between Yoruba people
in Africa and those in America. In spite of the long distance, time and
geographical dislocation of Yoruba descendants in diaspora due to slave trade,
there still exist today iconographic connection between them and those in
Nigeria. Therefore, despite the politics of alienation by geographical divide,
there exist artistic and aesthetic affinities. Art therefore validates their
kinship beyond geographical borders and political exigencies that separate
them.
We must bear in mind that there are artistic
similarities among African countries. Therefore, the ethnic variation of
artistic practices does not remove the conceptual and formal affinities
peculiar to Nigerian art. Also, the cross-cultural and trans-cultural Manifestations
in the arts that were warranted by varying factors allow for positive
admixtures. For example, Tayo Adenaike, a Yoruba, is known as a member of the
Uli movement which is rooted purely in Igbo tradition. The transatlantic experience
has a correlating parallel in Susanne Wenger, an Austrian who lived and worked
in Oshogbo for most of the creative part of her life, championing Yoruba
religion and aesthetics. (Filani 2002). Equally significant is that the global
aesthetic being professed by post-modernist theorists and artists is already
breaking barriers of culture. More Nigerian artists are now encouraged to
express themselves in a more universal language.
CONCLUSION:
Culture is dynamic in its response to the exigencies
of history. Contemporary art in Nigeria has demonstrated that there are tensile
“Visible lines of continuities” that justify the maxim that “culture is a
continuum”. As the various ethnics groups mix and interact with each other,
cultural barriers are being broken and a more national identity and art forms
continues to emerge. Also as globalization continues to rage, the possibility
of the atomization of world-culture becomes stronger. Art being a visual
offering of culture has universal appeal for communication and aesthetics.
Contemporary Nigerian artists have demonstrated both at home and abroad that as
heirs to divergent and dependable creative patrimony, they can assert their
individuality as well as their collective identity in a globalised world where
modernity is being gauged by occidental canons.
Nigerian art historians should adopt ecumenical
resolutions that resolve tensions between uncritical allegiance to culture and
hasty dismissal of seemingly mythical realities.
There should be more rationalist template for
contemporary art historical studies in Africa. The Nigerian scholars abroad
should work closely with Nigerian scholars who live inside the source. The
pitfall of “split identity” with its surreptitious obnoxious consciousness
about home-based counterpart artists and scholars should give way for
nationalistic fervor. Some diasporic lizards should stop pretending to be
alligators in both art practice and scholarship. There should be mutual
understanding to assist each other in noticeable areas of strength and
weaknesses.
On a final note, it is tempting to round up with a
narrative based on a song composed by Orlando Owoh (Filani 2009). The late
emotional singer emphasized the significance of stylistic mastery and creative
diversity among artist(e)s using the singer-birds as metaphor.
The birds gathered for a singing competition. They
came as divergent as they were: Adaba, the cooing dove, Aparo, the patridge,
Odidere, the tale bearing parrot, and even Eiyele, the domestic pigeon. The
smaller ones were not left behind; Olongo, the red-billed fire-flinch, Ologose, the sparrow, Oge,
with its beautiful plumage, Ologuro, the rapper and Tio-Tio, the singing
shrike! All were present for the great creative contest. They have all mastered
their vocable peculiarities. They were masters of their varying musical styles.
It became difficult to adjudge the winner since the audience cheered each of
the singing birds in their display of unique talents. The sky is wide enough
for all birds to fly…..
The lesson in the above tale is that art
appreciation and perspectives in scholarship are most profound when
acknowledged within expanded creative diversity.
In the contextual narrative of contemporary art and
artists in Nigeria, the onus is not to confer superiority of one epoch over the
other; rather, it is to unveil the peculiar circumstances and sensibilities
that led to the development of both individual and collective styles that
define the continuing art traditions in Nigeria.
By Kunle
Filani (MFA, PhD)
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