It is my pleasure to share my
experience with you as an art collector. I however crave your indulgence to first
present a brief about myself once again. I am a chartered engineer, chartered stockbroker, marketer as well as
legal practitioner and auctioneer. I initially, studied engineering from the
University of Ibadan, followed by a master’s degree in Business Administration,
and later a degree in law from the University of Lagos; all in Nigeria. The MBA degree at the University of Ile-Ife (now
Obafemi Awolowo University) equipped me with skills in marketing and finance
amongst others.
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| Main entrance to the University of Ibadan |
Regarding my nativity, I hail from Abeokuta, Ogun
State, Nigeria into a Yoruba royal family, which confers the status of a Prince
of Egba Land on me. However, I grew
up in the City of Lagos the former political capital of Nigeria, which remains the
commercial and economic capital of Nigeria. Without mincing words, Lagos is also
the cultural capital of Nigeria. The city remains the centre of cultural
productions of all types and almost completely defines the art worldliness of
Nigeria.
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| An aerial view of Abeokuta |
In 2005, I contested for the royal stool of Alake of
Egbaland being a Prince of Abeokuta from the family lineage of Ogunfayo and
Sogbulu of the “Laarun” ruling house of Abeokuta but lost to a better prepared
contestant from my ruling house, who is currently the Alake of Egba land.
With regards to my interest in art, I will like to
recall Margaret Trowell in her book Classical
African Sculptures (1972), where it is stated that, “some of the greatest
collections of art works, are mostly initiated through royal patronage”. Royal
courts in Yoruba land and in many other cultures in Africa are exquisitely
adorned with an infusion where sculptures are part and parcel of architectural
mix. Such an environment defines my family setting. As a child of school age, I
engaged in drawing with some veritable degree of love and passion. This
accounts for why in my undergraduate days at the University of Ibadan, when the
opportunity arose, I easily keyed up with art again. Fortunately, very close to
the library of a school where I usually studied during holidays, was a
demonstration art garden. I met some art students there, whose work I found of
great artistic value. This situation connected me back to my childhood
appreciation of art works. My history as a collector started precisely at this
point. And this encounter is now close, to four decades.
It is important to note that while I thought that
my initial course of study in engineering is distanced from the arts; I since
found a great link between both disciplines. One significant discovery for me
is that both disciplines are centered on proffering solutions to the core needs
of humanity in concrete and tangible terms.
What does it mean to be an art collector? The art
of collecting is marked by a certain prodigious disposition towards objects
made by humans. This is a situation where the lure to possess what other humans
have made because of their symbolic value, are irresistible in the first
instance. This is a human attribute. But it is not everyone that is bitten by
the compulsive bug to acquire the objects made by other humans. It is such that
there are then various degrees to which as humans we respond to diverse urges
to appreciate first, and then to acquire. From observation, the artist in
general terms depend on the charity of the affluent. Hence, for any human to
part with money to purchase the work of art, he or she must have had enough to
feed with; but unfortunately the bulk of Nigerians are either of the middle
class or are poor. While from a realistic point of view, this observation may be
grudgingly true, it is not all affluent people that have the lure to collect works
of art. Collecting of works of art therefore, remains a gift and an insight
that a few possess. This is why in Nigeria, it is possible to count a handful
of collectors when compared to its huge population. The thesis of a select few and
seeming “zany” humans, evidently is not limited to Nigeria or Africa. A few not-so-wealthy
people have some holdings of artworks but I hold the conviction that a phenomenal
sense of abnormality, defines the art collector or a collector of any item. Collection
therefore carries with it an obsession which is made manifest in the holding which
an individual’s art collection defines.
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| Prince (Engr.) Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon D.Litt |
The art of collection can be said to be a primitive
engagement of humanity. But early collections known to history are associated
with the institutions of royalty and ecclesiastical authorities. As I have
related earlier, the royal patronages of the arts in my nativity is responsible
for the artistic wealth of the Yoruba palaces. The representational needs for
worship and veneration as well as teaching purposes of religion in general is
also responsible for the accumulation of art works in religious institutions.
These two cultural institutions led the way in contemporary sense to the art of
collection. Indeed, the collections in the Vatican long before the building of
the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, engaged in the tradition of opening its
collections to the public on Good Fridays only. As civilization progressed, the
wealthy in society joined in the business of art collection. But an explosion
occurred with the French Revolution. As it is known, the cultural explosion that occurred then, liberated the artist
from the shackles of ecclesiastical and royal institutions. That revolution
defined a new society and consciousness regarding the status of the artist and
the work of art thus created.
It is precisely this redefined social consciousness
that drives modern conceptions in the art of art collection. This is the
context where I am located as a collector. The point at issue here is to lay
just a little emphasis on the fact that a collector has an obsession that is
quite extraordinary in his or her relationship to the work of art. The
collector is one who moves beyond the mere act of appreciation of the work of
art to owning it. The collector is easily moved to pay for the insight and
skill of an artist. Thus, it is not all Princes who appreciate the work of art
to invest some of their wealth on “objects” made by fellow human beings.
Permit me
now to go into a discussion of my collection. In what appears a general
introduction, I have provided a brief history of my pedigree. In looking at
this sub-section I will have reason to now provide specific details. I will
engage this aspect in the form of chronicling my engagement and the value of
collecting. It is important to collect. What definitely is of value in
collecting is not the act of collecting as such. Over the years now, I have come
to discover that collecting imposes a great discipline that shapes cultural
production. I will delve into such ground in the course of this paper.
In my undergraduate days at Ibadan, I found the Yaba
College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos (I alluded to this institution ananymously
previously), a fertile ground to rejuvenate my interest in the visual arts.
This was because of the presence of an active demonstration arena that the
department of art there then hosted and still hosts till this day. My visits
there eventually kickstarted the story of my collection. This was in 1975. Examples
of the works I purchased then are two stylised
figural wood sculptures of a woman and a drummer.
Since then I have continued to collect works of art. And
at various stages in my career I found
the need to explore my environment for the possibility of furthering the
content of my holdings in art.
In this regard, while my undergraduate studies
continued at Ibadan, I regularly visited Mokola Market in Ibadan, identifying
with Ogiahon Ogiameh in Fadeyi – Ikorodu road, Lagos and purcahsing artworks
from small time carvers and other art sources in Lagos and Ibadan.
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| A Part Of Bronze And Stone Sculptures In The OYASAF Garden |
While working
in Kano and Kaduna as an engineer with Tractor and Equipment, a division of
United African Company of Nigeria (UACN),
servicing and selling Caterpillar brand of heavy equipment and travelling
around northern Nigeria, I collected many works in the process. When I
proceeded to the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University at Ile-Ife
for my MBA degree, I began my second phase of collecting. I not only collected
from local art sources in Ile-Ife and environ, I also started exploring for
collections outside the Ile-Ife vicinity. I started at this time to relate with
the Igun Street carvers in Benin City. It must be recalled that, during the era
of imperial Benin Kingdom, the Igun carvers were known for providing bronze,
ivory and wooden artworks that highly embelished the palace of the Oba of Benin
and his nobles.
With the
Ile-Ife experience, I graduated into the collection of the sculptural works of
upcoming art masters. I had become the marketing director of Nigerite Nigeria Limited
at 31 with much improved earnings and in the process, expanded into
commissioning artists to produce glassfibre
lifesize artworks. I later eventually
expanded my source of funds for collecting art by establishing and operating my
own law firm side by side as marketing director and legal adviser of the
company. It was at this time that I met David Dale, a verterian printmaker and
stained glass painter in Lagos, Nigeria, from whom I acquired some early modern
art works, which he produced on the basis of commissions. One of the values of meeting Dale
was that he introduced me into collecting the works of
many other modern artists. Through him and others, I got into collecting
the works of many living and dead art masters especially during the era of one
of Nigeria’s Military President, General Sani Abacha (1993-1998), who in 1995, ordered
the execution of Kenule Saro-Wiwa the environmental activist and crusader from
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. This was a very trying period for Nigeria. The
period was marked by the exodus from Nigeria of many expatriates. While leaving
Nigeria many of these expartraites put out the entire collections of theirs
from Nigeria and elsewhere for sale. This situation was auspicious for me as I
took hold of the opportunity to buy their works, thus, increasing my collection
by great leaps.
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| "In the Spirit" (Beads on board) By David Dale (1993) |
I started my
story of collection by observing that to be known as a collector requires some
form of prodigious attitude towards collecting artworks. Like many human habits,
it has impulsive and habitual dimensions. These dimensions led me to another
stage in my art collection. I think the act of collecting comes to a height
when a collector engages purchase with other co-collectors as well as expanding
one’s repatoire and genre through deliberate searches to fill noticed gaps. One
very conscious act is that I have engaged in collecting from master artists,
gallery owners and auction houses to fill up gaps. You might ask gaps in what
sense? In the process of my collecting , I have constructed a theoretical canon
for Nigerian art history in my expediency to fill some noticed Nigerian art history gaps
in my collection. In this regard, I have used this to build on my collection of
modern and contemporary artworks including photography. I remember the period
in which I also got introduced to a second world war cinematographer and the Omooba
Odimayo’s collection of traditional artworks and antiquities in my bid to fill
noticed gaps in my collection. The cinematographer, late Mr. Ogunde Adesina, toured
with traditional art sellers in search
of genuine historical pieces and artworks in Nigeria. Included in this search were
visits to shrines and homes of newly converted christians to purchase artworks
categorised as demonic objects. With this focus, I have not stopped collecting.
Inventory
of my Collection
My collection, which is now domiciled under the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin
Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), presently holds more than 7,000 works of
art and over 55,000 photographs of several Nigerian and Benin Republic cultural
festivals in its digital archive. This number makes the collection the largest
private collection of art in Nigeria. They are itemized thus.
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• The oldest
modern Nigerian art in the Foundation is a 1932 charcoal drawing titled Awaiting Trial by Aina Onabolu who is
acclaimed the father of modern Nigerian art.
• The oldest traditional
artwork in Foundation’s collection is a Nok terracotta. It is a beautiful and
classical example of the Nok sculpture tradition which genre is the oldest in
sub-Saharan Africa. There are many other classical traditional artworks in
OYASAF.
• Another
major work in the traditional genre among numerous others, is a Yoruba
Ceremonial Box from the Olowe of Ise school. Olowe’s pieces are some of the
most priced traditional African artworks in the world today. Roslyn Walker
described him as “the most important Yoruba artist of the 20th century.”
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| Village Market and Motor Park by Akinola Lasekan (1941) |
• Some works
by Aina Onabolu, Ugorji and Akinola Lasekan, Nigeria’s first newspaper
cartoonist whose political cartoons featured regularly in the West African Pilot are Village Market and Motor Park, (1941); Cocoa Cropping; Masquerade at the Square.
• Some of Ben
Enwonwu’s artworks in the Foundation include: The original plaster mould of his
masterpiece Anyanwu, (1953) and Ogolo Dancer -in bronze, (1959).
• Many independence artists and the
members of the Zaria Art Society popularly known as the “Zaria Rebels” like
Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Simon Okeke, and many others are
well represented in the OYASAF collection.
• OYASAF prides
itself in having the most comprehensive and diverse representation of different
periods of Nigerian modernism. Some of the artists who are most represented in the
OYASAF collection are David Dale, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Lara Ige-Jack, Adeola
Balogun, Olu Amoda, Zacheus Oloruntoba and Lamidi Fakeye etc.
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|
Repurposed Constructivism
By Olu Amoda (2011)
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• The
Foundation has in its collection, a significant number of early works in clay
and wood by El Anatsui, the most acclaimed African artist at the moment. Two of
Anatsui’s works: Wisdom and Yaw Berko (Stand Up and Shout No) in
OYASAF were loaned to the Museum for Africa
Art, New
York, for the traveling exhibition El
Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, 2010-2013.
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| "Mother and Child" (Soft stone In the OYASAF Garden) by Oladapo Afolayan (1999) |
Collecting for me has been exciting. In this sense I have
found myself playing the role of a financier of artists in Nigeria’s cultural
space where there are many lacunae in the arena of cultural production. One of
these roles is where the collector becomes a major financier of artists. When
the artist in the past, was liberated from the clutches of ecclesiastical
authorities and the nobilities of the West, a new set of social structures came
up to fund art and artists’ initiatives. It is in this wise that, OYASAF is established to
share the joy, beauty and benefit of Nigerian art and culture with the world;
Showcase and develop Nigerian visual art; curb the flight of artistic talents
away from my culturally rich country-Nigeria and to provide a source of pride
to Nigeria and Nigerians.
• The
vision of OYASAF is to be a
leading resource foundation in the history, heritage and preservation of
Nigerian art and photographs for reflecting the dignity and creativity of
Nigerian culture to the world.
• The
mission of OYASAF is to engage
in visual art activities and services for the promotion and positioning of
Nigerian art, for a pride of place within the continents of the world.
The
above declarations are directed at driving the following objectives:
1. Attraction
and retention of research scholars, institutions and art curators for
conducting studies around Nigeria’s visual art and culture.
2. Exploration
and generation of opportunities for collaborative exhibitions, workshops,
seminars and talk shows in relation to the collection of our foundation.
3. Re-circulating
OYASAF art holdings through exhibitions of its collections.
4. Generation of knowledge through
research, publications, lectures and workshops.
The
objectives above are justified by the following activities of OYASAF.
• Works in
OYASAF’s collection have also been shown in exhibitions like “Ancient Tones and
Columns,” an exhibition of traditional Nigerian art in the collections of
Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) and The Omooba Oladele
Odimayo Art Foundation (TOOAF) that held at the National Museum, Lagos, in
2008.
• In 2009, the
Foundation published a book on its holdings of Yoruba art entitled Yoruba Traditional Art: The Collection of
Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) edited by Ohioma
Ifounu Pogoson.
• OYASAF
recently started a publishing project based on conversations with the major
living artists in its collection.
Conversation with Lamidi Fakeye is the first in the “conversation series.”
It was published in 2013 and has 48 of Fakeye’s wood carvings in the
Foundation’s collection reproduced in full-color. The book was coauthored by
Prince (Engr.) Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon and Dr. Ohioma Ifounu Pogoson.
• OYASAF
Fellowship Awards was initiated in 2010 to bring to Nigeria art scholars,
critics, graduate students and artists new knowledge from across the globe.
• Since 2010
to end 2013, thirteen persons from the
US, Austria, Switzerland, and South Africa have benefited from the OYASAF award and they are Janine Systma, Ian Bourland, Rachel Engmann, Andrea Bauer, Nomusa
Makhubu, Kathleen Coates, Erica Agyeman, Amanda Hellman, Erin Rice, Amber
Croyle Ekong, Kimberli Gant, Jessica Williams, Victor Ekpuk.
• In 2012, a quarterly lecture series was started to give opportunity to
the home-based Nigerian academics and scholars to talk on different issues in
art education, art history, art practice and art business. Four persons have
presented papers and they are Prof. Frank Ugiomoh “On African Art and Identity
Blogging: A Historical Perspective”; Dr. Kunle Filani “Contemporary
Art in Nigeria: Contextual Navigation through
the Web of History”; Prof. Jacob Jat Jari “The Price of Art and Its Implication
on Art Practice in Nigeria and Dr. Ozioma Onuzulike “Art Auctions In Nigeria:
Ladders of Progress or Shots In The Artists’ Feet?”.
• Recently,
OYASAF in collaboration with the Grillo Pavilion in Lagos made a research grant
available for scholars to research and resolve conflicting issues on “the
formation, membership and program of the Zaria Art Society at the then College
of Arts, Science and Technology (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria).”
• In 2009, the
Foundation donated a sculpture to the University of Ibadan, paid for the
restoration of a 1952 landscape painting of the university by Ben Enwonwu and
upgraded the university’s zoo, making it accessible to the disabled.
• From 2009 to
2010, OYASAF organized an annual national competition in photography.
• Also in
2010, the Foundation cosponsored the “Children’s Day Art Workshop” organized by
Biodunomolayo Art Gallery, Lagos.
• After the
2010 edition of the annual national photography competition, it was replaced
with a photographic documentation project that covers cultural events and
festivals in Nigeria and
beyond. The
Foundation has an in-house photographer Oguntimehin Ariyo, who carries out this
photographic documentation project.
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| Display by masquerade (Benin Republic Voodoo Festival) Photograph by Ariyo Oguntimehin |
• Some of the
events and places that have been documented are Igue festival of the Benin
Kingdom, the Ofala festival of Onitsha, the Igbo Ukwu festival, Eyo festival of
Lagos, the Calabar carnival, the Lisabi festival, the Sango festival of old Oyo
empire, the Badagry cultural festival, National voodoo festival (Ouidah) of
Benin republic, the Mambilla Plateau and the Ogoja in Nigeria.
• Since 2011,
OYASAF has sponsored an annual visual arts workshop at the Department of
Creative Arts, University of Lagos. The entrepreneurial workshop covers
painting with pastel, watercolor, printmaking and ceramics. Kathleen Stafford,
a printmaker and the wife of a former consul general of the American embassy in
Nigeria, facilitated the printmaking session in 2011.
• In 2012, OYASAF founder endowed the
first Nigerian Professorial Chair in Visual Art and Design with the faculty of
art and design of the University of Port Harcourt.
• In 2013, OYASAF sponsored two drawing competitions
among the secondary school students in Ile-Ife and Akwa Ibom in Nigeria. The
Ile - Ife competition was organized in conjunction with the art students of the
Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife while
the Akwa Ibom competition was organized with the Society of Arts in the eastern
zone in Nigeria.
• Over the
years, the Foundation has given financial support and other kinds of assistance
to artists, national and international art institutions/associations, art departments,
universities, and commercial galleries.
• In 2013, the
Foundation donated eighteen life-size sculptures to the Freedom Park, Lagos,
the first of its kind from a private art institution in Nigeria.
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| A Part of the OYASAF Sculptured Garden |
• The
Foundation has received many awards and honors and the founder in 2013 was
awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) by the University of Port
Harcourt, in recognition of his contributions in the promotion of the Nigerian
art and culture.
One of the major challenges facing OYASAF is preservation. We engage regularly
in the restoration of OYASAF works. Our artworks have to be preserved against
the seven risks of conservation. If it is painting, there are ways that you
modulate the temperature so that the works do not decay. There are very few experts
who currently know about these in Nigeria. With wooden artworks we buy
chemicals to preserve the wood works, or we wrap the artwork in cellophane and
put the work in deep freezers for about two weeks. With this process, all the
termites and pests in the wood work would die.
We
have also in times past, engaged Nigerian contemporary artists to preserve some
paintings in our collection. What they did was to apply lacquer on them. I admit
that my judgment at that time depended much on my limited exposure which was
based on the skill available to me within the Nigerian environment vis a vis
the cost of the works. Moreover I have also undertaken to date scientifically some
works in the collection to determine their ages. By this I have attempted to give
them some authentication. The art of collecting imposes a great responsibility
on the collector .The collector is forced to strive not to leave his works to
fall into the state of disrepair for any reason. However, restoration
engagements remain delicate. A notable example is the controversy over the many
restoration initiatives on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper; it is such that a recent 1999 restoration remains
controversial after the x-ray excavation in the 1970s revealed the work in its
original state.
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| An Array of Masquerades. Photograph by Ariyo Oguntimehin |
When
I began my admiration for the object of art with a view to owning some, it
never occurred to me that my aspiration was an expensive venture. Art
collection is steeped in charity in many dimensions. The first observation in
this regard is that the collector is the financier of the artist guild. Beyond
this reality, is the service to one’s nation, In preserving its history and
heritage. Notice that at a point in my collection, I constructed a canon,
through my collection, of the history of Nigerian art. And when I noticed some
lacuna in the canon I responded to it by looking out for works I could purchase
to fill the gaps observed. Depending on a collector’s objective, the agenda is
always a buildup in content to articulate a particular history and process. It
is noted that many private collections in different parts of the world have ended
up as national collections even though artworks remain private properties in as
much as they are in the custody of their makers. Collections expose them to
others from where they connect with a family to tell a structured story of art.
In an effort to articulate the art history of Nigeria I have begun the
publication of a series that focus on my collections. This activity cues into
the objective of OYASAF. In conclusion, I must state that the collection of
artworks gives me great fulfillment
although collecting has its many challenges. Negotiating through the challenges
associated with collecting adds to one’s fulfillment.
So much thoroughly enjoyed. Thought I could go on and on reading and reading and rea... the great piece. Thanks for your contribution to the preservation of our cultural heritage. Omooba Aderemi Adefarakan
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