ACE THE SP THE SPACE ART SOCIETY ZARIA ART Celebration of Legacies Celebration

Celebration of Legacies ZARIA ART SOCIETY THE SPACESPACE ACE THE SP THE SPACE Lagos, Nigeria. www.arthouse-ng.com OSELOKA OSADEBE OSELOKA SIMON OKEKE SIMON OKEKE EMMANUEL ODITA EMMANUEL NWOKO DEMAS YUSUF GRILLO YUSUF 1

ZARIA ART SOCIETY Celebration of Legacies

26 October – 15 November 2019

Kia Motors Showroom 308 Adeola Odeku Victoria Island Lagos, NIGERIA

THE SPACESPACE

www.arthouse-ng.com

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CONTENTS 5 Foreword 6 Curatorial Word: Jerry Buhari 10 Zaria in the Fifties and Campus Life at NCAST by D. O. Babalola’s essay 12 Zaria What? Say that again!: dele jegede 13 YUSUF GRILLO 16 Yusuf Grillo in conversation 20 Portfolio 29 Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art: Ola Oloidi 31 DEMAS NWOKO ©Arthouse Contemporary Limited Lagos 35 Demas Nwoko in conversation 36, Cameron Road, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria 38 Portfolio Website: www.arthouse-ng.com 55 EMMANUEL ODITA Email: [email protected] 58 The Zaria Art Society its artworks and Tel: +2341 279-3182 Mobile: +234 805 250 0195 art technique prompters: Emmanuel Odita No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, 59 God’s Grace Still Report or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying 60 Portfolio recording or other devices without the permission of the Arthouse Contemporary Limited. 66 The Mystical Zaria Art Society: Jacob Jari 66 The Enduring Legacy of Zaria Art Society : Ozioma Onuzulike Credits 67 SIMON OKEKE Editorial: Odey Ekpme, Jerry Buhari 70 The Legacy of Uche Okeke and the Zaria Art Society Scanning & type setting: Jerry Buhari, Foluso Oguntoye, in the Study of Nigerian Indigenous Arts: Rebecca Wolff Graphics: Rishita Chandra 71 Portfolio Photography: George Oshodi 77 UCHE OKEKE 80 Uche Okeke: Interview by Chika Okeke-Agulu Zaria Art Society: Celebration of Legacies 83 Portfolio Exhibition Team 93 BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA Director: Kavita Chellaram 9 In conversation with Bruce Onobrakpeya Curator: Jerry Buhari 100 Identity and Direction in Nigeria Art Practice: The Zarianists’ Legacy: Osa Egonwa Operations & Logistics 102 Portfolio of all Bruce’s works Nana Sonoiki 113 OSELOKA OSADEBE Margaret Haggai 116 The Zaria Art Society and the Development of Sammy Ogbanje Indigenous Art Epistemologies and Praxis: Kunle Filani Akeem Atunde Foluso Oguntoye 118 Portfolio 128 The Place of Zaria Art Society in History: Kolade Oshinowo Finance 128 The Zaria Factor: Krydz Ikwuemesi Kavita Challeram 129 ZARIA ART SCHOOL: Relevance and a Major Reference Sumbo Biobaku-Baderin Point in the 21st Century: Mike Omoighe Nana Sonoiki 133 The Zaria Art Society in the Evolution of Modern Nigerian Art: Frank Ugiomoh Publicity 133 On Zaria Art Society: Duniya Gambo Giles Joseph Gergel 134 In conversation with Olu Amoda Nana Sonoiki 138 Archive Photo Folusho Oguntoye 139 List of exhibits arranged by artists entries 142 Authors Contributing Short Essays and Statements Cover: Works of, 143 Our Sponsors From top: Y Grillo, D Nwoko, O Odita 144 Acknowledgements Middle: S Okeke, U Okeke, B Onobrakpeya Bottom: O Osadebe

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Foreword

This is perhaps the most ambitious art project that Arthouse has ever embarked upon. Seven artists, two who are late, five living, some of Nigeria’s most treasured cultural icons, all in their eighties living in different geographical locations with different idiosyncrasies. They are artists of the most adventurous creative experimentation, in ideas, media subject matter and technique – members of the Zaria Art Society. Some call them “Zaria Rebels”, some “Zarianists” and others would prefer they are called “Revolutionaries”. I am yet to know of a group of artists whose naming have attracted such a fierce competition and controversy. These artists have been subject of scholarly interest, professional curiosity and collectors delight. They stand as pillars in the cultural landscape of Nigeria’s visual art and tower above the horizon. Their cultural significance, influence and inspiration cast fascinating shadows across the globe today.

Putting an exhibition of these artists has been, to say the least, extremely challenging in many ways. The huddles have risen higher with time causing us to shift dates, adjust on the scale and scope of the show. Sometimes we have paused to wonder if ever we could pull this exhibition through. But, at last, we are here. And, the joy of seeing the fruition of this show humbles us as we consider ourselves a small part of this big history. Some of our most challenging constraints were space, finding the works, the fragility of the works, securing sponsors, among others. Space was one of our most nagging problems. In the end, we had to fall back on our most reliable and familiar space and sponsors. We note that space is certainly not the best for the profile of a show like this; but its availability and the gracious offering of its owners, helped us to make the best use of what we have. A proper art exhibition space continues to challenge our cultural institutions. I hope that soon we should be able to address this problem head-on.

I am always humbled by the personal relationship that I have developed with each of the artists and the estates of those who have passed on. I am deeply grateful for their friendship, Top L-R: Y Grillo, D Nwoko, E Odita encouragement and willingness to respond positively to my requests. This show is evidence of Middle: S Okeke, U Okeke, B Onobrakpeya this cultural partnership and many years of friendship. I dare make bold to say that it has given Bottom: O Osadebe us the opportunity once again show these greats since 1998 when the National Gallery of Art presented them in Zaria, Abuja and Lagos. We feel honoured and privileged to revive the show once again at the historic point of their history and our story. I am particularly happy that I had a team that was equally committed to seeing to the success of this show. Together we represent these great cultural icons to young artists, collectors and the Nigerian and international cultural community that may never have seen the artists works before, or physically met them.

Kavita Chellaram Founder and CEO Arthouse Contemporary Limited and Arthouse Foundation

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also realised that in presenting a legacy exhibition, it was important to include inputs from the Curatorial Word legends themselves. We, therefore, requested the living artists to also participate in selecting their works that speak to their legacies. They enthusiastically received this. We were also by Jerry Buhari conscious of significant chronological representation of their artistic carriers and wanted to feature works from their student days in Zaria. Arthouse Contemporary Limited conceived the idea of having an exhibition of the members of the Zaria Art Society about four years ago. The idea was partly in response to the increasing As can be observed, the group shares fascinating creative characteristics in their multi- interest of art collectors both within and outside the country. As the idea grew, it became clear dimensional creative expressions. They are also boldly experimental. None of them is a mono- that the art community in which Arthouse relates with intimately wanted to see these artists medium artist. Their works are indeed representative of Nigeria’s artistic modernism. and their works once again as they cross their mid-eighties. Added to this also is the growing We can attempt to give a brief glimpse of their legacies: From Yusuf Grillo we are showing some international interest in by scholars, museums, auction houses, of his paintings, stained glass, sculptures, sculptured furniture and some Marquette of some big private collectors and the global art community in general. Members of this Society as of his major art commissions. Grillo’s legacy advanced creative excellence and professionalism individuals have over the years, in their multidimensional art practice and art education; have in what, today, we proudly call the Yaba School. His commissions for private and religious been largely responsible for this growing international interest and the vibrant art practice in the institutions, especially Christian institutions, as a Muslim artist, display how an artist can earn country. As it is with all ambitious projects, we met with some challenges bordering on defining respect and trust with big private corporations and become a bridge of understanding and the scope of the exhibition, locating the works, engaging and finding consent with the living tolerance across religious divide to build an integrated society. His love for Yoruba traditions artists, estates of those who have passed on and collectors, among others. It is therefore with translated in modern language in his works help us to see the possibilities of refreshing old great delight that we have finally realised one of Arthouse’s most adventurous projects. traditions and applying their wisdom to confront contemporary challenges. From Demas Nwoko, we have paintings, terra cottas, furniture, photographs of some of his life architectures, plays, We decided to title this exhibition, Zaria Art Society: A Celebration of Legacies. The idea of posters, and perhaps for the first time in an exhibition like this, drawings and sketches. His is using the concept of legacy to frame this exhibition is borne out of the inspiration, influence, a demonstration of exceptional creative elasticity rooted in the search for indigenous aesthetic and awe these artists, as a group and as individuals, have brought on to contemporary art philosophy. His paintings, terra cottas, sculptures, furniture and architecture inspire us to see in Nigeria. We seek to celebrate the impact of their lives, their work and the ideas they have and appreciate the richness of our cultural heritage in an engulfing global environment. His bequeathed on our cultural history, and they have continued to do so. We first set out to works are constantly challenging us to consider the importance of understanding the root expand the concept of the exhibition to go beyond the artworks and to include objects that of our history and how it can be used as a tool in solving problems and the way we engage represent the artists’ artistic carriers such as old sketchbooks, drawings not exhibited before, foreign ideas. easels, palette, old brushes, etc. As we faced challenges of diverse kinds, we had to constantly We are pleased to have drawings, paintings and a print from Okechukwu Odita that bridge review and shrink our ambition to fit the realities of time, space, budget and access to exhibits. cultures and explore the essence of our being. Odita’s legacy can also be found in his ground- What we see in this exhibition is the result of this difficult, but exciting journey. breaking researches and the numerous doctoral candidates he has graduated who were We confess that we have not been able to sufficiently meet this ambition we set for ourselves; enriched with a deeper appreciation of how contemporary Nigerian art history is connected but have been able to put together some of the finest works these artists have created over the to its traditional origins. Though Simon Okeke lived a short life compared to his colleagues in years. The works address personal, traditional and national issues that continue to inspire and this exhibition, he left behind a body of work that, in their dense artistic expressions, speaks of challenge us as individuals and as a nation. We hope that our ability to put together works of some of the darkest periods of our history with works entangled in compacted spaces as if in seven members of the Society (two who are late, two who have spent most of their carrier lives an embryo. These works, yet to be fully studied and appreciated, would one day be a priceless in the United States of America and three who live and work in Nigeria) should justify our efforts chronicle of our history as a nation. His complete sacrificial service for the emancipation of the and make up for the inadequacies of our earlier vision. It is also our hope that the exhibition Igbo during the Nigerian Civil War would continue to inspire and remind us about the virtues will rekindle ground-breaking research; more innovative exhibitions like this, to tell more on the of conviction, patriotism, and sacrifice for the good of society that he died for in 1969. From history and posterity of the legacy of Zaria Art Society. Uche Okeke’s oeuvre we are showing drawings, watercolours, and paintings. Some of them In pursuing the concept of legacy in this exhibition, we invited artists and scholars who have not been on public view since two decades ago. His works refreshingly remind us of his have undertaken scholarly or curatorial work on these artists to submit brief statements or intellectual cultural investments that help us cultivate a hybridised modernist aesthetics. In short essays as a way of giving us a multidimensional perspective to the Zaria Art Society Uche Okeke, we see a star shinning across the skies of history giving us direction with such phenomenon. We received a total of fifteen responses. Three of the essays came from what intellectual insight. His works demonstrate prolific creative energy that draws inspiration, like was published in the National Gallery of Art, which, together with the authors, graciously his colleagues, from the wealth of our indigenous culture. The role he played in establishing permitted us to reproduce sections of their works. and articulating “Natural Synthesis” as an aesthetic ideology and a curriculum based on Uli, gave birth to School and would continue to be an exceptional example of how an In selecting the works for this show, we were constantly confronted with having to change academic programme can be designed to meet town and gown in the most effective way. as a result of their fragile condition. In some cases, it was that the works would have to be Bruce Onobrakpeya’s legacies are visible in his tireless creative production, art education in withdrawn because they have been so poorly preserved or stored or damaged. The logistics workshops, mentoring, and establishment of art institutions that offer hope, skills, and source of restoration and seeking appropriate consent from their owners was a tough challenge. Up of livelihood in a country battling with a growing, restless and jobless youth. His entries for to two weeks to the show we were not sure if some works would arrive early enough. Because this exhibition include paintings, mixed media, prints of diverse techniques, some of his most of these dynamics, it was difficult to formulate a specific narrative around the works; but we experimental plastographs, and one of his most engaging and complex installations. His works

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continue to engage the rich cultural heritage that is rooted in his roots and beyond. Again, like his at memorable occasions, some even posthumously. Again, this exhibition could not claim to colleagues, Onobrakpeya, through his works, takes us back to the significance of our traditional have captured their historical significance adequately. The focus of the exhibition is to rekindle origins as a compass in engaging with the present and the future. The legacy of Osadebe, though the articulation of new perspectives in appreciating their works. We hope that the short essays close to us, is yet to be fully appreciated in Nigeria. With our most recent exposure to his work and statements contributed to this catalogue would stimulate more scholarly investigation. in Sandra Obiago’s “Inner Light”, a ground-breaking exhibition, we realise how we have missed Of further importance, the exhibition is targeted at young art students and artists who may this colossal creative spirit. His drawings, designs, paintings, and sculptures encapsulate and never have heard, seen them or their works. To achieve this we have included an elaborate explore the depth of our common search for a balance between our physical nature, the spiritual programme of students visit throughout the duration of the show. In addition we have included and in-between. In his “transition” from plastic arts to theatre, Osadebe points us back to the an interactive session in a roundtable with the artists who would be able to physically attend way artistic expression in Africa, unlike in the West, is a holistic dialogue and experience at the the exhibition. same time. Indeed, his works are existential oscillation between folklore, metaphysics, identity question, the spiritual and the physical. As we present the artists in the fifty-ninth independence celebration of Nigeria, we recall their unique place as educational revolutionists and cultural freedom fighters that stood side by side The summary of the legacies of Zaria Art Society can be found in their giving, mentoring, teaching, with their colleagues that fought political emancipation. The works they created, the Natural entrepreneurial offerings and a form of distinguished service to humanity across stereotyped Synthesis manifesto they formulated and propagated, and the exhibitions they organised and boundaries. Our ability to explore these legacies will continue to engage us beyond their times. participated in indeed continue to resonate through the history of our national independence So, in this exhibition, we have only been able to scratch the surface. More critical research and song. After leaving Zaria, they dispersed to plant seeds of artistic and cultural expression exhibitions are required, and urgently too, especially on Simon Okeke, Okechukwu Odita and that drew inspiration from indigenous and foreign ideas as well as materials before creating a Oseloka Osadebe. hybrid cultural renaissance of a new Nigeria. It is important to stress the example members of Zaria Art Society established as a group working together for and on issues that advance and After the publication of Kojo Fosu’s classic book, “20th Century Art of Africa” in 1986, Zaria symbolise identity definition and political emancipation. The clarity of their thoughts advanced Art Society became a subject of interesting academic debate. First, the debate was over the by a written manifesto taught us the communal African heritage threatened by colonialism and membership, who is and who is not? There is also a gender debate: was Omogie’s name Western culture of individualism. excluded or omitted? Perhaps, the third and the most polemic issue is what Koju Fosu called the group- “Zaria Rebels”. Some scholars think that the phrase “Zaria Rebels” was inappropriate. In In conclusion, we have observed that collecting art also requires the deliberate provision of an their opinion, the use of the word “Rebels” is disrespectful and connotes a negative impression appropriate space (with the right preservation conditions), that will ensure proper management of the group. This led to the advancement of alternative names such as, “Revolutionaries” and protocol of these works, if the investment is to have its expected cultural and financial value “Zarianists”. What is often overlooked in this debate is that Fosu merely quoted one of their active sustained. Artworks are fragile; they require professional care, appropriate space, condition members, Onobrakpeya, who said, “we were sort of rebels”. The expression of their activities by and management. In the cause of putting together this exhibition we can come across some one of the members of the Society could not therefore be regarded as a coinage originating from works in places and conditions not conducive for their longevity. It is in this light that we would Kojo Fosu. The context from which it was first muted by Bruce Onobrakpeya could not also be like to see this exhibition become a catalyst that will kick-start a move where art collectors regarded as negative. would corporately establish an edifice that would house and celebrate not only these legends and their works, but also Nigerian art as a whole and the investment they have made in it. When the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the Department of Fine Art, In our long relationship and interactions with these great cultural icons, they have always University, Zaria, undertook to do a major exhibition and conference on and around the Society expressed their hope and desire to see their works in a museum where the public, not only just in 1998, under the title, “Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”, the late Uche Okeke, the a privileged few, would have free access to view. custodian of the group’s records, provided not only the list of the members but also date of We would, therefore, like to challenge our partners, sponsors and especially art collectors registration record, payment of dues and other archival documents that reveal the high level to see the huge investments they have made in collecting art and come together to initiate of intellectual orientation, sense of documentation and history the group possessed. From the the establishment of a Museum of Contemporary Modern Art, (MCMA). This would be their journal Uche Okeke kept, the group had their inaugural meeting on Thursday 9th October 1958 reciprocal contribution to advance the sustenance of their priced collections for human and on the 16th June 1961, “the Art Society was folded up here in the college.” The names on civilisation and ensure the posterity of the works they so love. We believe that this is possible, the registered members as recorded by Uche Okeke had the following as its members: Yusuf giving the calibre and result-oriented profiles of our partners, sponsors, and art collectors. Grillo (Painting), late Simon Okeke (Painting), William late Olaosebikan (Painting), late Uche Okeke (Painting), Bruce Onobrakpeya (Painting), Demas Nwoko (Painting), Oseloka Osadebe (Painting), Jerry Buhari Okechukwu Odita (Painting), late Felix Ekeada (Graphic art), late Ogbonnaya Nwagbara (Graphic Curator art), and I. M. Omagie (Graphic art) and the only female.

The significance of Zaria Art Society in the evolution of contemporary modern Nigerian art has been well documented in the great works of Pat Oyelola, Paul Mount, Egonwa, Chukwuegu, Jess Catellote, Ogbechie, Okeke-Agulu, the National Gallery of Art, private galleries and institutions and a host of scholars. We would not be able to mention all of them here. The list continues to grow. Furthermore, these artists, as individuals, have been subject of scholarly work, celebration

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Zaria in the Fifties and Campus Life at NCAST

by Daniel O. Babalola

“…The main objectives of this chapter therefore are two fold. First, it aspires to present in graphic buttressed their points by laying emphasis on what they knew best, which was European. detail, the Zaria of yester-years, the most pure, inviting and stimulating environment. The smiles that Although that was irony, they meant no harm, they taught what they knew best and they welcomed one to Zaria apart from the permanent sceneries on guard, in the form of the tall and lanky excelled. baobab trees as one approached Zaria by road or by rail. The markets that differed from those of the south, that displayed the various traders with their wares including the slim Fulani women hawking Students, as earlier said, came to Zaria from various ethnic groups of Nigeria with majority their cheese and fura da nono. Often dressed in their best, they balanced their calabashes on their coming from south. They came to Zaria with the experiences of their various cultures. In Zaria, heads. Those calabashes have various traditional inscriptions and motifs, which offer attraction to the they met not only those scenes earlier on described, but other students coming from cultures totality of the Fulani female costume. and artistic backgrounds other than their own. There were cross-fertilization of ideas and these ideas permeated their art and they soon realized that they had to learn a lot. Not only had they Again the cattle Fulani male, who also dressed in his best, had barely managed to take off a holiday read various art books in addition to what they learnt from their diverse cultural awareness, the from the management of his cattle, was a spectacle to behold. Donkeys heavily laden with goods new awareness were elicited to form their unique compositions…” and farm produce gently plod their way to the market along the various path ways. The few available lorries, the, could not cope and had to be assisted by beasts of burden to carry marketers as well Extract by permission of the author, D. O. Babalola and publisher, National gallery of Art, from, “Schools bags of grains to market. Or was the Sallah, that usually displayed the dignitaries, commoners and of Art and Significant Events. In The Nigerian Artist of the Millennium: Historian Builder Aesthetician & chiefs dressed in their best attires seated waiting for the Emir to emerge, following which the Durbar Visioner. pp42- 44. celebration would start in earnest? The horses dressed in their best saddles and bridles of various colours were ready to show their preparedness for the race.

The joy of winning the race and the agony of defeat for the horse and riders, brought home the adage that the fastest runner may not win the race. For the students, it usually reminded them of the studies of horses by Marino Marini. Whichever way one views it, the Samaru village of those days (the 50s and 60s) seemed to breath an air of freedom, beauty and stimulating calm that welcomed visitors. How one was welcomed wherever one went, provided one was careful to observe the warning “ba shiga” sign, which forbid anybody to enter into the compounds or houses. But one was welcomed outside the door with enthusiasm and if it was the direction one was seeking for, immediate help was rendered.

Zaria city was alive with the traditional houses decorated to taste and the houses mostly with flat roofs allowed an almost unbroken areal view. The variety, simplicity, with the powerful rendering of calligraphic and Islamic inscriptions on the outside walls of the buildings were easily noticed. The sumptuous buildings carried the best designs and were meant to display the wealth and nobility of such people of Zaria. Old women and young men drew water from wells for the daily needs of their families. During evenings especially weekends, calabash and kalangu drummers entertained people far into the night…

…Lecturers in Fine Arts were drawn from all over the world. They came to Nigeria with enormous potential; to leave a mark of excellence in their various disciplines. Several of the lecturers were just as young as their students and the rapport, in most cases, was cordial. The lecturers also found their new environment fascinating, and as they were aware of the role African art played in the development of modern European art, went into action to record some of the glorious scenes of Zaria, Samaru and the environment. Some of these lecturers utilized their weekends to travel outside Zaria to places like Kano, , Bauchi and Maiduguri. Others even ventured as far South as Ikot Ekpene in the East or and Lagos in the West. They wee equipped with their cameras and sketch books and they came back reinvigorated. They were often welcomed everywhere they went in Nigeria with Oyinbo or Bature meaning “white person”. They often felt like Kings and Queens. Some of the lecturers preached the doctrine of visitation to “your local arts”. They emphasized research into the local arts, but often

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Zaria What? Say that again!

by dele jegede

The penchant that is rife in social and, particularly, academic circles of mouthing “Zaria Rebels” at every opportunity that arises to make meaningful contributions to the growth and competitiveness of art in Nigerian colleges and universities has, quite, unfortunately, become a cliché. It has been reduced to no more than a fad that is often meant to give some academics a hollow bragging rights. Pointedly, this is directly antithetical to the epistemological conviction that catalyzed the historic dissent that the students at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology (now ABU), Zaria, asserted as a way of challenging the staid curricula that their colonial teachers, some of whom were outright supercilious, insisted on foisting on them.

What is today’s remedy to the equivalent of such maladroitness? Walk with the elders. Invite these trailblazing painters, printmakers, sculptors, art educationists, and national icons to major symposia on college and university campuses. Launch endowments in their names that will allow students to undertake in-depth field and secondary research in their chosen topics. University faculty in art and design departments should be cognizant of creating pedagogies that are compliant with 21st century best practice in the area. Running after mandated doctorates, itself a reflection of the rot in the education system in Nigeria should not be an end in itself. The “Zaria Rebels” placed premium on innovation, authenticity, and indigeneity. They claimed their space, proudly and defiantly, on the world stage. They challenged orthodoxy and refused to play second fiddle to anyone. The question is no more about who are the “Zaria Rebels” or what their legacy is. For their bequeathment in art to Nigeria YUSUF GRILLO is unassailable. The question now is: What does your generation have to offer Nigeria in the field of art, design, and art history?

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Yusuf Adebayo Grillo (b. 1934) Yusuf Grillo was born in 1934 in the Brazilian Quarters of Lagos. Grillo was received his early education in Lagos where he obtained the Cambridge School Certificate and A Level GCE in Art and Mathematics. In 1955, he proceeded to the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology, Zaria for four years Fine Art Course. He completed his Diploma course in Fine Art in 1960 and took Art Education course leading to the award of the post Graduate Art Education courses and Education tours in Britain. He did Art Education and Examining, University of Cambridge, in 1966. In 1966, he was introduced to the use of polyester resin in sculpture in . In 1969, he visited the College of Art and Printing in the U.S.A., And in 1972, he won the all African Competition in Painting held in London. In 1979, he visited the U.S.S.R. and studied Industrial Education in West Germany and Britain.

Grillo says that the practice and patronage of art has continued to grow from strength to strength. Barely fifty years ago, it was a different story. People did not want to pursue art as a career because prospect were very dim, but since then great strides have been taken. It is no more a profession which people shy away from. Patronage has continued to grow. In the beginning, patronage was limited to expatriates, but now, it is gratifying to note that quite a number of Nigerians are beginning to appreciate and patronize. The Government is doing its best. Apart from individual attending exhibition and buying art works, architects almost as a rule now try as much as possible to give scope to artists in building they design, especially if they are public buildings. Even in private buildings, architects do their best within the resources available to include something for artists. Grillo has done quite a lot of art in architecture which has more or less taken precedence over painting. Painting is his main field, but since he started practice, because of the commissions he has received, he has grown to know some materials which he did not know at school, such as mosaic and stained glass. These are permanent materials which will last for the life of the buildings in which they are used. Photo credit: Medina Dugger/SMO Contemporary Art Photo credit: As an artist, he has exhibited in Africa, Europe, America and Australia. As an educator and administrator, he had been the Head of the Department of Art and Printing at Yaba College of Technology. He has on occasions acted as Rector of the College. He also served as the Chairman of Art Council (1978) as well as President of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA).

Grillo takes his subject matter from human activity in the world around him, particularly the Yoruba world. His paintings are distinguished by a refined and subtle use of colour and the mathematical structure of the picture surface. He created cool colour harmonies with a sensitive brush, avoiding stridency and discord. His use of blue and violet is reminiscent of stained glass. The generous folds of drapery of Yoruba dress become carefully balanced geometric shapes. Many of his figures are stylized almost to the point of abstraction, yet they never lose their humanity. Grillo’s treatment of the head sometimes makes direct reference to Africa mask forms, yet he never loses touch with the human clay. His elongated female figures breath an aura of dignity and elegance, not through extravagance of dress, but through the cool restrain of colour and design which reflects ideals of Yoruba character. Stability is expressed by his choice of a triangular structure for many of his works. Works such as Omolomo, Se efe and Abenugongo are visual metaphors resulting from his integration of morphologies and structure from the past.

Extracted from “ The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”. Published by National Gallery of Art Nigeria. Reproduced by permission of Publisher.

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to reject or advise those who we think shouldn’t do art. I was opposed many times, but I was Jerry Buhari in conversation with Yusuf Grillo lucky and respected and my work spoke for me. I couldn’t be pulled down. I was able to get by. There were some teachers who didn’t even merit being there at the faculty of arts. (Thursday 8th August 2019 at his residence, 28 Ogunlowo Street Ikeja, Lagos) There are people who are qualified but we know are not true artists and would add nothing to the programme. It is not a healthy situation we have on the ground. JB: How do you reconcile your public image and status exposed to different people and readings? JB: What do you think about the role of informal art education?

YG: it’s inevitable. What you cannot help you cannot accept. You live in a community and you YG: There should be enough room for both. There should be a stage where the wheat is are not alone so sometimes you have to give in. separated from the chaff before they are qualified for tertiary education, say for one year for I’ve been described as self-evasive. I don’t care much about public opinion, especially when example. And after, you can then know who are the real people who can deliver. There is a these opinions are not truly critical or opinions which are just meant to flatter. curriculum, which allows excellence in things like crafts, the use of computers and gadgets. It The artist is very alone. Very selfish. You should care for what your mind tells you more than is for people who are in the system to determine what will be what. There definitely needs to what other people say. Listen to your inner self. To be truly creative, you have to shut out the be a stage for separation of the sheep and goats. I think this is done well in medicine. That is opinions of others. You are no more in an art school. I like to be severely alone. Be true to what is needed. yourself. That’s what matters. I am my work and my work is me. You see my work, you see me. I can’t be separated from my work. JB: It is quite settled by history and by fact that you are among the fathers of contemporary art in Nigeria and you have laid the foundation for many and have disciples, so what kind JB: Was there a time somebody made some very critical observation about your work, of roles do you want your successors ahead of you to play? which you found irritating? YG: I think the question has been answered by events and artists we have, we have dele YG: The only annoying comment I have heard about my work and myself is that I am not jegede, Kolade Oshinowo and many others. open to people. That I am not prolific. I don’t regret it. I know that I am not prolific. My nature is my nature. I resist pressure. Let me be me. Do I have to be prolific for you? I take years over JB: Is painting dead? Is there really nothing to paint that hasn’t already been painted? Is paintings. there really no point to painting anymore? What is your take?

JB: You’ve spent a lot of time in the educational system on many different levels. Can YG: It is not dead, so long as the artists still live and express themselves with painting. You you give us a reflection on the educational system of Nigeria? can’t say that writing is dead because we have computers. A writer is still a writer, a poet is still a poet. So long as there are people who want to express themselves in that medium. If YG: It has evolved. Every so often a new minister emerges and says there will be a change in there are still people who are truly creative in that medium, it can never go dead, the thing is the curriculum. There is an issue of indiscipline with teachers. Distant teaching. Lack of interest finding people who are truly using that medium to express themselves, what they are saying from students to submit to what they have subscribed to. Back then at Yaba, I had to fight very is never dead. hard because what the Federal Ministry of Education was demanding could not be applicable to the faculty of arts. Art should not be treated the same as other subjects where you learn Those who say painting is dead may not know what painting is. Painting permeates from the theory and cram, there should be live studies, trips, live compositions, where you go out and soul, the spirit of the artist. It does not matter whatever you like or not. People are still looking do different things. Art school should be on its own and let those who are truly artists go and for the origin of Shakespeare, to find him in his work. Leonardo da Vinci, still lives on, in his manage it. The ministry education with its politics measures art with a yardstick that is lethal works. Gauguin died a penniless artist; he died on an island, but his work lives on. to the arts. I thank God that in my time I was able to fight and resist it. There is little one can do though, especially one from the outside. We can talk and talk, but the ministries are not Those who say painting is dead, do they refer to painting coming from a human soul or where? interested. Until we begin to have people in policymaking areas who truly understand art, that What would they say about the works of Shakespeare? Are Shakespeare’s works dead? is when we may be able to get to where we need to in the art educational system. Those who say painting is dead are ignorant.

JB: Technology has given art a new expression and definition. The the current discussion Painting is like the work of Shakespeare; can poetry or writing be dead? What about the works is that art schools are becoming more and more irrelevant. Some of the finest artists of Soyinka, or they talking jargon? What makes us take of more that Cyprian didn’t go to art school. Does this have to do with the pedagogy or curriculum or the Ekwensi? They were all writers. program? What are we doing that is making it impossible for our graduates to merge/ level up? Or is there some kind of conspiracy? JB: On Saturday 10th August 2019 8:01 am YG called to say he wanted to expand on the question of the death of otherwise. YG: When you rely solely on JAMB for taking in students into the faculties, there is no way such things won’t happen. I left teaching a long time ago, and I was lucky when even when JAMB YG: We started with assumptions. We ought to have started with definitions to distinguish qualifies some students, we still subjected them to drawing tests at Yaba, and we were able between the subject and the object, people’s idea and category of painting. The question I

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ask is, is painting a canvas or a message emanating from the soul of a human being? As far as I am concerned, I think that when people say painting is dead they are referring to painting JB: When do you decide that a painting is qualified to be signed? as a graphic message. But painting on a canvas purely comes from the soul of one human being say Picasso, Bruce or Enwonwu. If this is the definition of painting, then it cannot be YG: My paintings weren’t signed for a long time until some collectors and galleries I was dead. Even when the artist is physically dead, the painting remains alive. The human being is a involved with insisted that my works should be signed. The reason was that I never considered combination of two elements - flesh or body and the soul or the spirit. Jesus Christ (JC) is my them completed. brother. I acquired him. Those who do his will are JC’s brothers. In the garden of Gethsemane JC said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is dead. I remember that I wrote a pamphlet. God did JB: Forgery. One of the reasons why your works attracted forgery is because of their not create our flesh. When God said, he created man in his own image. The Bible is a collation scarcity. How do you respond to this kind of situation? of many writers. My spirit is the image of God. We created God in our image, but God created us in His image, omnipotent. God is right inside us. The Koran said God is right inside us nearer than our jugular. God created light, truth, he is generous, forgiving, all that is good, in light. Before then God left the world unattended to, by revelation, God is in his domain in heaven where light is everywhere. In God’s domain, there is no darkness.

JB: Is it okay to say that there is a sense of affinity you share with impressionists? Because of the ways and technique in which you work?

YG: Indirectly. I see impressionist as artists who want to catch the moment and do everything at a go. But I don’t work like that. But in the sense that every part of the painting goes together, I think the similarity is there.

JB: Is it deliberate that your work has a dreamy, glassy effect?

YG: The painting grows on its own. The painting at every stage dictates what the next step should be. It is a conversation, a continuous dialogue till we are satisfied. There is a negotiation between the mind and the canvas. There is no right there is no wrong. Whatever my mind tells me.

JB: I noticed your interest in politics, of the family in your work, is it deliberate?

YG: The painting titled, Not one but two is intended to be political. I hope it will show the intended head of state I have in mind. God didn’t make democracy for us. Democracy is not the best system for us at all! What God made for us was ruling by divine authority. You see it all through the scriptures in Islam, Christianity and traditional religion. God ruling through his prophets, telling them what to do, and punishing them when they fall out of line. It was we humans who asked for a king and decided to leave God out of it. To get the best form of government is very difficult. Other religions will object and may not go your way. We have so bastardised the situation that to turn back will be very difficult. Democracy will always be a problem as long as human beings are in charge.

JB: Your works have very comprehensive literature, it would seem that there is a particular climax in a story that you arrest with your works, which you embellish with other narratives. How did you come about this consummate knowledge of stories as your subjects?

YG: When one decides to paint, it has undergone so many natural processes, which I have described in some interviews. It is like eating different things. They all go into you, but a minute part of it gets assimilated into your system to nourish the body. The bulk of it you now pass out as rubbish. That is the same process. A minute part of it may strike you so strongly that it inspires you. That the minute part is the little assimilation from all you’ve eaten.

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1 Yusuf Grillo Oloya Iyun Oil on canvas 2014-2017 54 x 36 in Artist Collection

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2 Yusuf Grillo Omi Iye Oil on canvas 2015-2018 48 x 24 in Artist Collection

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5 Yusuf Grillo Not One But Two, Kabiyesi Oil on canvas 2018 48 x 42 in Artist Collection

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3 Yusuf Grillo Seleru Agbo Oil on canvas 2018-2019 36 x 48 in Artist Collection

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4 Yusuf Grillo First Day of the Year in Irepodun Oil on canvas 6 2017 Yusuf Grillo 48 x 48 in Sokoti Ati Omo Oloja Artist Collection Concrete 38 in ENQUIRIES Artist Collection

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7 Yusuf Grillo First Bank Pillar Concrete 74 in Artist Collection

8 Yusuf Grillo Trinity Stools (made for St. Dominics Church, Yaba) Wood 16 x 16 x 16 in Artist Collection

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9 Yusuf Grillo My Taiye Stained glass 75.5 x 45.5 in Private Collection

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10 Yusuf Grillo Blue Moon Oil on board Circa, 1960 23.5 x 23.5 in Private Collection

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Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art

by Ola Oloidi

Zaria was to modern Nigerian art what Kumasi was to modern Ghanaian art, Makerere to the whole of East African art, London to the British or Commonwealth art, Florence to the Italian art and Paris to the French art. This is why the word “Zaria” has come to identify all those who are either instructionally, creatively or ideological linked to Zaria art experience. Within the same creative wall of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST) has also emerged, experimental or artistic achievement or successes; the experience brought about by the members of the Zaria Art Society between 1958 and 1961. Zarianism, therefore, is a philosophy of creative revolt, artistic pride, standard, originality, intellectualization, experimentation and liberty.

At the time both colonial government and the Nigerians themselves had little or no regard for art, as it was considered developmentally irrelevant and academically inferior and inadequate, it was a group of art students at the NCAST that, between 1955 and 1956, challenged this art condition and made many naturally shy away from studying, or identifying with Fine Arts. This was the first agitation in modern Nigerian art, carried out before the 1958 revolutionary agitation of the Zaria Art Society. The agitation was mainly for the welfare of the students whose certificates were not quantified by the government and who were given second class treatment in the college by the college administration and non-art students. This agitation was championed mainly by Solomon Irein Wangboje, T. Adebanjo Fasuyi, Cryprian Ihejiahi, James Nkpbi, Bode Fasuyi, G. M. Eneremadu, and other pioneers within the set of 1955/1956 session. The students’ agitation was embraced by the art students generally and things began to move towards achieving success, particularly with the formation of the first Association of the Fine Arts Students (AFAS). Unfortunately, the Lalupon train disaster occurred in 1957. And many of the art students in this primal struggle lost their lives. This tragedy created a dispirited atmosphere, which eventually terminated the students’ agitation. Meanwhile, academic activities were going on steadily, and the art students were generally enjoying their Slade, Academy instructional mode and programmes.

The occidental form of art instruction in Zaria was of a high standard, and the art students, as regards creative responses, were not seen to be inferior to their European counterparts. But the Zaria art department, which had already received the torch of art development in Nigeria, experienced the second art agitation in 1958, planting a tree that would be an additional shade for modern Nigerian art teaching, practice and development. This was the agitation of the Zaria Art Society which rejected, among other things and though non-departmentally and unofficially, the exclusive authoritarian European or Academic mode of art instruction that did not, according to the members of the society, acknowledge or take into consideration the African or Nigerian cultural and artistic traditions. Thus, the Zaria Art School, had recorded another art event of art historical permanence.

11 … However, notable graduates of 1960mt0 1962 included Yusuf Grillo, Akin Salu, Bayo Ajayi, Yusuf Grillo Isiaka Osunde, J. Oyewole, Jide Oshiga and Uche Okeke. Others were Simon Okeke, Demas The Comb Screens Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Jimoh Akolo, Ogbonnaya Nwabara, Felix Ekeada, Oseloko Wood Osadebe, Okechukwu Odita and William Olaosebikan. All the above Zaria graduates majored Artist Collection or specialized in one of the three most popular art subjects of the period: painting, sculpture and

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graphics. According to Uche Okeke, drawing was the most sensitive part of the departmental courses, and it was the general belief that a weak draughtsman would also make a poo artist or designer, no matter the area of specialization.

Thus, the students, particularly with the aggressive artistic radicalization of the Zaria revolutionaries (and not “Zaria Rebels”) between 1958 and 1961, prepared the foundation for good and solid artistic standard in modern Nigerian art.

Extract by permission from the author, Ola Oloidi and publisher, National Gallery of Art: “Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art, In “Zaria Art School: 50th Anniversary Exhibition 1955-2005”. PP183-185.

DEMAS NWOKO

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Demas Nwanna Nwoko (b. 1935)

Born on 20th December, 1935 at IDUMUJE UGBOKO a town in Aniocha North Local Government Area (LGA), Nigeria. Toa father who designed an Architectural monument as his palace, among other building activities, founding his interest in architecture from an early age.

I Studied Fine Arts at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria from 1957 to 1961. Pursued private studies in Creative Architecture from 1956 at Ibadan, Nigeria. Studied Theatre Architecture and Design for the stage (Scenography) at Centre Francais Du Theatre. Also Fresco Painting and Architectural Decoration at the Ecole Des Beaux-Art both in Paris, France, from 1961 - 1962. Pioneer staff of the School of Drama, , Nigeria, teaching Designs, Dance Directing and Applied Aesthetics from 1963 - 1978. Won a Rockefeller travel grant in 1964 to study the Theatre of Africa, Asia, China, Japan, Canada and the United States of America.

Part of Development of Contemporary African Theatre, I Carried out Experimental Production Styles which Resulted the Following Production:-

• ‘The Palmwine Drinkard’ for a Travelling Theatre troupe in 1963 which was also Presented as Nigeria’s entry at the Pan African Cultural Festival held at Algeria in 1969.

• A Dance play, titled ‘DANDA’ which was presented at the First Negro Art Festival of Dakar, Senegal in 1966.

• A pure Dance Production titled the ‘Olympic Dance’ was the Nigerian Cultural Presentation at the Olympic Games of Mexico 1968.

• When Nigeria hosted the Second World Festival for the Black world FESTAC in 1977, I Presented another Dance-play called the ‘Children of paradise’.

Research and Development of African Architecture I pursued privately the study of Creative Architecture of the world from 1956 with great interest in Traditional Architecture of Africa, the Arab world and the Far East I won my first National architecture commission in 1960, to design and build the National Arts and Craft Pavilion during the Nigerian Independence celebration in Lagos.

Mural Painting and Public Sculpture Commissions • The mural ‘The Blacksmiths’ at Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria in 1960. • The mural ‘Talents’ University of Ibadan 1961. • Sculpture ‘Rendevous TOTEMS’ Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos 1980. • In 1967, I carried out an experiment on the movement of mud as a viable contemporary building material with the introduction of an a mixture of ten percent of Portland cement. The resultant mix was used to construct my studio, The New Culture Studios’ Ibadan. • Following this architectural experiment, I received subsequent commissions to design and construct:- – The Dominican Monastery Ibadan, Designed and built between 1970 – 1975

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– The Benin Cultural Centre from 1975 – 1995 Jerry Buhari in conversation with Demas Nwoko – Ibadan Cultural Centre as Theatre Design Consultant 1975 (5th May and 15th August 2019, at his residence in Idumuje-Ogboko, Delta State Nigeria) – My private Home Idumuje-Ugboko 1977 – 1978

– Chapel at Issele-Uku - designed and constructed 1984 JB: Since Kojo, Fosu named members of the Zaria Art Society, Zaria Rebels, there have – Benedictine Monastery Ewu – Architectural Consultant 1986 - 1997 been attempts by some of your members to re-interrogate that identity. Some scholars call you Zarianists, others Revolutionaries. What are you’re your take? Uncompleted Commissions Include:-

– Theatre Design Consultant to the Onikan Cultural Centre Lagos 1985 DN: My answer to that is that the movement was not a rebellion, it was an attempt to fill in the – Design and construction of private Mosque at – 1984 gaps in the the teaching of the curriculum of the institution at that period, for example, outdoor – Design proposal for Grand Mosque with a capacity for twenty thousand worshipers freehand sketching of life and features of the entire environment. at Ilorin- 1974 b, we sought to see the importance in the studying of traditional arts. Withdrew service from the University of Ibadan in 1978 to establish a building component and materials development Centre in my birthplace Idumuje Ugboko. All theatre fittings for the c, On my part, it was important to encourage every student in the university to develop their Benin Cultural Centre were also manufactured in this location. These included structural steel, artistic talents, which I believe, would be of immense benefit to whatever career they are woodworks, Theatre seats, and some light fittings. pursuing, for me especially students of the architectural department.

In 1978, the New Culture Studios Ibadan was converted from private studios into a training JB: What do you think about the publicity of your works and yourself? Centre for the Performing Arts and as Design Centre. The facilities in the studios include - an

Amphitheatre, Dance studio, Music Studio and Design Studio. There is also a cinematographic DN: My business is to create the work. Whatever happens to them and how they are used is film laboratory. entirely out of my control.

New Culture Art and Culture magazine: A publication section in the studio published ‘New JB: How do you relate to public opinion about your creative work and by extension Culture’ an Art and Culture Magazine, in 1979 as well as other Arts related books. yourself? Do you think that we can separate the two?

Craft furniture: The design and manufacture of Craft furniture since 1975 DN: My opinion about my works is legitimately free because the works were produced for the consumption of everybody; what the works do to them is legitimate and will have nothing to do with my personal relationship with them from my own side. The adverse effect or otherwise on the aesthetic evaluation of my works on my person is negligible. Positive strikes are usually thoroughly enjoyed by me and are great encouragement to my further activities in my creative endeavour. The bottom line is that I work for an audience never for myself. My audience is usually universal. My immediate community is my first concern.

JB: How would you look at our educational system in comparison with that of the US today? What, in your opinion is/are the most critical areas of challenge in both? What should be done?

DN: I am never involved in the comparison of the educational systems of the different people of the world. Educational systems should be designed entirely to provide the needs of each unique culture. If that should be accepted it means that the system that we are operating now is a complete disaster. The content of the Nigerian educational system, in my opinion, has no bearing with the true instructional needs of our people, which is to design an educational system to actualise the working of culture. The the first challenge is to design a new culture and the natural follow-up to that would be to design an implementation strategy that will involve the entire population.

JB: Let us look at art education in specific? What are your thoughts about the curriculum, the pedagogy, etc.? I say this in the light great artists without formal education. What are the formal institutions missing?

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DN: In principle the syllabus of formal education today can be said to be faulty in the sense The second part of art production is to use your records as a motivation to create a work of art. that it is paying less emphasis on the acquisition of skill by humans. This is a great omission To me, a work of art is a creation that takes on a life of its own, when my work on the subject because there is nothing that can become a physical reality without the formation of a human was done. At times the motivation could end up playing not so noticeable role in the final work hand. So the development of craftsmanship should be the foundation of all education. that results. That means that a final work of art would have been built in its new existence with whatever powers that the artist have chosen to release to the consciousness of its society. JB: We consider Society, Zaria Art Society, are clearly the fathers of contemporary and That is to say that the artist, through his work of art, has contributed to new realities and modern Nigerian and by extension African art. We recognise the founding roles that dimensions in the culture of the society. The audience is supposed to interact with the work of Aina Onabolu, Lasekan, Enwonwu played as pathfinders. What kind of role do you still art as knowing that work has a legitimate existence. see yourselves playing and what role/s would you like your successors to take on?

DN: The development of an art culture like all cultures thrives and evolves as part of the contemporary life of my any people. The faith of any particular time in space does not necessarily depend on the performance of the preceding time; neither does it systematically become the projection of the future. Each particular age throws up a reflection of the realities of the prevailing culture. This makes it difficult to assume that cultural occurrences in time could be truly aggregated to what could be termed as a developmental progression from the past. It seems that the aesthetic quality of culture/s of any given time will ever remain unique to that period. That is why my expectation of the positive recognition of the efforts of our group by the next generation cannot be written in gold. This is in spite of the fact that we have laboured, hopefully, for the better tomorrow. At best we hope that our intentions would be read as positive.

JB: What are some of the things that you would have done differently?

DN: None.

JB: Consider the idea advanced in some quarters that painting or conventional art has been exhausted or even dead; that there is nothing new to add. What is your opinion?

DN: Further to some answers already said, art is the first creative activity of humanity since the inception of society, I do not believe that it will cease to exist. As long as a society exist at any given time some activities that will cover that essential need of humanity will always be practised. So art will never cease to exist and I may underline that every definite form of art which might be identified with certain times and age might not truly be all that new as most forms must have been practised at any given time and place in many forms. Art is the creative encounter of man with the manipulation of materials available to him at all times.

JB: What is your opinion about the place of conceptual art, for example, installation art, performance art and new media, etc.?

DN: All arts are valid.

JB: Share with us how you approach the creation of a work of art? I know that each work may bring its own unique creative approach or challenge. But, can you talk generally on this?

DN: To me there are two parts to art. One is the craft of recording experience, by experience from all sense of the body. The first instinct is, when it occurs to record it, is to put it down as a freehand sketch. This occurrence might be instantaneous as it happens and the environment is conducive to record it or as it is played back from your memory no matter how distinct in the past the occurrence was.

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2 1 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko The Combatant (Soja 1) Senegalese Woman Oil on board Gouache on paper 1967 1960 29 x 23.5 in 34.5 X 21.5 in Artist Collection Artist Collection

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3 Demas Nwoko Ogboni Chief Oil on board 1960 29 x 20 in Artist Collection

4 Demas Nwoko Night Club in Dakar Oil on board 1963 23.5 X 18.5 in Artist Collection

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6 Demas Nwoko The Wise Man Wood 1965 36 in Artist Collection

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5 Demas Nwoko The Warrior Oil on board 1967 35 x 46.5 in Artist Collection

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7 Demas Nwoko Mother and Child Concrete 1958 /1959 24 in Artist Collection

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10 Demas Nwoko 8 Head of a Lady Demas Nwoko Terracotta Onile Gogoro 1970s Terracotta 10 x 16 in 1970s Artist Collection 12 x 8 in Artist Collection ENQUIRIES

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9 11 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko The Elephant Woman Agbo Dancers Terracotta Terracotta 1970s 1970s 30 x 19 in 22 x 10 in Artist Collection Artist Collection

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14 Demas Nwoko Beggars on Train Charcoal pencil on paper 1958 22.02 x 15.05 in. Artist Collection

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15 Demas Nwoko Life Drawing-Study Pencil on paper 1960 14.9 x 22.2 in. Artist Collection

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12 13 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Praise Singer Praise Singer-Detail Pencil on paper Pencil on paper 1961 22.02 x 15.05 in. 22.02 x 15.05 in. Artist Collection Artist Collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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16 Demas Nwoko The Wise Man Wood Undated 28.5 in Private collection

17 Demas Nwoko Indian Girl in Sari Watercolour on paper 1965 20 x 29 in Private collection

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20 Demas Nwoko Palmwine Drinkard Performance Poster 1962 29 x 20 in

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18 Demas Nwoko Senegalese Woman Oil on board 1970 36 x 24 in Private collection

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19 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Danda The King and I Performance Poster Oil on board 1966 1961 29 x 20 in 55 x 27 in Private collection ENQUIRIES

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22 Demas Nwoko Danda Architectural image 1966 60 x 72 in

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23 24 25 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Dominican Chapel DominicanMonastry of Matyrs New Culture Studios, Ibadan Interior, Ibadan 48 x 79 in 48 x 48 in 1970-75 48 x 79 in ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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26 Demas Nwoko Palmwine Drinkard, EMMANUEL ODITA Complete Gentleman 1962 60 x 72in

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27 Totel at Murtatla Mohammed International Airport, Lagos 1980 60 x 77in

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Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita (b. 1934)

Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita was born in Onitsha in , Nigeria. Odita graduated with Dip.FA from , Zaria in 1963. He worked in the mediums of Painting, Drawing, Sculpture and Textile, and was involved in many one-person and group exhibitions during this time. After graduation, Okechukwu Odita was employed at the , Nsukka. While at Nsukka, Odita was awarded a commissioned to do several mural paintings at the Presidential Hotel, Enugu, Nigeria in 1963. This same year, he left Nigeria for Iowa City, Iowa, in the United States to further his artistic studies. Okechukwu Odita graduated from University of Iowa with an MA, and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking. Odita subsequently returned to the University of Nigeria as a Lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts.

In 1966, Okechukwu Odita returned to the USA to study for his PhD in the Department of History of African Art at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. After his graduation from Indiana University, he remained in the United States due to the Nigerian civil war. In 1969, Odita became employed as Associate Professor in the History of Art Department at the Ohio State University, and soon after become Professor of African Art and Archaeology. During his tenure at the Ohio State University, Odita contributed to the enrichment of art and art history in Nigeria.

Okechukwu Odita designed a summer abroad program for Nigeria in collaboration with the Ohio State University, and from 2001 to 2006, Odita and the Nigerian National Gallery in Lagos Nigeria offered courses to the Nigerian Art Community, where students from all parts of Nigeria were invited to attend, especially Art Teachers in K-12. Odita taught contemporary African art, as well as traditional African Art and culture as a professor in the Department of History of Art at the Ohio State University. His research has focused on twentieth century African Art and its relation to traditional African Art and culture. His participation in numerous contemporary African Art conferences in Africa, Canada, Europe, South America, and United States, as well as field trips to Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, , Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and have all combined to make him a seasoned professional in his discipline. From the year 2001 to 2012, Okechukwu Odita curated contemporary African Art exhibitions at the KIACA Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, a non-profit organization committed to establishing a solid platform for contemporary African Art and artists in the community.

Okechukwu Odita has had many exhibitions in museums and galleries, and has published and lectured widely on contemporary and traditional African Art and culture. Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita retired in 2012 from full Professor of African Art and Archaeology at the Ohio State University, and currently maintains his studio practice in Columbus, Ohio and Calafia, Mexico.

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The Zaria Art Society its artworks and art THE SECRETARY OF ZARIA ART SOCIETY 1958/59 - 1061/62 technique prompters GOD’s GRACE STILL REPORT (1958/59 - 1961/62 -- ACADEMIC YEARS) by Emmanuel Odita Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita, Dp. FA; M.A.; MFA; Ph.D Wakefield Forest, Columbus, Ohio

In the daily studio practices of the Zaria Art Society (ZAS) the Nigerian College of Arts, Science Depart of History of Art. and Technology, and now, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, there was a distinctive Art Studio, Professor of African Art and Archaeology involving production of artworks and conversational art technic prompters, discussed below College of Arts in details. However, Zaria Art Society’s aim at artistic and intellectual activities propelled their The Ohio State University desires for fame and fortune, especially by the foremost pioneers transferring from Ibadan Columbus, Ohio University, Ibadan, Nigeria, who were exceptionally tough and fearless of uncertainties. www/Foca art.com Observing that ZAS members, in their various specializations were gifted and prolific artists, the pioneers organized exhibitions in Nigeria and beyond. Equally effective in organizing ZAS United States of America activities were the following: Simon Okeke, who in 1959, resigned the presidency of ZAS. Uche Okeke happily replaced him in February 10, 1960. Also, William Olasebikan resigned the Today, through the good services of Mrs. Kavita Chellaram of Arthouse, Lagos, Nigeria and office of secretary for unknown reasons in May of 1960. Thereafter, Emmanuel Okechukwu the able Professor Jerry Buhari of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, cooperatively offer quality Odita became the secretary of Zaria Art Society, ending in the 1961/1962 academic year. artworks of seven Zaria Art Society pioneers for exhibition in Lagos Nigeria, namely, Yusuf Grillo, Simon Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Osaloka Osadebe All active members of Zaria Art Society from 1958 to 1962 included the following: Jimo and Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita. This exhibition is thoughtful and timely. Akolo, Bolaji Bamgboye, Yusuf Grillo, Godfrey Okiki, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Osaenwesi Omigie, Osaloka Osadebe, Oshumibah Osunde, Ogbonnaya Nwagbara, Demas Nwoko, Emmanuel Before I end my statement, let me attempt answers to a few of the questions raised by Okechukwu Odita, William Olasebikan and Udo Udosen. Historically, it was a glorious period Professor Buhari. It is noteworthy that the Zaria Art society is regarded as the father of modern of innocence and infinite youthful strength. Nigerian Art. The role I see myself playing in that and my successors to play in the continued development of Nigerian and African Art is reflected in my life work in theory and practice. My Finally, art technique prompters learned in the studios of the Zaria Art Society essentially education in Fine Arts and the History of Art prepared me to offer guidance in the development served to guide in the artwork evaluation among Zaria artists. These were in the area of Art of Nigerian and African Contemporary Art. In my book, Foundations of Contemporary African techniques, Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Design, Department of Fine Arts and Applied Art (FOCA’ART), I proposed classifications of Contemporary African Art. Major reference about Arts, Zaria, from 1958/59 - 1961/62 academic sessions, when ZAS common wealth of art these classifications can be found at my website: www.foca’art.com technique prompters were emphasized and useful to all. These were as follows: FOCA Art identifies four major art styles: 1. Vitu Art; 2. Soyan Art; 3. Sankofa Art; and 4. Ijinla Art. These major art styles also have sub-styles. The emphasis on these classifications are on 1. Knock It Down. Tone Down Artwork›s intensity in finishing. art styles and artists. This study shows that the quality of art defines the rank of the artist and 2. Fade Less. Observe artwork’s illusion of distance. explains the artist’s experiences. The quality of art blurs the separation between the trained 3. Cut In. Bring important features of artwork in front. and the self-trained artists, as well as distinguishes the artist’s style. 4. Face It. Get on with artwork›s processing bravely. 5. Twist It. With dry brush, unify artwork›s areas. 6. Force It. Complete major design area of artwork. 7. Calm Down. Technical problems are now resolved. 8. Hang Up. Stop artwork if finished. Show time, next. 9. Benin It. Benin student (via S.W. of Nigeria) Carving. 10. Hausa It. Hausa student (via N. of Nigeria) Sculpting. 11. Ibibio It. Ibibo Student (via Delta of Nigeria) Painting. 12. Igbo It. Igbo Student (via Eastern Nigeria) Painting. 13. Yoruba It. Yoruba Student (via Western Nigeria) Sculpting. 14. Bow and Arrow. In ZAS. All for One and One for All.

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3 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Flames Without Borders Oil on canvas 2017 95 x 47 in Artist collection

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1 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Why would the Eye of a Bull be a Target Oil on canvas 53 x 64 in Artist collection

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2 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita African Dna Oil on canvas 2017 59 x 35 in Artist collection

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4 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita The Drummer Oil on canvas 2017 60 x 24 in Artist collection

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5 6 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Njikoka The Church Silkscreen Pastel on paper 1982 1964 35 x 23 in 17.5 X 20 in Artist collection Artist collection

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7 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita It Survived Charcoal and pencil on paper 1964 28 x 22 in Artist collection

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9 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita 8 Coconut Charcoal on paper Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita 1964 Tomatoes and Grapes Pastel on paper 17 x 25 in 1964 Artist collection 16 x 20 in Artist collection ENQUIRIES

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10 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Life Saver Pastel on paper 1964 16 x 20 in Artist collection

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The Mystical Zaria Art Society by Jacob Jari

I have had my doubts about the true nature of the Zaria Art Society. Some of my misgivings are published in The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness (1998), edited by Paul Chike Dike and Pat Oyelola. Why and how the Society operation continue to be shrouded in controversy especially as we read more recent publications such as There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012), by Chinua Achebe. In this book, Achebe writes that he and Christopher Okigbo, led by , their Professor, set up while they were at the University College, Ibadan. The Mbari Club, as we are aware, was attended by some of the members of the Zaria Art Society. Timothy Fasuyi in Timothy Adebanjo Fasuyi: A Renowned Artist and Accomplished Educationist (2018), edited by Abdullahi Muku and Simon Ikpakronyi, recounts Beier’s romance with Zaria. His observation that the founding of the Zaria Art Society was induced by ethnic bigotry makes interesting reading particularly because of the similarity between the Society’s objectives and some aspects of the Ahiara Declaration eventually produced by Achebe and his colleagues. Despite this seeming mysticism around the Society’s existence however, there is no doubt that it has engendered a veritable art historical discourse, which is no mean feat. SIMON OKEKE

The Enduring Legacy of Zaria Art Society by Ozioma Onuzulike

I consider “documentation” a very enduring legacy of the members of the Zaria Art Society. Without it, much of the history of modern art in Nigeria would have either been completely lost or remained in overarching doubt. Thus, they laid the groundwork for the history and criticism of modern and contemporary art in Nigeria. How we have built, or are building, upon this legacy remains a burden on our own shoulders.

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Simon Obiekezie Okeke (1937-1969) Simon Okeke was born in 1937 in Igbo-Ikwu, in the eastern part of the country. He attended Edo College, Benin, and the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology, Zaria from 1956 – 1960. He won an honourary mention in a literary competition organized by the Nigerian Art Council during the independence year. He joined the Antiquities Department as a Technical Officer and worked in the research laboratory of the in London. He travelled to the following places, visiting museums and attending conferences on museums and African culture: Paris, Athens, Rome, Zimbabwe, U.S.A., Libya and some French speaking African countries. In 1964, he became the Curator of the National Museum, Lagos and a part-time lecturer in drawing and sculpture, Yaba College of Technology. In 1966, he returned to the then Eastern Nigeria as a result of the Nigerian Crisis and joined the Ministry of information, Enugu.

During the Biafra days, he designed postage stamps and currency for Biafra and had to travel to Portugal regarding these. He was primarily a painter and sculptor; his work can be described as painting in the limbo of time. Moods seem to be his subject and he imposes his own colours on the true colour objects. Simon was indebted to Rembrandt’s sense of colour and dramatic lighting effects. He was also deeply influenced by the sculptural works of Nok, Igbo-Okwu, , and Benin as represented in museums of the Nigeria and British Museum, where he spent some time in the research laboratory. His technical knowledge and experiences match his fertile imagination and preoccupation with ritual events and the tragic consequences of life experienced in his Igbo society. Like the Okwa-Opi of traditional times, Okeke announced the coming of light from his vantage ground in the twilight place.

Starting with white paper he built up his dark, richly coloured forms so they have a density and mass uncommon in water colour technique. The roundness of the forms is achieved not only by the use of light and shade but also by the scratching away of the paint to form highlights. Many of these forms are them silhouetted against a dark, densely pigmented, plain background. He has a preference for simple, compact figures in which heads, legs and arms are drawn tightly to the bodies. In other to group compositions, the figures are so densely crowded that it is difficult to disentangle them. Okeke frequently distorts figures and objects to enhance the compactness of his designs. His figures are composed of simple, rounded shapes, free of descriptive detail. Sometimes intertwined with his figures are simple, spherical objects such as calabashes and bowls. For Okeke, art is life itself, not a way of living. Family was dominant theme in Simon Okeke’s work. The Family I is not the family of just the living but entire agburu (kindred family) both dead and the living, which is the foundation of Igbo culture. During the Commonwealth Festival in 1966 exhibition of Contemporary African art were organized in Cardiff by the Dennis Duerden, featuring works by Simon Okeke, which attracted the attention of the Duke of Edinburg, who bought some. Okeke was an artist with a strong sense of detail. He was a perfectionist and he never considered that he had finished any work until he took it to an exhibition. Night after he used to work at a painting, being the strictest critic of his own work.

Looking at Okeke’s works, one recalls the words of Herbert Read: “Art is an escape from chaos. It is a movement ordained in numbers; it is mass confined in measure; it is the in determination of matter seeking the rhythm of life”. In his works Okeke exalted African themes, African forms and the African notion of beauty. However, timorous of fixing titles to his works, he used to ask clients and friends to make their suggestion.

Extracted from “ The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”. Published by National Gallery of Art Nigeria. Reproduced by permission of Publisher.

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The Legacy of Uche Okeke and the Zaria Art Society in the Study of Nigerian Indigenous Arts

by Rebecca Wolff

In his now canonical speech-cum-manifesto “Natural Synthesis” presented to the Zaria Art Society in 1960, Uche Okeke declared, “The artist is essentially an individual working within a particular social background and guided by the philosophy of life of his society…. I disagree with those who live in Africa and ape European artists… Our new society calls for a synthesis of old and new, of functionality and art for art’s sake.”1 A call for the decolonization of culture, Okeke firmly rooted the artist in his sociocultural environment. He emphasized the importance of “looking back” at indigenous culture in order to move forward as an independent nation and combat the domineering cultural influence of Europe. Thus, Natural Synthesis, as crystallized by Okeke and advocated by the Zaria Art Society, was an inward-looking theoretical approach that promoted the study of artistic precedents from within Nigeria’s national borders. Accordingly, the Art Society’s activities included spending parts of holidays researching indigenous art forms and sharing their findings with the group. This belief in close observation and analysis of indigenous cultural forms to inform artistic output persisted in the practices of many Art Society members after they left Zaria. Indeed, the insistence on the methodical study of Nigerian culture for artistic inspiration has become one of the Art Society’s most enduring legacies.

This legacy is perhaps best exemplified by the academic curriculum Uche Okeke helped develop for the Fine and Applied Arts Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). When Okeke arrived at the university in 1971, shortly after the end of the Nigerian Civil War, he took advantage of the “blank slate” created by the reopening of the school by systematically reinventing the department’s curriculum and educational mission. Along with key allies including Chike Aniakor and V. C. Amaefunah, he instilled his ideas of Natural Synthesis embodied by his artistic approach based on uli into the curriculum.

Okeke ensured that Nigerian art became the cornerstone of the department. He not only taught a Nigerian art history course, but he also stipulated that students complete mandatory B.A. theses on some aspect of indigenous culture or Nigerian art history. Students thus learned about indigenous Nigerian art forms by going into the field to research, often to their hometowns and often choosing uli as their subject. It greatly strengthened students’ understandings of uli and other Nigerian art forms, which in turn, influenced their artistic practices. Through uli, Okeke and his supporters created an educational program that produced artists rooted in their culture and history with a unique artistic identity.

Following the previous endeavors of the Zaria Art Society, Okeke succeeded in embedding the UNN Fine and Applied Arts Department in Nigerian art and culture. Uli was his means to accomplish this goal, as it was studied by many students for their research component and became entrenched in the aesthetics and philosophy of many faculty members and graduates. Generations of artists have now come to carry on this stylistic approach based on uli. Moreover, similar movements inspired by the deep study and exploration of indigenous Nigerian arts took 1 root throughout the country, including the notable Ona art movement at Obafemi Awolowo Simon Okeke University in Ife. Today, these artists continue the ethos of Natural Synthesis that began with Mother and Child the Zaria Art Society. Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1966 Notes: 1. Uche Okeke, “Natural Synthesis,” The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in 25 x 18 in Africa, 1945-1994, ed. by Okwui Enwezor (Munich: Prestel, 2001), 453. Private collection

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2 Simon Okeke Untitled Oil on board 1966 44 x 34 in Private collection

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4 Simon Okeke Lady Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1965 12 x 10 in Private collection

3 Simon Okeke Untitled Watercolour, pen & ink on paper Undated 22 x 9 in Private collection

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6 Simon Okeke Untitled Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1966 14 x 11 in Private collection

5 Simon Okeke Untitled Oil on paper 1962 27 x 20 in Private collection

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UCHE OKEKE

7 Simon Okeke Girl with Urn Watercolour on paper Circa, 1951 14.5 x 10.5 in

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Uchefuna Christopher Okeke (1933-2016)

An outstanding artist of international repute, Professor Uche Okeke remains one of the pillars on which contemporary Nigerian art rests and the unarguable kingpin of Uli art practice in Nigeria.

Uche Okeke was born on April 30, 1933, in Nimo, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria. Between 1940 and 1953, he attended St. Peter Claver’s (Primary) School, Kafanchan, Metropolitan College, Onitsha and Bishop Shanahan College, Orlu, during which time he had already begun to demonstrate an avid interest in drawing and painting. Before being admitted to read Fine Art at Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Uche Okeke had already exhibited taxidermy work during the Field Society meeting in Jos Museum, participated in the preparation and presentation of Nigerian Drawings and Paintings with Bernard Fagg as curator and had a solo exhibition of drawings and paintings, in Jos and with Sir Ahmadu Bello in attendance.

As an undergraduate in 1958, Uche Okeke together with Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, and others inaugurated the now historically significant Zaria Art society. In that same year, he opened a cultural centre at 30 Ibadan Street, Kafanchan, which later grew into the world-famous Asele Institute, Nimo, where among other cultural activities a part of the Smithsonian-Institution sponsored educational film Nigerian Art-Kindred Spirits was shot in 1996.

In the early 1970s when he was appointed lecturer and acting head of Fine Arts Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he reviewed the entire course programme introducing new courses and research into Igbo Uli art tradition. In 1973, he also designed the first- course programme of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu and initiated postgraduate courses in the Department of Fine Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He has been Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Visiting Professor to the Department of Creative Arts, University of Port Harcourt, Honorary Deputy Director-General (Africa) of International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, among numerous other engagements with many educational and cultural institutions in different parts of the world.

It is certainly difficult to encapsulate all of Uche Okeke’s activities and contributions to contemporary art in a brief sketch such as this one. Beginning from the 1950s, he has literally traversed the landscape of modern art in Nigeria, leaving in his stride bold, remarkable, and enduring footprints which have inspired many Nigerian artists and Africanist art historians, including some of the world’s avant-garde.

That Okeke carried the Uli experiment beyond the walls of Zaria and stood in the forefront of its transformation into a modern idiom in the 1970s, from the studios at Nsukka remains a feat of inspired originality. That his “natural synthesis” philosophy blossomed to become fount and factor in the development of modern art in Nigeria represents a logical and sustained triumph of both vision and imagination. All these have transformed him into a father figure in the history of Nigerian modernism and he has carried the burden of history so gracefully that his ideas and legacies are sure to find followers among generations of artists to come.

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What was the response of the other students to the activities of the Art Society? Uche Okeke: Interview by Chika Okeke-Agulu The rest of the students misunderstood us generally. They thought we were out for trouble (Nimo, August 31, 1997) making. That’s why you hear such descriptive terms as “rebels” applied to the Art Society. Why Zaria Art Society? Why did a group of young students come together to form that So you don’t subscribe to the “rebel” terminology? Society? Certainly, As far as we were concerned we were not “rebels” because we had very good There was a necessity for it. There was no other group functioning at that time. rapport even with the European staff. In 1959 for instance, they asked me to accompany them on a trip down South, We went to Lagos, Benin, Ife. We went also to see the Tada bronzes (sic) Did you have to have any group at the time? and Esie stone sculptures. During that trip, I learnt quite a lot myself. Yes, you have to pressure with a group rather than have an individual talking about issues pertinent to him and his peers. As a group, you operate from a position of strength. It is interesting to note that there were some European teachers that were sympathetic to the Art Society. So there were issues that needed to be addressed in the Zaria environment. In which Personally, I never had any problems with them, though I was the President of the Art Society. case you reasoned that the formation of a collective was the best alternative. This is an important part of the story which a lot of people don’t understand. I had to travel with It was not just the local environment, we were concerned about development in our national them on that 1959 trip. But the reason was that 1 wanted those of them from Europe to also polity. Art was not given any serious consideration. The problem at that time was that there know the socio -cultural environment as well as the kind of art made in our traditional society. were the state festivals which were de-facto jamborees after which children were asked to Do you think that it was as a result of the misunderstanding of the Art Society by the rest of the make drawings at school. But there was no long term focus and we were worried about our art students that the Society did not continue after the graduation of its founding members? careers after graduating from Zaria. Of course, the other point was that, it was the period of It couldn’t have continued because it was dissolved. national struggle for independence. We had the point of identity. We wanted to show that Nigerian art could also have a distinct Nigerian character rather than posturing as a colonial Why? transplant. The members by 1961 were graduating and if we allowed the Society to continue after us, it would have been completely messed up. So the formation of the Art Society was your contribution to the political ferment within the emergent nation? You are saying that it would have been impossible even for younger students, who Well, that was the political part of it. It was necessary that outside the usual art students’ shared the ideals of the founding membership with equal zeal to have continued with association there should be a more serious minded alternative group that could come together the Society after 1961? to talk about their problems. We had meetings. We met often for discussions, not just to draw As a group we dissolved the Society. If there were people who wanted to continue, nothing or paint, for our problems were beyond the acquisition of technical skills as artists. People had stopped them from doing that after we were gone since the Society was essentially an idea. It to think and develop ideas based on what was there before them. was not the papers or association’s documents that made the group; it was the membership. So if there were people that shared our motivations, our interest and visions, they could have What was the nature of your meetings? gone on with it. But there was a formal dissolution and the little money we had in our purse, we We didn’t meet to draw or paint, as I said earlier, because our curricular schedules took care used to buy art books which we shared out to the members. But the point is that in different of that. We were concerned about the nature of Nigerian art; what it could mean in the face of years, the Society didn’t have as many students because people were dropping out and others our traditional and transitional art. Were we to jettison these and embrace the kind of art taught didn’t pay up their dues. by our white lecturers? These formed the focus of our deliberation then. You had one female member in the Art Society, according to the records. Was she just What then was the theoretical or ideological basis for these enquiries? a paying member, or was she active in the Society? After studying the problems, we decided to talk about synthesis She was a young member. She wasn’t terribly active. If I see her today, I may not be able to recognize her. She came in ‘61 which was the third and last year of the society. So she was a What was this synthesis about? member for just one year. I call it natural synthesis, that is you had to synthesize. Of course art by its very nature is a synthesis, old and new ideas, old and new techniques, and our individual ideas. That was the Would you describe the Zaria Art Society as a wasted effort? major contribution of the Art Society. Wasted effort? You can see from the membership. As I told you, we were more involved in the realm of ideas, and how we could help ourselves get on in our profession. It was members You use the first person singular here. Does it suggest that you came up with the idea of of the Society that started the SNA and some other groups. Some also have set up their synthesis before it was adopted by the group? own institutions and all these were a result of the zeal with which we formed the Art Society. The Art Society was moving towards that idea. I more or less provided the packaging. Everybody And since after Zaria, we the members still have that understanding. For instance if there is a was agreed that if you were a Yoruba you didn’t have to throw away your Yoruba background. programme or event, and I know that Grille is the man for it, I would send his name. We envisioned a kind of synthesis that would bring out art from our ‘tribal’ enclaves or ethnic cleavages and put them on the platform of national significance.

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So you maintain some sort of fraternity? It is important and that is what the younger people should learn because unity is strength and an artist, no matter how smart, cannot reach out to everybody at the same time. But the situation is better when you are two or three, and share the same kind of ideals. This is the same in every profession. One tree cannot form a forest.

You certainly don’t have any regrets about the Art Society? Regrets! It is you people who should pass judgement, not me. But I know that we have tried our own bit as we could, and I am sure that our members are happy that they were part of the experience.

Extract from THE ZARIA ART SOCIETY: A New Consciousness. A Publication of the National Gallery of Art. 1998. By permission from the Publisher and author.

1 Uche Okeke Self Portrait Oil on board 1959 36 x 24 in Private collection

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2 Uche Okeke Joseph Ink and brush on paper 1962 24 x 17.5 in Private collection

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3 Uche Okeke Mother of Christ Ink and brush on paper 1962 24 x 17.5 in Private collection

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6 Uche Okeke Stations of the cross I and II charcoal on paper 1976 17.5 X 22 in each Private collection

5 Uche Okeke Male Model at Rest Oil on board 1966 24 x 24 in Private collection

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7 Uche Okeke Sitting Female Oil on board 1960 24 x 36 in Private collection

8 Uche Okeke Onwa Ikenga Watercolour on paper 1993 24 x 18 in Private collection

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9 Uche Okeke Primeval Forest Gouache on paper 1965 63 x 55 in Private collection

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11 Uche Okeke The Burial Procession Oil on board 1961 24 x 48 in Private collection

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10 Uche Okeke Adanma Uche Okeke Oil on board Jumaa 1961 Oil on board 47 x 23 in 1961 Private collection 35 x 47 in Private collection ENQUIRIES

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A Singular Vision, with Diverse Ideologies and Multiple Communities “When we toil for the cause of art; we must realise that we are making history. We must therefore have faith and trust in our ability to search for knowledge and truth”.

by Uche Okeke

(Excerpt from 2nd edition of Art in Development – A Nigerian Perspective, The Growth of an Idea, Zaria Art Society, September 1959. Pg. 22)

The above excerpt for me encapsulates the collective spirit, singularity of vision and sense of purpose with which the 10 core members of the Zaria Art Society approached what they saw as a responsibility to ensure that generations of artists and creatives coming after them, would have a solid foundation on which to build the future of contemporary art practice in Nigeria. Their vision was broad in perspective and looked holistically at art practice, including the very important foundation of art education and technical application. In my view, the individual contributions of these 10 individuals are yet to be thoroughly researched and fully documented. For instance, there is one female in the group that has not been properly recognised or documented, there are multiple layers to the Society and its members. I believe that they were a group of unique and highly intelligent individuals, who took a calculated leap of faith. The contributions, talents and the single-mindedness, energy and sense of purpose BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA they encapsulated as a collective, is yet to be reproduced in any of the generations of artists that have come after them.

Those words written by my father for me is representative of each individual member’s essence and the significance of the Zaria Art Society in shaping my father’s practice. It also highlights for me some of the core elements that drove his calling and singular vision. A vision that is intertwined with the genesis of Asele Institute. As far back as I can remember Asele Institute has been at the core of my father’s artistic and academic practice. The Zaria Art Society was a powerful springboard for his artistic, creative and scholarly ideas, but Asele was the engine room that drove Uche Okeke’s ideologies and the repository of the materials and art works collected/produced over decades. The Institute was where these ideas were implemented. It is very difficult to separate the man Uche Okeke and the place Asele and by extension Nimo, the final location for the Institute, and the final resting place of the man and artist.

Ijeoma Uche-Okeke Johannesburg, South Africa 19th September 2019

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Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya (b.1932)

Recourse to the roots while admitting the changes of the times and the fertilizing influences, which come from outside our cultural spheres, is the basic tenets of the Zaria Art Society. Formulated at the time when many African countries were engaged in the struggle to gain freedom from colonial domination, their manifesto propelled a revolution that would direct the pace of our art that would materialize our thoughts and actions in the post-independence Nigeria. Bruce Onobrakpeya was a member of this student group which the art historian Kojo Fosu nicknamed the “Zaria Rebels.” in the now defunct Nigerian College of Art Science and Technology (now, Ahmadu Bello University).

Bruce Onobrakpeya grew up in the traditional society where the land comprising of forests, water, and the sky, are peopled by visible and invisible beings. His early works were folklore, which sought to explain myths of origins. Later, his art grew to embrace the totality of human life as experienced through the environment ecosystem, religions, politics, and economics of survival.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, now in his late eighties can be described as an experimental artist whose restless search has created innovations that have touched on many disciplines within the visual and literary arts which have helped him to sustain the expression of a multitude of ideas. Apart from his passion for visual and intellectual output, Bruce Onobrakpeya is involved in art education at both the formal and informal levels. After teaching for many years in both the secondary and tertiary level, he instituted the Harmattan Workshop Series at Agbarha-otor in Delta State where artists meet to share ideas and learn skills for growth,

Bruce Onobrakpeya’s contribution to the development of Nigerian art has been acknowledged and rewarded with many awards from within and outside Nigeria. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from two Nigerian universities. He is the recipient of the prestigious “Living Human Treasure” awarded by the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with UNESCO. He has also received the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM). His art works are in the Vatican Museum Rome, the Museum for African Art, Washington DC, and the Art Gallery in London.

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and a bit of art history. How to make art, what constitutes art continue to be taught in Jerry Buhari in conversation with Bruce Onobrakpeya Nigerian schools. This is a good thing. But art education must flow into informal art education. Exposure to practising masters and working with them is very important; so also is exposure (Wednesday 7th August 2019. At his residence on 41 Oloje Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin, Lagos.) to workshops under informal experience and environment (not academic). These will expose the artist to new possibilities all the time. The result is freedom and it builds self-confidence JB: How do you see the future of art in Nigeria? and the ability to express. An artist, however, must know where to dig out materials. Formal

education is good; but later, the artists should work with masters in an informal setting so that BO: I look at the situation in the fifties; there was no hope for you as an artist. Parents grudgingly they can become artists themselves. would pay your school fees. David Dale’s story is a case in point. His parents vehemently

opposed his interest in art. In the end, he left home. It was his sister that paid his school fees. JB: People live with you in a way because they have your works in their homes and The pressure is less now with good examples of successful artists. Now parents don’t have spaces all over the world. How do you respond to that kind of experience of visibility? a problem with their children studying art. Today artists speak about the potentials that are in

art as an investment. Art is big business and Nigerians are seeing it. In the near future art will BO:I have to defend what I am doing because sometimes people may feel producing so many be an alternative source of wealth comparative to oil. Art museums are emerging; art galleries artworks for so many places is counterproductive. People like rarity and want works that are are growing in their numbers. In future art and artists will be playing important roles in society. rare. From the economic angle, producing any work is not good and is not encouraged, but Art is meant to give body to thought and to enrich our imagination. Art is meant to elucidate. for me, it’s my policy and target to reach as many people as I can, and because of that, I have We can use art to educate and bring out about vague ideas. An artist is meant to have a developed ways of multiplying my production in order to do the latter/above. Produce as much message that is peculiar to him or her, the culture of a people, and what they think. as possible so that it will get to as many people as possible so that people can enjoy it.

Artists must try to put themselves on a higher level than others. If you’re on the same plane JB: What do you think about the publicity of your works and yourself? How do you with others, like your audience, you cannot give them anything new. They know what you respond to that kind of visibility? want, what you have. Then after some time, they are tired of it. Abroad, sometimes, as an

artist, once they put you in a certain box, you can never get out. You have to liberate yourself BO: Two ways. Sometimes, I had to defend what I am doing. I believe in continuous work, from the people’s expectations, needs and demands. You have to even make art that people producing so much and letting the works enter many places. I know that some people may will not buy, but one day someone will come for it. And once someone else sees it, and more think this to be counter-productive. Some people want rarity. But to me, the more many works and more, you can take off from there. Yan artist must be restless and ever-changing before go to many homes the better. The economics part of the capitalist part may not very good. others catch up with you and bastardise what you have done. This is my view: my policy is to get my work to reach as many people as possible. So, in my

opinion, development is the ability to multiply production to reach many people and not just JB: How do you respond to failure in experimentation? How long does a piece of work a few. Take for example a situation where we have only a few cars or one car. This will not be take you? able to take many people to their destination/s. I think the same can be said of art. An artist

should produce as much as possible to reach more people to enjoy and relate to it, even to BO: It depends on the level of inspiration, you get. You keep working on it till the end, but solve spiritual challenges. I am happy that my works can reach out to different many people. sometimes you’re doing the work and the inspiration dies down and you can’t move forward.

You leave the work and it can be there two to five years, and you can wake up one morning

and you know how to how to move the work forward. JB: What is the importance of public opinion on your art practice? Don’t throw any work away. Keep things as an artist, be a hoarder. Have space where you

keep all sorts of things and works. They will be useful one day. If you have an idea and you have BO: The artist is a member of a community and what comes out of him reflects the community. a problem, try it out many ways. If you don’t get away forward don’t worry. You have left the The community relies on the artist to express what they cannot express. When an artwork problem to the subconscious. You have given it an assignment. When the assignment is done expresses the ideas of other people, the artist is not doing anything unusual. An artist merely and the answer is ready, it will come out. It will come to your conscious. brings out ideas that were floating. When people react to a work of art, it is confirmation of the

floating ideas made concrete. JB: All the members of the Zaria Art Society have cut a lifestyle that is quite interesting.

You all have an active practice life and you all have a legacy of teaching and love to JB: Reflecting on how art education in Nigeria has evolved, what do you consider being teach and communicate, share and mentor. What do you think maybe responsible for the most critical area of challenge in art education? this striking resemblance of a multidimensional creative expression?

BO: Art education as it affects the ordinary man in the streets: our fathers did not accept art BO:The first job open to artists in those days was teaching. Teaching is also learning. If you education as it is accepted today. Thy never thought art could bring bread and butter to the want to learn you want to teach and vice versa. table. Our parents did not see art as a useful thing in society; but over the years, things have

changed. JB: What do you think about art education today?

JB: What our thoughts about our curriculum that led to the production of artists today? BO: It is great! During our time we were exposed to rudiments of art, materials, techniques Do you think it ought to be reviewed?

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BO: Change must continue to take place. There must be a constant revision in the way we We shouldn’t be fixated by the medium or material. It is what is there that no one knows. teach and use all sorts in the country in order to bring out the highest benefit of the arts. We must not minimise the time spent on art. The same teacher that is supposed to teach music JB: Can you give us a brief summary of some of the techniques that you have is the same teaching art, and other arts subjects all lumped together. experimented with which you consider being your most profound discovery? After painting what was the first printing you produced? What kind of technique would you JB: What about informal art education? How do you see informal art education as an call it? alternative to formal art education? Is formal as relevant as informal art education? BO: My attitude to art was more decorative and graphic, but I went into painting because all BO: They work hand in hand. What is very important to note is that the formal educational set my artist friends were there. Before I left Zaria, I got associated with the Ulli Beier group. He up only reaches a select set of people, while informal reaches everybody from different walks started his workshop. I was in the 1961 workshop. That was where I discovered printmaking, of life. Informal education gives people something to do, empowers them to make a living out etching and so on. I realised that art was very scientific. Art has a lot of science in it. In our of art and become useful in society. It is more self-sustainable. The informs educational set indigenous arts, crafts and vocations there is science. up is a corrective way of bringing artists out from rigidity, of doing things only in a particular way and putting them on a path of freedom to create and self-discovery the self. Informal art After the workshop, it took me three years to get my materials. I bought hydrochloric acid education helps them to go back into themselves to bring out something very unique that will instead of nitric acid and that damaged my plates. I was so depressed. But this gave me the be useful to society. direction today, which is called additive plastography. This was what led me to create my own workshop to help people to rediscover themselves. Additive plastograph is the opposite of JB: What kind of challenges would you like your successors to take on, to solve with plastography etching. their art? You see, don’t be satisfied with that which you have now, there is always more you can do BO: One of our challenges now is that artists are so engulfed in their own artistic production. and remember that there is something you can always do better. That’s how an artist can keep That kind of attitude prevents them from living a fuller life that can thicken the good things of moving forward, and always having something new and challenging. There is always a new life around them, and not work so much. thing to be done.

Artists now are not able to press and push for certain things in their society. The artist of today is too selfish with his style and work.

The next generation of artists should go ahead and be proud of that has gone before them and use those things in order to move forward. They should take a stand about their identity as African artists.

They should be open to taking in ideas from outside that will help us add to our own and reinforce.

We must use the fact that what we do must reflect and project the way we stay in our environment and project our thoughts to make us live better lives. Artist must grow slowly; otherwise, you lose your bearing. Grow with experience. It’s wrong when very new young artists suddenly blow and get invited to participate at mega art fairs.

JB: If painting is dead, according to Yinka Shonibare in interaction with Chika Okeke in the 2018 Art X, why then is David Hockney’s painting fetching as much as 90 million dollars? Will painting reinvent itself or its been faced out?

BO: Painting is not just the application of colours on canvas. Painting is drawing from your own inner experience and putting it down. People live different lives and experiences, and that is what we want to see in art, and in painting.

Shonibare and others who don’t use paint as a medium are in a way of painting too. They use already created materials to paint a picture or experience to bring out an inner expression, to tell stories, direct the future, to reflect on different subjects, and possibly even bring out an answer. Painting is an element of discovery.

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References: Identity and Direction in Nigeria Art Practice: Dike, C. and Oyelola, P. (2003). Nku Di Na Mba: UcheOkeke and Modern Nigerian Art, Abuja, National Gallery The Zarianists’ Legacy of Art. Egonwa, O. D (2011). “The Evolution of the Concept of National Synthesis,” US0 Vol 3 (1&2) pp 52-60. Egonwa, O. D (2011). Nigerian Art: Introductory Notes. Ibadan & Abraka, Ababa & Egosay Publishers. by Osa Egonwa Egonwa, O. D. (2017). Contemporary Art in Africa. Ibadan & Abraka Artfield &Egosay Ltd. Okeke, U, (1979). “An Introduction to Contemporary Nigerian Art 2”. New Culture Vol. 1, (2) pp12-18

The core contributions of the Zaria Art Society hereinafter referred to as Zarianists, to Nigeria’s contemporary art practice revolves around three significant manifestations resulting from one historically monumental event. This event is the articulation of the theory of natural synthesis and later its actualization in practice. The idea of art in Nigeria which is stylistically and iconographically related to the cultural history of its producers had been muted by Murray (1902-1972) from which (1921-1994) got the impetus for his paintings and sculptures from 1946 before the advent of the Zarianists ( Egonwa 2001:57). Ulli Beier (1902- 2011) mentored the Zarianists as well, who “nicodemously” began to work on an art deriving from that of their ancestors but integrating relevant tenets of mainstream art yet scalable globally.

If contemporary art refers to all recent art, which exhibits a feasible synthesis of adorable indigenous and foreign ideas of art making in terms of style, subject matter, techniques and media in their expressions, then the evolution of the idea culminating in the theory of natural synthesis, must rightly be ascribed to the Zarianists. The theory of natural synthesis appears historically as a post - Zaria Art Society event, considering available evidence. This accounts for the many unvoiced inputs of other kindred artistic spirits. Nevertheless, synthesis has contributed and continues to contribute to influence almost all succeeding generations of Nigeria art practice (Odita, 2003: 177-8). As a creative ideology, it is the content or design of the artwork that synthesis addresses not technique since the technique is universal and answers to anyone who cares to apply it.

An objective and comprehensive search of available literature, non-literature materials and studio practice reveal among others, the following practical manifestations of the influence of the theory in shaping, the cultural history and global visibility of Nigeria’s current art: a) Re-establishment of Nigeria’s artistic styles in the visual arts. Synthesis restored in a changed manner, our indigenous art, which Onabolu did not recognize as art into practice. According to Okeke, (1979:14) Onabolu claimed there was “no pictorial art in West Africa before him”. But for the Zarianists, Nigeria’s visual arts would have remained what the West did in Nigeria. b) Decolonization of Nigeria’s artistic style as defined by Onabolu’s modernism from continuance into the post-colonial era. By maintenance of a culturistic advocacy in the various art schools or settings they found themselves, they endeavoured to decolonize art practice of our time to establish the Nigeria identity and socio relevance. c) Production of manpower for the art industry in Nigeria. Active artists or art historians, on the art scene today are sons or grandsons of Zarianists. This is through direct teaching or mentorship. The art training centres in Nigeria were covered- Abraka, Auchi, Awka, Benin, Enugu, Maiduguri , Nsukka, , Port Harcourt, NGA, NCAC, New Culture Design Development Centre, Asele Foundation Nimo, TAFAS , Zaria, and more.

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1 2 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Emo Ekpen Boli Woman (Young Leopards) Lino cut Additive plastocast 1965 1987 20 x 19.5 in 27 x 37 in Artist collection Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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4 5 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Kabiyesi and his Eighteen other Vignettes Panel of four: Emiovwo Beroma I, Plastocast on six accordion panels Ore mu vwo OgboII, Agogo III,Tisha 1978-2012 Copperfoil relief on board 82 x 179 in 1983 Artist collection 56 x 166 in Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

3 Bruce Onobrakpeya Thanksgiving Dance Painted plastocast relief 2015 56.5 X 75 in Artist collection

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8 Bruce Onobrakpeya Hunter’s Secret Oil on board 1961 36 x24 in Artist collection

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6 9 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Images II,III Two Faces Plastocast on board Lino cut 1993 1966 43 x 94 in 18.7 X 22.7 in Artist collection Artist collection

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7 Bruce Onobrakpeya Maria Oil on board 1961 40 x 30 in Artist collection

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11 Bruce Onobrakpeya Adjuju ive (TwoFaces) Mixed media on canvas 1993-2019 33.5 X 42 in Artist collection

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10 Bruce Onobrakpeya 12 Udje Ekpevwe (Thanksgiving Dance) Plastocast on board Bruce Onobrakpeya 2015 Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel IX) 56 x 41.5 in Deep etching on paper Artist collection 2008 35 x 28 in ENQUIRIES Artist collection

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13 15 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel X) Oracle XI Deep etching on paper 1993-2010 2008 37 in 35 x 28 in Artist collection Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

16 Bruce Onobrakpeya Oracle X 1993-2010 37 in Artist collection

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14 Bruce Onobrakpeya 17 Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel XI) Bruce Onobrakpeya Deep etching on paper Oracle IV 2008 1993-2010 35 x 28 in 37 in Artist collection Artist collection

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OSELOKA OSADEBE

18 Bruce Onobrakpeya Return to Farming III Recomposed Installation 2012-2018 265 x 236 x 53 cm

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Oseloka Ukwudii Osadebe (b.1935)

Professor Oseloka Osadebe (born 1934) is an outstanding artist, playwright, theatre director, and teacher. He grew up in Onitsha, Anambra State, and from an early age, distinguished himself as a brilliant draughtsman, eventually earning acceptance to the prestigious Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria. He became a pioneer member of the famous Zaria Art Society and graduated in 1962 with a specialisation in painting and sculpture. He proceeded to teach art at the University of Nigeria Nsukka from 1962 to 1965, before leaving the country on an Aggrey Fellowship for African Students to pursue graduate studies in the United States. He graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1967 and received a second master’s degree in 1973 from the Goodman School of Drama also in Chicago, specialising in scene design, lighting and directing. He completed his doctoral work at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1981, specialising in Western and African Theatre and Drama and spent his career teaching theatre and set design at numerous universities including Jackson State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Tougaloo College, Spelman College, and Central State University. He is a member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education and the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education. Osadebe retired in 2007 and has spent the last twelve years reviving his passion for visual arts at his studio in Jackson, Mississippi. He returned to Nigeria for the first time in over 50 years in October 2018 to present a retrospective exhibition of rare works he created from 1960 to 2014, entitled: “Inner Light”. Photo credit: Sandra Mbanefo Obiago/SMO Contemporary Art Photo credit:

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We must also acknowledge the fact that Ben Enwonwu who schooled in Britain was also a The Zaria Art Society and the Development of pioneer of the reinvention of traditional arts within the new Modernity dominated by the West. He was older than the pioneering artists from Zaria and also started his art career much earlier Indigenous Art Epistemologies and Praxis than the members of the Zaria Art Society. by Kunle Filani It is, therefore, safer to say that Uche Okeke, who professed to be the theorist of the Zaria Art Society, was able to articulate the concept and appropriately gave it the acceptable vocabulary Much had been written on the Zaria Art Society being the group of some art students that - Natural Synthesis. The significance of the concept is far-reaching in defining artistic creativity studied at the famous NCAST and now the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1958 and in the Post-Independence era in Nigeria and indeed the 20th Century Nigerian art. 1961 when the association was formed and thrived. Using the above premise as the background to the study, it is, therefore, plausible to opine As acceptable as the heroic narratives of most of the direct members and participants of the that the most significant achievement of the Zaria Art Society is the intellectualization of artistic activities of the group seemed to be, there were sceptics who dismissed the formation of the philosophies that are indigenous and peculiar to the various ethnic groups of core members. Society as insignificant. They claimed that it was actually a rebellious gang up of dissident As Africans, and closer still as Nigerians, the peculiarities of each ethnic group are still students who perhaps couldn’t meet up with the rigours of verisimilitude in the European ensconced within the confinement of African cultural identity. Therefore, the efforts of each of curriculum offered at the Fine Arts department then. It was claimed that most of the proclaimed the artists can still be understood to represent profound art praxis for the entire Sub Saharan successes of the group while in the College were afterthoughts if not concocted fantasies. Africa.

However, everybody seems to agree that truly some radically inclined students associated The efforts of the individual artist members are far-reaching in the development of indigenous together and served as a pressure group that allowed for free expressions of African themes. epistemologies for Nigerian visual arts. Each of the acclaimed Zaria Art Society members Most importantly, the students also lend impetus to the acceptance of the exploration of validated Uche Okeke’s postulation of the theory of Natural Synthesis by adopting and adapting indigenous forms by students, alongside the established curriculum that was largely British their indigenous creative traditions to suit contemporary temper. and thus occidental. Their exploration of home-grown concepts of art assisted in the establishment of indigenous As expected, the opposing pockets of voices to the inherent claims of the members of the art praxis. Their theoretical framework for the production of art serves as the pedestal on which Zaria Art Society largely came from some of the pioneering students of the Art department cultural aesthetics and theories of art could be further postulated. Comprehensive scrutiny of who graduated before the core members of the Zaria Art Society, and of course, some of the artworks produced by vibrant members such as Bruce Onabrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Uche their school mates who were not listed as members. Observers often dispel this opposing Okeke, Demas Nwoko and a few others who flourished in the diaspora will reveal the tendency view as sentimental outpourings of envious schoolmates. Whatever the facts are, everybody to gravitate towards cultural aesthetics. seems to agree that the post-university contributions of most members of the Zaria Art Society The efforts of the members of the Zaria Art Society and indeed the entire pioneering graduates are landmarks that further define and indeed strengthened the development of contemporary of the Zaria school led to a large extent the establishment of creative offsprings such as the Uli Nigerian art. and Ona art movements in the Eastern and Western parts of Nigeria. These recent ideological art groups following the Zaria articulation of the theory of natural synthesis could be said to While recognising the wonderful contributions of the members of the group, we nevertheless have properly defined the 20th Century art in Nigeria. must appreciate the fact that indeed all the pioneering graduates of the “Zaria School “ (especially those who were students in the first decade of the establishment of the Fine Arts department which eventually had Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as it’s permanent site) were equally vibrant and mostly also engaged in exploring indigenous concepts as basis for their art practices.

Notable individuals such as Solomon Wangboje, Banjo Fasuyi, Jimo Akolo and a host of other prominent graduates from Zaria demonstrated that they also belonged to the period when colonialism had become stale, and the agitation for independence was rife in most countries of Africa. The popular Negritude philosophy of Leopold Senghor and other African leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe focused on affirming African culture instead of dancing to the tunes of the colonial masters who deliberately sponsored Eurocentric worldview and impose such on Africans and their institutions. In fact, most artists and creative scholars within and outside Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s were very sensitive to what Uche Okeke later aptly captured as “natural synthesis”. This is a kind of hybridization of indigenous traditional values with the prevalent Western cultural orientation.

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1 3 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Fallen from Grace Nne delu nwa Pen and ink on paper Uli sketch 1972-1976 1964 36.5 X 38 in 10 x 7 in Artist collection Artist collection

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4 Oseloka Osadebe Inner light II Conte crayon on board 1981 36 x 24.5 in Artist collection

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2 Oseloka Osadebe Folklore: bird and the man Acrylic on paper 1973 50.5 X 32 in Artist collection

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5 7 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Inner light I Piggly Wigglies VIII Conte crayon on board Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 39 x 27 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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6 8 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies VII Piggly Wigglies V Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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9 11 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies III Piggly Wigglies VI Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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10 12 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies Piggly Wigglies III Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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13 15 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Folklore: bird and the man Untitled Acrylic on canvas Wax crayon on paper 1968 1972 49.5 X 32 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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14 16 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Milk maid Untitled Oil on canvas Pencil on paper 1965 Undated 40.5 X 23.5 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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19 17 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe

Collage graque 1912 Untitled Watercolour on paper Charcoal on paper 1965 1972 11 x 8.5 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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20 Oseloka Osadebe Steel Away Theatre poster/drawing 1988 22.5 X 16.5 in Artist collection

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18 Oseloka Osadebe The lion and jewel I Theatre poster/drawing 1980 22.5 X 16.5 in Artist collection

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The Place of Zaria Art Society in History ZARIA ART SCHOOL: Relevance and a Major

by Kolade Oshinowo Reference Point in the 21st Century

The Zaria Art Society occupies a very unique space in Nigeria’s contemporary art history. by Mike Omoighe These are men made in ABU Zaria, Northern Nigeria but who later on went to father multitude of children, professionally, through remarkable influences in their works, In the East by Uche “In communication and cultural studies, it is as important to be alert to potential meanings Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Demas Nwoko. This in effect helped to establish the formidable (even when they are at cross purposes) as it is to search for exact information. This is because triangle upon which the diverse contemporary art practice in Nigeria today has developed. the object of study is the social world that we ourselves inhabit- communication is not an ‘exact science’. One of its basic tenets (taken from structuralism) is that without difference there is no meaning.” John Fisk (1983)

“The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society is a historical evergreen as proven in the past sixty years till date. Both will always remain a reference point in the history of contemporary art in Nigeria” Mike Omoighe (2019)

Background The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society is evergreen as proven in the last sixty years to date. Writing on the relevance of Zaria art school/society naturally poses a challenge of where to start in order not to sound as nothing existed before. It is therefore advisable for any writer on the historical Zaria art school not to limit self to the Zaria content alone. It is on this premise that a historical background overview of the ‘Art Schools’ then in Nigeria and their growth be established in chronological perspective as a guide. However, it is important to mention that the very short history of western art education in Nigeria has been The Zaria Factor unduly politicized for no other reason than to celebrate the ego of university education. Every country has her educational history just as every educational institution have their individual by Krydz Ikwuemesi history, which can at best be understood by reference to other educational systems within the same country. ‘Their most precise characteristics are in being what the others are not’, If we take contemporary Nigerian art as a river with many tributaries, the mouth of the river (Fisk 1976). Each of such educational schools, for example, operating within the confines of should be located at Zaria where fate brought members of the Zaria Art Society together in a the establishment act is significant only to the extent that it relates to others. If any institution way that redrew the contours of the story of art in Nigeria. The realities and schools that define operates euro-centric patronage of categorization and self-glorification with readymade Nigerian art today are due to the exertions and efforts of these artists. For us in Nsukka, there historical information without reference in relation to others before/after their establishment, is no doubt that Uche Okeke; the leading light of the Zaria Art Society, played a pivotal role in they would have succeeded in shortchanging their otherwise rich past/background history. laying the foundation that ha inscribed the international art map in bold relief. However, it is sad Historical documentation does not necessarily have to be in consensus agreement; however, that scholars and historians have not really engaged the Zaria legacy in a way that can look the unstated factual differences are important issues at stake that would continue tohoist beyond the Zarianists themselves and link the practical contributions to some of the prevailing its head every now and then. Relationship in common business, trade or education needs a realities in the Nigerian art field today. historical perspective not stage-managed to elucidate one system against the other. Perhaps the seemed lopsided history in our educational system needs a better level of honesty and loyalty towards national building devoid of egocentric maneuverIngs of information. The otherwise very simple history of contemporary art schools in Nigeria has been over-politicized and jettisoned to a point almost affecting the collective achievement of the art sector. This may sound like the religious issue of ‘my God is bigger than your God’. Let the truth be said and history set aright in the interest of the Nigerian nation.

The ‘Yaba Art Schoolsystem ’ existed as the first higher educational outfit established in Nigeria in 1932. The school trained intermediate students in all areas of discipline (Science, Engineering and Arts) who later completed their curriculum programmes in the United Kingdom. Early medical doctors, Surveyors, Engineers, Artists, among others were beneficiaries of the Yaba higher college since 1932 situated then at the present site of Kings College Lagos (1909). Among the students we’re, Akanu Ibiam, M. A. Majekodunmi, Oba Erediawa Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Solomon Ogbeide, among others. The western colonial masters

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established the United African Company, West Africa and the early school system partly for The Zaria Art School Spirit Since 1955 commercial business. The Yaba art school among others in Africa like Achimota in Ghana and The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society will ever remain the everlasting Makerere in Uganda were initially established for commercial art purpose (Advertisements, gospel in the anal of art history in Nigeria and beyond as proven in the last sixty years to Posters, Labels and Billboards) to meet the needs of the colonial government. The Yaba Higher date. In revisiting the actual members of the Zaria Art Society in an interview with the financial College (1932) became Yaba Technical Institute in 1947 and the first set of pioneer students secretary in 1997, a lot of unspoken details about their membership and operations in earlier of the College of Science Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) was moved from Yaba in 1948. In documentation available till date emerged. There was physical proof that they did contribute 1952, the ‘Yaba Art School’ officially began with Paul Mount of blessed memories who passed money to a common association purse. They all agreed on African philosophy being the centre away recently in the UK. From Ibadan the first set of students for the College of Science and focus and content of their art works. Their financial secretary also had a proof for the actual Technology, Zaria was moved in 1956. John Godwin also taught a non-diploma or degree membership and financial members of the ZAS. The record revealed that they were seven in awarding drawing classes at the ‘Yaba art School’. Grillo among others like Erhabor Emokpae, number- Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Osadebe Oseloka, Max Carrena, Vivian Osemwegie (nee Ologbosere) and Jerome Elaiho attended the Yaba Art Nwagbara Ogbonnaya and Okechukwu Odita. He also mentioned a parting ‘GIFT’ (withheld) School before going to Zaria. Though the Yaba art school at the time did not award ND/ which they bought for authentic members of the society. He asked to challenge anyone apart HND Diploma, but the art school flourished like others across Africa, which grew steadily and from this authentic list who claimed membership of the Society to produce the parting gift. This gradually to achieve the ND/HND Diploma status later. This is the very simple missing link in very interesting submission fired my interest in trying to unravel the actual truth with regards our chronological art history and institution in Nigeria. Each of these schools, the Yaba higher to the original members. Apart from the records of the financial secretary, the truth has been College/Technical Institute and College of Science and Technology, Zaria are both significant illusionarily elusive. Again when in 1998 I was opportune to be among the National Gallery only to the extent that they relate to each other. of Art curatorial team on “Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness”, Simon Ikpakronyi and I had an exclusive combined interview with Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko in both Nimo and Membership of the Zaria Art Society Idumuje-Ugboko. Armed with a team of professional video and still photography camera men The almighty Zaria Art School is almost synonymous and often interchangeably used with (Shola Shodiya and Shobowale Hughes) respectively. Our team interviewed Uche Okeke alone the Zaria Art Society; a movement credited to the seven-man team that actually participated in Asele Institute, his Nimo house, studio and gallery. But when the actual membership of the in the “revolutionary movement” in concept and idea of African Art Philosophy as a basis for Society became difficult to resolve, we convinced him to kindly let us move the interview to their art practice. One wonders what the contemporary art scene situation in Nigeria would Idumuje-Ugboko the home town of Prince Demas Nwoko and he agreed. We thought this have been without the Zaria Art Society. The mysterious intertwining narrative of who the smart move of the joint interview would resolve the membership impasse, but alas it was a actual members of the Zaria Art Society perhaps needed to be unraveled as the sunset era huge joke. It became a huge joke among two fraternal brothers and roommates who planned of the active participant is almost around the corner. Having been a student and curator/co- the Zaria Art Society coup (so they claimed (Omoighe 1998). However, their financial records curator of all the Zarianist at one time, or the other minus the recent OSELOKA OSADEBE with the financial secretary tally with the official photograph of the Zaria Art School- courtesy INNER LIGHT (the only missing link till SMO’s rediscovery exhibition of 2018 at the National Uche Okeke. Any wonder why Collette Omogbai, Ikpomwosa Omigie, Felix Ekeada and others Museum Lagos), I consider myself qualified through experiences and personal contact with didn’t have a relationship with the Zaria Art School after graduation. Another important point in them to reveal some perhaps ‘unknown facts’, comments and observations for history and the history of Nigerian art is the theory of propagation in the growth of art institutions and artists posterity sake. The members of Zaria Art Society are professional fathers in the Nigerian art in Nigeria. Where are the historical placement of Pa Aina Onabolu, Lasekan and Ben Enwonwu platform and are uniquely a collective huge blessing to Nigeria as cultural icons endowed by and their contemporaries (not even referring to the very robust traditional art history)? Thanks their creator. Luckily all individual interviews with them in voice, audio, video, recordings and to Chika Okeke-Angulu’s recent book, “Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization still photography works are national archival materials and legacies, which are currently in safe in Twentieth-Century Nigeria”. Recently I saw a painting titled ‘The impeachment of Aina custody with the National Gallery of Art, (in trust for the Nigerian nation). Onabolu’. Perhaps the title of this painting summarizes the lopsided history of art and art Some schools of thought have dispelled the Koyo Fosu’s “Rebel” appellation to the activities schools in Nigeria before 1948/50. of Zaria Art Society. No matter how we wish to rationalize their sojourn, actions and claims in the Zaria art school as students, history has vindicated them as cultural rebels. There was The Zaria Art School and the Zaria Art Society will always remain a reference point in the history a clear rebellion as evidenced in their submissions and contributions to the evolution of the of art in Nigeria for so many reasons. Apart from being the first art school to award diploma Zaria Art School and Nigeria till date. I am simultaneously pressured to ask: ‘if Gani Odutokun’s and Bachelors of art in Nigeria, they are distinguished as an art school with big names in the intervention in the narratives of evolution in the Zaria Art School is not rebellious/revolution visual art profession across the globe. I congratulate the ‘Arthouse’ team and the curator Jerry enough, what then is it? We should rather focus on the content analysis and the contextual Buhari, one of the foremost saviours of the Zaria art school spirit for this historical exhibition issues for a balanced historical map guide to propel the generation next. Art history is yet coming twenty-one years after the ‘Zaria Art Society– A new consciousness’. It is a great to situate the Nigerian cultural value of our artworks both in content and context in clearly opportunity to mention other great names earlier overshadowed by the wild harmattan fire known and understood perspective, hence, the need for more researches in the area of enkindled by the Zarianists. The roll call of the Zaria art school graduates is overwhelmingly studio art practice for visual documentation by artists themselves. This may help to uphold very impressive since 1955 when the first set of students transferred from the College of the seeming fast eroding cultural heritages, which are being documented in the Studio art Science and Technology Ibadan to Zaria. The Zaria school parades a robust catalogue of practice researches. Thanks to Rowland Abiodun, Babatunde Lawal, Toyin Falola, Cornelius who is who in the art world of Nigeria. ‘The pioneer students included majority of the famous Adepegba, Dele Jegede, Ola Oloidi, Ademola Adejumo, Denis Osa Egonwa, Jacob Jari, Zaria Art Society members who were given admission in the year 1955/7 academic session’ Kunle Filani, Frank Ugiomoh Chika Okeke, among others for their immense contribution to (Ikpakroyin2009). The pioneering students of 1955 fondly here remembered include– ‘Irein documenting the Nigerian/African (art) history. Wangboje (RIP), T. A. Fasuyi, Bode Fasuyi, Cyprian Ihejiahi, James Nkobi, G. M. Eneremadu

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and Adamu Baike among others’ (Oloidi 2009). The status of the first Diploma and Bachelor’s degrees awarding art school built the professional profile for the image of artists in Nigeria. The Zaria Art Society in the In conclusion, this short comment focuses on the issues of actual membership number of the Zaria Art Society and the fact that the Nigerian modern art scene was not entirely all Evolution of Modern Nigerian Art barren until the Zaria art school was born in 1955. The members of the Zaria Art Society were seven in number. The first set of students for the Ibadan campus of the College of Science by Frank Ugiomoh and Technology were transferred from the Yaba High School (1932), which later became The Zaria Art Society remains auspicious in its time and the in annals of the evolution of modern Yaba Technical Institute in 1947. Since the essence of history is to shape and inform life’s Nigerian art. The Society was formed at the cusp of Nigeria’s independence in 1959. As a experiences, it is, therefore, necessary to include this missing link in the chronicling of ‘modern student association, it keyed into the spirit and ideological ferment of the time, by exploring art’ and art schools in Nigeria. The history in the development of higher education started from its privileged grounding in cultural productions to engage in the activism of the decolonisation Yaba Higher College (1932) to Yaba Technical Institute (1947), where the first set of students agendas on the continent at the time. Its reality, considering modern Nigerian art validates were transferred to College of Science and arts Ibadan (1948) and later College of Science, some suppositions in art history. The first is its confirmation that ideological currents govern Arts and Technology Zaria 1955 academic session. the perception of any age and directs the actions of individual actors while guaranteeing their freedom. The second is that such liberty expanded modern Nigerian art and its emergent Notes iconography. Oloidi, O. (1998). Zaria Art Society-A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Oloidi, O. (2009). Zaria Art School. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Ikpakronyi, O. S. (1998). Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Ikpakronyi, O. (2009). Zaria Art School. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Omoighe, M. O. (1998). Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Fisk, J. (1983). Key Concepts in Communication. Methuen Publication London. Owoso, O. (1987). Yaba College of Technology at Forty-40. Adeyemi, K. (2017). The Visual Vanguard- A Journal of Arts and Architecture. Yaba College of Technology Library, Yaba, Lagos. Akinwunmi, A. & Omoighe Michael. O. (1987). Yaba College of Technology at 40, School of Art Design and Ptinting, Yaba, Lagos. On Zaria Art Society Interviews: Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Yusuf Grillo (85years old) 1992, 1998 & 2015 by Duniya Gambo Giles Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Bruce Onobrakpeya (87years old) 1994, 1997,1998 & 2016 Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Uche Okeke (83 years old!- RIP). 1986, 1998 & 2012 Through the works of members of the Zaria Art Society we see the domestication of foreign Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Demas Nwoko (85 years old) 1998, 2006 & 2011(3times) materials, techniques and concepts for an innovative contemporary African expression, (Natural Synthesis) that document, interrogate and conceptualise forms as well as issues, summarises their legacies.

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art initiative, and it must pass the litmus test of the era of YG. It is this complex that is attributed Jerry Buhari in conversation with Olu Amoda to his days that informed the use of the word “vacuum.” I feel flattered by your categorization of

my humble self being “his presence.” The Yaba School, before YG, had Paul Mount of blessed JB: We are requesting a selection of individual artists and scholars who have related memory whom I can boldly say is the mentor of contemporary sculpture in Nigeria. Director with members of the Zaria Art Society academically and professionally to make Paul Mount believes in recruiting potentials and creates an enabling environment to flourish. statements around their legacies in the development of contemporary Nigeria art. How YG, in the interview, instils commitment that is expected from an employee, and by studying would respond to this? the works of Paul Mount, one can see the trajectory from where YG philosophy emanated. In a conversation with Paul Mount, Alice Gaskell stated that: Paul Mount embraced sculpture when OA: In a situation where information is released scantly to the masses, and not entirely, it will he became the founder-director of the art department of Yaba College of Technology. He did not be out of place for one to make up the rest by projecting. In the School of Art, what you this primarily in response to the needs of his students who stood a far better chance of earning are told is what they think is enough for you. If you ask for more, you stonewalled. The issues a living from three-dimensional work than they would from painting. raised in this interview are based on scanty information released at meetings and on personal interpretation as encountered. YG, a painter who later succeeded Paul Mount, also employed the same strategy of executing

large exciting sculptures by collaborating with his junior colleagues and students. Any not Jerry, you know I am not an art historian, what will my statement do or say that has not homegrown kid like me has no choice but to step-up. While one did not have the privilege of been said? To start with Yusuf Grillo [YG] had already retired when I joined Yaba Tech; so I being mentored by YG, however, those who succeeded him made life too miserable for my type cannot claim that he was my colleague, although, he was the external expert on the panel by not embracing the Paul Mount/YG litmus test of experimentation. This ‘litmus test’ changes that interviewed me for the job. After retirement, he remained the major consultant for almost so frequently based on who is in the helm of affairs. One is continuously confronted harshly every administrative faculty member of the School. He did not turn his back on the institution for experimentation and critiquing of the Establishment. It seems that the wind of change in and has been very instrumental to major employments/appointments till date. There are lots of the early eighties that swept the big trees off their roots also gave these surviving smaller trees one’s colleague today though we’re yet to buy entry form to study at the School of art when a new lease of life. But the new lease of life exposed them to harsh sunlight, which was too he retired now use his name to open doors. They exploit the fact of working as an assistant intense that the surviving smaller trees were running full capacity from solar energy. These to him on some of his commissions. His retirement left a huge vacuum that those who came small trees experienced rapid growth that they started to tend towards self-cannibalization, after him are still struggling to fill. So am not sure what the fuss is about, but the truth is that and in the process, order and due process were thrown overboard. The babies in the dirty till date, we are still suffering from the post-YG syndrome. There seems yet to no clear path.” water belong to the gutter, yet in they cite days of YG as the justification. Independence is not

synonymous with self-liberation. It makes one wonder why it was erroneously stated that the JB: Why do you say that YG departure “left a huge vacuum”? You were not there; you Yaba School started with YG, and not Paul Mount? Not even a stool is credited to Paul Mount only met his departure. What did you see on arrival that, could I say, left with him? in the current dispensation. Beginning with Paul Mount, through YG and up till eight years ago, the sculpture program was hinged on experimentation. OA: It is not about taking any issue with his style of human engineering, but more about Art historians seem to miss something here about the Yaba School (or School?), which they those he left behind whose business it should be to continue where he stopped. Lots of my now see as synonymous with YG. colleagues who are regulars at his Salah bash go there for consultation as value-added to the

party experiences. Upon return, they often boast of continuing in his footsteps but soon flutter. JB: What do you say about the edifice he helped realize. Before it, the department was It thus creates what seems to be lack of grasping of his ideology or philosophy if indeed he said to be nomadic on campus, and it was reported that you had your classes all around initiated one. Up till our last Deanship, some factions in the faculty politics still name-dropped the other departments with no space of your own? YG in other to influence votes. These are the ones who were yet to be students when he was

the Director. Some rightly conduct their research on YG: his art and managerial skill as the OA: Yaba School started with Paul Mount as the first director of the School, with just space, no Director of the School of Art. They are awarded a Masters and PhD degrees by some of the furniture. From no furniture classroom to the nomadic era! It thus seems quite a radical change top Nigerian Universities. from the space to the magnificent edifice we have now. But having a permanent dwelling place

for learning also comes with unforeseen problems. JB: Let us start with your humble self. With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that With so much office and studio space, comes its badge. If you were familiar with the size of plots he was able to interview and recruit you because he saw in you excellent material. in Ikoyi, you agree with those who feel that surveyors drew boundaries by merely converting The sculpture school has tremendously benefitted and continues to benefit from your their ranging poles to javelin. This method of setting boundaries seems to explain why some inspiration and contribution to the international profile of Yaba College as a whole. You plots are more significant than others. Metaphorically speaking, such was the case with office are his presence, in a sense. How can there be a vacuum? allocation here at School of Art Design and Printing when the Building was commissioned. Just

as land in Ikoyi then was not accorded to need, so office allocation was just assigning vacant OA: Maybe the word vacuum is less than apt in terms of continuity of the school system since room according to seniority and closeness to the studios. Toilets’ lobby was converted to the people go and people come. But, for instance, the employment/promotion policy has changed ample office space for new faculty while older ones lived lavishly. The bigger office space where since he left. Without sounding condescending, we are currently suffering from academic incest. two more faculties could be accommodated was assigned to one big wig. The older faculty In the sense that almost the entire faculty of the fine art department is made up of alumni of Yaba office was equipped with two or more tables and at least 4 chairs, all in one room! Some even College of Technology or ABU. Always, “the days of YG” is the yardstick to measure any new had 3-seat sofas in their offices with their fridge brought in. If the microwave had been popular

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then, some big wigs would have installed a complete home kit in the office. Office service was The basement is currently being renovated to accommodate the proposed Ford foundation preferred since Iya Laraba in the food village was just a few kilometres of a walk from the art Yaba College of Technology School of Art Museum. With the Building built in phases, it would complex. The female fashion students are always around to render the service of the delivery have been the crown of the jewel if the top of the last of the Fashion and Painting studios could woman; sometimes, they are made to fund the bill. have been used for this Museum.

It was like being at home/hotel while one was actually in the office. It might be as a reaction It will be helpful to conclude that many members of faculty who claim to be protagonists of the once nomadic adventures, but the mister big wig has now finally found a permanent of YG need to go back to him not to seek his endorsement for running for Deanship but to dwelling. Let’s start by saying that I was very fortunate not to be around when the entire art learn or to refresh their memories about how to be a better teacher/human being. Running a department passed through that nomadic phase. By 1987 when I resumed, it appeared that campaign based on seniority presupposes that age, not exposure, matters the most in running most offices and studios were disproportionally allocated with no clear path for evolutions that an institution. both programs and technology will offer. All eyes were on this newly built art complex, and the need for the College to solve immediate needs informed the way space was assigned. The basement was assigned to the Library when it was undergoing rebuilding, School of Business and lately Mass Communications department. A studio space in the building was used as the College Store at a time. Anytime there is an accommodation crisis anywhere in the college, the art complex seemed to provide the solution. Many Directors, after YG, could not fend off this pressure for office space encouragement. We can indeed say this is one instance of the vacuum created by the departure of YG and yarning to be filled.

From nomadic feeling come these barrages of external office accommodation pressures. The big rooms that were once commodious for one person now have to be shared to two or more faculties. The facilities in the new Building are now subjected to heavy use that results in frequent breakdowns. The Art complex is thus now permanently a construction maintenance site. From plumbing to electrical, rat, and bug-infestation; now, the art complex is used to art students. Working overnight is now sleeping overnight. Students open the taps in the upper floor studios forget to lock them when no water is running during the day because of demand at the lower floor and then by the evening, when the need of for water is reduced, the water pressure pushes the water to the upper floor, and this results in a mini-disaster of waterfall that creates flooding on the lower levels. This was the era before students converted studio to sleepover spots. The Director of Works reacting to this frequent mini-disaster orders swiftly all sinks be removed and water outlet plugged. The solution would have been to replace the turn facet to push type that automatically locks self if the hand pressure is lifted. Thus he compounds the disaster. Fast forward! The Building is seeping with water from water pipes from the internal water pressure partly from aged galvanized pipes and the direct result of plugged water taps. Students have to turn on the hydrant for fire hoses water for studio use. Thank God for the art students who broke the law by sleeping in the complex that promptly arrested a few fire incidences. No fire alarm system in place!

The second misadventure is having office spaces determined by or apportioned according to need but only according to seniority. Toilets lobbies with yanked wash hand basin and four toilets are converted to large office resulting in a shortage of toilets; individual confiscate toilets close to their office for personal use. Also, toilets corridor became the school gallery. The list goes on and on. Now, because there is no clear path on space utilization, studios are currently converted to hostel and kitchenettes. Just as a corridor with four toilets is now the school gallery; similar space with four bathrooms is converted to accommodate the most decorated past Dean of the School. After retirement, a new past Dean looks forward to moving into the same office with the current Dean because he is too afraid to rock the boat. Some studios with obsolete machine and gadget are left in place to secure spaces to show the size of department space not use.

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Archive Photo List of Exhibits Yusuf Adebayo Grillo DN 08. AGBO DANCERS. Terra cotta. 1970s. 22 x 10 in. Artist collection YG 01 OLOYA IYUN. Oil on canvas. 2014-2017. 54 x 36 in. Artist collection DN 09. PRAISE SINGER. Pencil on paper. 1961. 22.02 x 15.05 Artist collection YG 02 OMIYE. Oil on canvas. Oil on canvas. 2015-2016. 48 x 24 in. Artist collection DN10. PRAISE SINGER- DETAIL. Yr ? Pencil on paper. 22.02 x 15.05 in. Artist collection YG 03 SELERU AGBO. Oil on canvas. 2018-2019. 36 x 48 In. Artist collection DN11. BEGGARS ON TRAIN. 1958. Charcoal pencil on paper. 22.02 x 15.05in. Artist collection YG 04 FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR IN IREPODUN. Oil on canvas. 2017. 48 x 48 in. Artist collection DN12. LIFE DRAWING-STUDY. Pencil on paper.1960. 14.9 x 22.2in. Photograph. 51.9 x 80.11 in. Photograph. Artist YG 04 NOT ONE BUT TWO, KABIYESI. Oil on canvas. 2018. collection 48 x 42 in. Artist collection DN 13. AKENZUA CULTURAL CENTRE. 1972-95. Location YG 06 SOKOTI ATI OMO OLOJA. Concrete. Late 1980s , Edo State Nigeria. (Architecture Photograph). Artist Height 38 in. Artist collection collection. YG 07 FIRST BANK PILLAR. Concrete. 1987/1988. 74 In. DN 14. TOTEM. 1980. Murtala Mohammed Internal Airport Artist collection Lagos. (Sculpture Photograph) 62.2 x 87.7 in. Artist collection YG08 TRINITY STOOLS (3Pieces). 1991. Wood. 16x16x16 in. DN 15. DOMINICAN CHAPEL Ibadan Nigeria. 1975. (Architecture Artist collection Photograph). 50 x 50.6 in. Artist collection YG 09 MY TAIYE. Stained glass. 75.5 x 45.5 in. Artist collection DN 18. PALMWINE DRINKARD LANKE AND THE NIGHT YG 10 BLUE MOON. Oil on board. 1960. 23.5 x 23.5 in. SPIRITS. 1962. (Photograph). Artist collection. Artist collection DN 19. DANDA. 1966. Poster. 20.07 x 29.7 in. Artist collection. YG 11 THE COMB SCREENS. (3Pieces). 2015 Wood. DN 20. PALMWINE DRINKARD. 1962. Poster. 20.07 x 29.7 in. Height 24 in. Artist collection Artist collection DN 21. Swivel chair. Wood. Yr ? Ht. 36 x Wt. 24 in. Artist collection Some of the members of The Zaria Art Society: Demas Nwanna Nwoko Front (L-R): Bruce Onobrakpeya, Simon Okeke and Uche Okeke DN 22. Armed chair. Wood. Yr ? Ht. 39 x 22.5 in. Artist collection Back (L-R): Okechukwu Odita, Demas Nwoko and Osadebe Oseloka Courtesy: Uche Okeke DN 01. SENEGALESE WOMAN. Gouache on paper. 1960. DN 23. Armless chair. Wood. Yr ? Ht. 28.5 x 24 in. Artist collection 34.5 x 21.5 in. Artist collection DN 24. Small table. Wood. Yr ? Ht. 14 x Wt. 15.5 in. Artist collection DN 02. OGBONI CHIEF. Oil on board. 1960. 29 x 20 in. Artist collection Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita DN 03. THE COMBATANT I. Oil on board. 1967. 29 x 23.5 in. Artist collection EO 01. WHY WOULD THE EYE OF THE BULL BE A TARGET. Oil canvas. Yr ? 53 x 64 In. Artist Collection DN 04. Beggar. 1958. Watercolour on paper. 17 x 12.7 in. Private collection EO 02. AFRICAN DNA. Oil on canvas. 2017. 59 x 35 in. Artist collection. DN 04. NIGHT CLUB IN DAKAR. Wood. 1965. 35 x 14 in. Artist collection EO 03. THE DRUMMER. Oil on canvas. 2017. Artist collection DN 05. ONILE GOGORO. Terra cotta. 1970s. 12 x 8. in. EO 04. FLAMES WITHOUT BORDERS. Oil on canvas. 2017. Artist collection 95 X 47 in. Private collection. DN 06. THE ELEPHANT WOMAN. Terra cotta. 1970s. EO 05. NIIKOKA. Silkscreen. 1982. 35 x 23 in. Artist collection 30 x 19 in. Artist collection EO 06. THE CHURCH. Pastel on paper. 1964. 17.5 x 20.4 in. DN 07. HEAD OF LADY. Terra cotta. 1970s. 10 x 16 in. Artist collection. Artist collection EO 07. IT SURVIVED. Charcoal and pencil on paper. 1964.

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28 x 22 in. Artist collection. UO 06. MALE MODEL AT REST. Oil on board. 1966. 24 x 24 in. BO 11. ADJUJU IVE (TWO FANS). Mixed media on canvas. 1993- OO 14. MILK MAID. Oil on canvas. 1965. 123.5 x 59.5 in. Artist Private collection 2019. 33 x 42 in. Artist collection collection EO 08. TOMATOES AND GRAPES. Pastel on paper. 1964. 16 x 20 in. Artist collection UO 07. STATIONS OF THE CROSS I AND II. Charcoal on paper. BO 12. DANCE TO ENCHANTING SONGS PANEL IX. Deep OO 15. UNTITLED. Wax crayon on paper. Undated. 43.1 x 35.5 1976. 17.5 x 22 in. Private collection etching on paper. 2008. 35 x 28 in. Artist collection in. Artist collection EO 09. COCONUT. Charcoal on paper. 1964. 17 x 25 in. Artist collection UO 08. MARCH OF MASQUERADES. Charcoal on paper. 1974. BO 13. DANCE TO ENCHANTING SONGS PANEL X. Deep OO 16. UNTITLED. Pencil on paper. Undated. 43.1 x 35.5 in. 12 x 33 in. Private collection etching on paper. 2008. 35 x 28 in. Artist collection Artist collection EO 10. LIFE SAVER. Oil pastel on paper. 1964. 16 x 20 in. Artist collection UO 09. PRIMEVAL FOREST. Gouache on paper. 1962. BO 14. DANCE TO ENCHANTING SONGS PANEL X. Deep OO 17 COLLAGE BRAQUE 1912. Watercolour on paper. 1965. 23.5 x 16.5 in. Private collection etching on paper. 2008. 35 x 28 in. Artist collection 57.5 x 42 in. Artist collection UO 10. ONWA IKENGA. Watercolour on paper.1993. 24 x 18 in. BO 15. DANCE TO ENCHANTING SONGS PANEL X. Deep OO 18 THE LION AND THE JEWEL I. Theatre poster/drawing. Simon Obiekezie Okeke Private collection etching on paper. 2008. 35 x 28 in. Artist collection 1972. 43.2 x 35.5 in. Artist collection SO 01. MOTHER AND CHILD. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. UO 11. PRIMEVAL FOREST. Gouache on paper. 1965. 63 x 55 BO 16. RETURN TO FARMING III. (Recomposed). Installation. OO 19. UNTITLED. Charcoal on paper. 1972. 43.2 x 35.5 in. 1966. 64 x 46 in. Private collection in. Private collection 2012/2019. Mixed media. Varied. Artist collection Artist collection SO 02. UNTITLED. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. 1964. UO 12. FACE OF THE MOON. Graphite and wash on paper. Yr ? 13.5 x 10.5 in. Private collection OO 20. STEEL AWAY. Theatre poster/drawing. 1988. 56.5 x 41.5 40.7 x 22.9 in. Private collection Private collection Oseloko Ukwudii Osadebe in. Artist collection UO 13. JUMA’A. Oil on board. 1961. 35 x 47 in. Private collection SO 03. UNTITLED. Oil on board. 1966. 44 x 34In. Private OO 01. FALLEN FROM GRACE. Pen and ink on paper. 1972-1976. collection UO 14. THE BURIAL PROCESSION. Oil on board. 24 x 48 in. 93 x 96 in. Artist collection Private collection SO 04. UNTITLED. Watercolour, pen and Ink on paper. 22 x 9 in. OO 02. FOLKLORE BIRD AND THE MAN. Acrylic on paper. Private collection UO15. ADANMA. Oil on board. 1961. 47 x 23 in. Private collection. Artist collection SO 05. LADY. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. 12 x 10 in. OO 03. NNE DELU NWA. Uli sketch. 1964. 91 x 62 in. Private collection Artist collection Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya SO 06. UNITLED. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. Undated. OO 04. INNER LIGHT II. Conte crayon on paper. 1965. 98.5 x 68 7 x 4.5 in. Private collection BO 01. EMO EPKEN (YOUNG LEOPARDS). Additive plastograph. in. Artist collection 1987. 27 x 37 in. Artist collection SO 07. OYO HEAD. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. 1964. OO 05. INNER LIGHT I. Conte crayon on paper. 1965. 98.5 x 68 BO 02. BOLI WOMAN. Lino cut. 1965. 20 x 19.5 in. Artist in. Artist collection 9.25 x 7.25 in. Private collection collection SO 08. UNTITLED. Oil on paper. 1962. 27.87 x 20.25 in. OO 06. PIGGLY WIGGLIES VII. Pen and Ink on paper. 1965. 35.5 BO 03. THANKSGIVING DANCE. Printed plastocast relief. 2015. x 28 in. Artist collection Artist collection Private collection 56.5 x 75 in. Artist collection SO 09. HEAD OF A GIRL. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper. OO 07. PIGGLY WIGGLIES VIII. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 35.5 BO 04. KABIYESI AND EIGHTEEN OTHER VIGNETTES. x 28 in. Artist collection Undated. 15 x 12 in. Private collection. Plastocast on six accordion panels. 1978-2012. 82 x 45.2 in. Artist collection 8. OO 08. PIGGLY WIGGLIES V. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 24 x 17 in. Artist collection Uche Christopher Okeke BO 05. PANEL ON FOUR-EMIOVWO BEROMA I, ORE MU VWO OGBO II. AGOGO III, TISHA. Copper foil relief on board. 1993. 56 OO 09. PIGGLY WIGGLIES III. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 24 x UO 01. MARCH OF THE MASQUERADES. Print (AP). 1982. x 166 in. Artist collection 17 in. Artist collection 19 x 25 In. Private collection BO 06. IMAGESI II, III. Plastocast on board, 1993. 40 x 94 in. OO 10. PIGGLY WIGGLIES. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 35.5 x UO 02. JOSEPH. Ink and brush on paper. 1862. 24 x 17.5 in. Artist collection 28 in. Artist collection Private collection BO 07. MARIA. Oil on board. 1993. 40 x 30 in. Artist collection OO 11. PIGGLY WIGGLIES VI. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 35.5 UO 03. MOTHER OF CHRIST. Ink and brush on paper. Yr? x 28 in. Artist collection 24 x 17.5 in. Private collection BO 08. HUNTER’S SECRET. Oil on board. 1961. 16 x 24 in. Artist collection OO 12. PIGGLY WIGGLIES III. Pen and ink on paper. 1965. 24 x UO 04. UNTITLED. In and brush on paper. 1962. 24 x 17.5 in. 17 in. Artist collection Private collection BO 09. TWO FACES. Lino cut. 1966. 18.7 x 22.7 in. Artist collection OO 13. FOLKLORE-BIRD AND THE MAN. Acrylic on canvas. 1968. UO 05. VIRGIN MARY AND BABY JESUS. Oil on board. 1961. 125 x 80.5 in. Artist collection 33 x 48 in. Private collection BO 10. UDJE EKPEVWE (THANKSGIVING DANCE). Plastocast board. 2015. 56 x 41.5 in. Artist collection

ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 142 143

Generously Supported By: Authors Contributing Short Essays and Statements

Professor Osa Egonwa, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Delta State University Abraka Delta State, Nigeria

Professor Jacob Jari, Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

Rebecca Wolff, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History, University of California, U. S. A.

Kolade Oshinowo, Former National President Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA)

Professor Gambo Giles Duniya, Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

Emeritus Professor Ola Oloidi, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Olu Amoda, Yaba College of Science and Technology Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria

Krydz Ikwuemesi, MFA PhD, Painter, Art Critic, Ethno-Aesthetician, Writer and Culture Entrepreneur, Associate Professor of Fine Art, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Professor D. O. Babalola, (Retired). Former Professor of Art History, Department of Fine Arts, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

dele jegede, PhD. Professor Emeritus, Art & Art History, Miami University Oxford, OH, U.S.A.

Dr. Mike Omoighe, Yaba College of Science and Technology Yaba Lagos, Nigeria

Dr. Kunle Filani, Federal College of Education, Technical Akoka Lagos., Nigeria

Ozioma Onuzulike, is Professor of Ceramic Art and Art History, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Professor Frank Ogiomoh, is an independent scholar and a non-institutional affiliate professor of history of art and theory, based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Ijeoma Ucheke-Okeke, Asele Institute Foundation Nimo, Anambra State, Nigeria Chika Okeke-Agulu is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art and Archaeology, and Department of African American Studies, Princeton University.

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Acknowledgements

First we must thank the artists and their estates whose cooperation, support and believe in us gave us the confidence that this project is important and that it could be a reality.

Our art collectors were not only generous in releasing their collections but they did this so graciously. We thank you for the trust in Arthouse, your generosity and ensuring that we had a rich representation of the artists’ works.

We must also express gratitude to Sandra Obiago of SMO Contemporary Art who, through the solo exhibition of Osaleko Osadebe and her cooperation made it possible for us to connect with the family of the artist to assist us gained access to his works. We are grateful to the Obi of Onitsha whose role was critical in facilitating access to this relationship and linkages. We have special gratitude to the National Gallery of Art who gave us access to Odita’s works and gracious use of extract from some of their publications.

This exhibition was made possible by our treasured sponsors, whose contributions have not only made the project a reality but also successful. We thank them for being partners in continuing the advancement of art and culture in Nigeria. Specifically, we sincerely thank the management of KIA Motors who have always granted us the use of their show room, Access Bank has not always been a pillar of support also but a very significant agent in the advancement of the creative industry as a whole. Dana Group, Ford Foundation, 7Up, Channels TV, Eric Kayser, Lasis Security Services, Le Connaisseur, Guardian Arts and Veuve Clicquot have given this project special support. We are grateful to all of them.

I reserve special gratitude to my family whose constant encouragement to take on any project I consider important. Their support has always been invaluable. I must make specific mention of my husband Suresh who has encouraged this incredible journey I have had with Nigerian Art, my children Amisha Hathiramani and Aditya who have also helped me make it possible.

1

ZARIA ART SOCIETY Celebration of Legacies

26 October – 15 November 2019

Kia Motors Showroom 308 Adeola Odeku Victoria Island Lagos, NIGERIA

THE SPACESPACE

www.arthouse-ng.com

ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 2 3

CONTENTS 5 Foreword 6 Curatorial Word: Jerry Buhari 10 Zaria in the Fifties and Campus Life at NCAST by D. O. Babalola’s essay 12 Zaria What? Say that again!: dele jegede 13 YUSUF GRILLO 16 Yusuf Grillo in conversation 20 Portfolio 29 Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art: Ola Oloidi ©Arthouse Contemporary Limited Lagos 31 DEMAS NWOKO 36, Cameron Road, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria 35 Demas Nwoko in conversation Website: www.arthouse-ng.com 38 Portfolio Email: [email protected] 55 EMMANUEL ODITA Tel: +2341 279-3182 58 The Zaria Art Society its artworks and Mobile: +234 805 250 0195 art technique prompters: Emmanuel Odita No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, 59 God’s Grace Still Report or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying 60 Portfolio recording or other devices without the permission of the Arthouse Contemporary Limited. 66 The Mystical Zaria Art Society: Jacob Jari 66 The Enduring Legacy of Zaria Art Society :

Ozioma Onuzulike Credits Editorial: Odey Ekpme, Jerry Buhari 67 SIMON OKEKE Scanning & type setting: Jerry Buhari, Foluso Oguntoye, 70 The Legacy of Uche Okeke and the Zaria Art Society Graphics: Rishita Chandra in the Study of Nigerian Indigenous Arts: Rebecca Wolff Photography: George Oshodi 71 Portfolio 77 UCHE OKEKE Zaria Art Society: Celebration of Legacies 80 Uche Okeke: Interview by Chika Okeke-Agulu Exhibition Team 83 Portfolio Director: Kavita Chellaram 93 BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA Curator: Jerry Buhari 9 In conversation with Bruce Onobrakpeya 100 Identity and Direction in Nigeria Art Practice: Operations & Logistics The Zarianists’ Legacy: Osa Egonwa Nana Sonoiki 102 Portfolio of all Bruce’s works Margaret Haggai 113 OSELOKA OSADEBE Sammy Ogbanje Akeem Atunde 116 The Zaria Art Society and the Development of Foluso Oguntoye Indigenous Art Epistemologies and Praxis: Kunle Filani 118 Portfolio Finance 128 The Place of Zaria Art Society in History: Kolade Oshinowo Kavita Challeram 128 The Zaria Factor: Krydz Ikwuemesi Sumbo Biobaku-Baderin 129 ZARIA ART SCHOOL: Relevance and a Major Reference Nana Sonoiki Point in the 21st Century: Mike Omoighe 133 The Zaria Art Society in the Evolution of Publicity Modern Nigerian Art: Frank Ugiomoh Joseph Gergel 133 On Zaria Art Society: Duniya Gambo Giles Nana Sonoiki 134 In conversation with Olu Amoda Folusho Oguntoye 138 Archive Photo 139 Authors Contributing Short Essays and Statements Cover: Works of, From top: Y Grillo, D Nwoko, O Odita 139 Our Sponsors Middle: S Okeke, U Okeke, B Onobrakpeya 140 Acknowledgements Bottom: O Osadebe

ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 4 5

Foreword

This is perhaps the most ambitious art project that Arthouse has ever embarked upon. Seven artists, two who are late, five living, some of Nigeria’s most treasured cultural icons, all in their eighties living in different geographical locations with different idiosyncrasies. They are artists of the most adventurous creative experimentation, in ideas, media subject matter and technique – members of the Zaria Art Society. Some call them “Zaria Rebels”, some “Zarianists” and others would prefer they are called “Revolutionaries”. I am yet to know of a group of artists whose naming have attracted such a fierce competition and controversy. These artists have been subject of scholarly interest, professional curiosity and collectors delight. They stand as pillars in the cultural landscape of Nigeria’s visual art and tower above the horizon. Their cultural significance, influence and inspiration cast fascinating shadows across the globe today.

Putting an exhibition of these artists has been, to say the least, extremely challenging in many ways. The huddles have risen higher with time causing us to shift dates, adjust on the scale and scope of the show. Sometimes we have paused to wonder if ever we could pull this exhibition through. But, at last, we are here. And, the joy of seeing the fruition of this show humbles us as we consider ourselves a small part of this big history. Some of our most challenging constraints were space, finding the works, the fragility of the works, securing sponsors, among others. Space was one of our most nagging problems. In the end, we had to fall back on our most reliable and familiar space and sponsors. We note that space is certainly not the best for the profile of a show like this; but its availability and the gracious offering of its owners, helped us to make the best use of what we have. A proper art exhibition space continues to challenge our cultural institutions. I hope that soon we should be able to address this problem head-on.

I am always humbled by the personal relationship that I have developed with each of the artists and the estates of those who have passed on. I am deeply grateful for their friendship, From L – R Standing: Oseloka Osadebe, Ogbonnaya encouragement and willingness to respond positively to my requests. This show is evidence of Nwabara, Okechuwku Odita. this cultural partnership and many years of friendship. I dare make bold to say that it has given From L – R sited: Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko us the opportunity once again show these greats since 1998 when the National Gallery of Art Source: Uche Okeke presented them in Zaria, Abuja and Lagos. We feel honoured and privileged to revive the show once again at the historic point of their history and our story. I am particularly happy that I had a team that was equally committed to seeing to the success of this show. Together we represent these great cultural icons to young artists, collectors and the Nigerian and international cultural community that may never have seen the artists works before, or physically met them.

Kavita Chellaram Founder and CEO Arthouse Contemporary Limited and Arthouse Foundation

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also realised that in presenting a legacy exhibition, it was important to include inputs from the Curatorial Word legends themselves. We, therefore, requested the living artists to also participate in selecting their works that speak to their legacies. They enthusiastically received this. We were also by Jerry Buhari conscious of significant chronological representation of their artistic carriers and wanted to feature works from their student days in Zaria. Arthouse Contemporary Limited conceived the idea of having an exhibition of the members of the Zaria Art Society about four years ago. The idea was partly in response to the increasing As can be observed, the group shares fascinating creative characteristics in their multi- interest of art collectors both within and outside the country. As the idea grew, it became clear dimensional creative expressions. They are also boldly experimental. None of them is a mono- that the art community in which Arthouse relates with intimately wanted to see these artists medium artist. Their works are indeed representative of Nigeria’s artistic modernism. and their works once again as they cross their mid-eighties. Added to this also is the growing We can attempt to give a brief glimpse of their legacies: From Yusuf Grillo we are showing some international interest in contemporary African art by scholars, museums, auction houses, of his paintings, stained glass, sculptures, sculptured furniture and some Marquette of some big private collectors and the global art community in general. Members of this Society as of his major art commissions. Grillo’s legacy advanced creative excellence and professionalism individuals have over the years, in their multidimensional art practice and art education; have in what, today, we proudly call the Yaba School. His commissions for private and religious been largely responsible for this growing international interest and the vibrant art practice in the institutions, especially Christian institutions, as a Muslim artist, display how an artist can earn country. As it is with all ambitious projects, we met with some challenges bordering on defining respect and trust with big private corporations and become a bridge of understanding and the scope of the exhibition, locating the works, engaging and finding consent with the living tolerance across religious divide to build an integrated society. His love for Yoruba traditions artists, estates of those who have passed on and collectors, among others. It is therefore with translated in modern language in his works help us to see the possibilities of refreshing old great delight that we have finally realised one of Arthouse’s most adventurous projects. traditions and applying their wisdom to confront contemporary challenges. From Demas Nwoko, we have paintings, terra cottas, furniture, photographs of some of his life architectures, plays, We decided to title this exhibition, Zaria Art Society: Celebration of Legacies. The idea of posters, and perhaps for the first time in an exhibition like this, drawings and sketches. His is using the concept of legacy to frame this exhibition is borne out of the inspiration, influence, a demonstration of exceptional creative elasticity rooted in the search for indigenous aesthetic and awe these artists, as a group and as individuals, have brought on to contemporary art philosophy. His paintings, terra cottas, sculptures, furniture and architecture inspire us to see in Nigeria. We seek to celebrate the impact of their lives, their work and the ideas they have and appreciate the richness of our cultural heritage in an engulfing global environment. His bequeathed on our cultural history, and they have continued to do so. We first set out to works are constantly challenging us to consider the importance of understanding the root expand the concept of the exhibition to go beyond the artworks and to include objects that of our history and how it can be used as a tool in solving problems and the way we engage represent the artists’ artistic carriers such as old sketchbooks, drawings not exhibited before, foreign ideas. easels, palette, old brushes, etc. As we faced challenges of diverse kinds, we had to constantly We are pleased to have drawings, paintings and a print from Okechukwu Odita that bridge review and shrink our ambition to fit the realities of time, space, budget and access to exhibits. cultures and explore the essence of our being. Odita’s legacy can also be found in his ground- What we see in this exhibition is the result of this difficult, but exciting journey. breaking researches and the numerous doctoral candidates he has graduated who were We confess that we have not been able to sufficiently meet this ambition we set for ourselves; enriched with a deeper appreciation of how contemporary Nigerian art history is connected but have been able to put together some of the finest works these artists have created over the to its traditional origins. Though Simon Okeke lived a short life compared to his colleagues in years. The works address personal, traditional and national issues that continue to inspire and this exhibition, he left behind a body of work that, in their dense artistic expressions, speaks of challenge us as individuals and as a nation. We hope that our ability to put together works of some of the darkest periods of our history with works entangled in compacted spaces as if in seven members of the Society (two who are late, two who have spent most of their carrier lives an embryo. These works, yet to be fully studied and appreciated, would one day be a priceless in the United States of America and three who live and work in Nigeria) should justify our efforts chronicle of our history as a nation. His complete sacrificial service for the emancipation of the and make up for the inadequacies of our earlier vision. It is also our hope that the exhibition Igbo during the Nigerian Civil War would continue to inspire and remind us about the virtues will rekindle ground-breaking research; more innovative exhibitions like this, to tell more on the of conviction, patriotism, and sacrifice for the good of society that he died for in 1969. From history and posterity of the legacy of Zaria Art Society. Uche Okeke’s oeuvre we are showing drawings, watercolours, and paintings. Some of them In pursuing the concept of legacy in this exhibition, we invited artists and scholars who have not been on public view since two decades ago. His works refreshingly remind us of his have undertaken scholarly or curatorial work on these artists to submit brief statements or intellectual cultural investments that help us cultivate a hybridised modernist aesthetics. In short essays as a way of giving us a multidimensional perspective to the Zaria Art Society Uche Okeke, we see a star shinning across the skies of history giving us direction with such phenomenon. We received a total of fifteen responses. Three of the essays came from what intellectual insight. His works demonstrate prolific creative energy that draws inspiration, like was published in the National Gallery of Art, which, together with the authors, graciously his colleagues, from the wealth of our indigenous culture. The role he played in establishing permitted us to reproduce sections of their works. and articulating “Natural Synthesis” as an aesthetic ideology and a curriculum based on Uli, gave birth to Nsukka School and would continue to be an exceptional example of how an In selecting the works for this show, we were constantly confronted with having to change academic programme can be designed to meet town and gown in the most effective way. as a result of their fragile condition. In some cases, it was that the works would have to be Bruce Onobrakpeya’s legacies are visible in his tireless creative production, art education in withdrawn because they have been so poorly preserved or stored or damaged. The logistics workshops, mentoring, and establishment of art institutions that offer hope, skills, and source of restoration and seeking appropriate consent from their owners was a tough challenge. Up of livelihood in a country battling with a growing, restless and jobless youth. His entries for to two weeks to the show we were not sure if some works would arrive early enough. Because this exhibition include paintings, mixed media, prints of diverse techniques, some of his most of these dynamics, it was difficult to formulate a specific narrative around the works; but we experimental plastographs, and one of his most engaging and complex installations. His works

ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 8 9

continue to engage the rich cultural heritage that is rooted in his roots and beyond. Again, like his at memorable occasions, some even posthumously. Again, this exhibition could not claim to colleagues, Onobrakpeya, through his works, takes us back to the significance of our traditional have captured their historical significance adequately. The focus of the exhibition is to rekindle origins as a compass in engaging with the present and the future. The legacy of Osadebe, though the articulation of new perspectives in appreciating their works. We hope that the short essays close to us, is yet to be fully appreciated in Nigeria. With our most recent exposure to his work and statements contributed to this catalogue would stimulate more scholarly investigation. in Sandra Obiago’s “Inner Light”, a ground-breaking exhibition, we realise how we have missed Of further importance, the exhibition is targeted at young art students and artists who may this colossal creative spirit. His drawings, designs, paintings, and sculptures encapsulate and never have heard, seen them or their works. To achieve this we have included an elaborate explore the depth of our common search for a balance between our physical nature, the spiritual programme of students visit throughout the duration of the show. In addition we have included and in-between. In his “transition” from plastic arts to theatre, Osadebe points us back to the an interactive session in a roundtable with the artists who would be able to physically attend way artistic expression in Africa, unlike in the West, is a holistic dialogue and experience at the the exhibition. same time. Indeed, his works are existential oscillation between folklore, metaphysics, identity question, the spiritual and the physical. As we present the artists in the fifty-ninth independence celebration of Nigeria, we recall their unique place as educational revolutionists and cultural freedom fighters that stood side by side The summary of the legacies of Zaria Art Society can be found in their giving, mentoring, teaching, with their colleagues that fought political emancipation. The works they created, the Natural entrepreneurial offerings and a form of distinguished service to humanity across stereotyped Synthesis manifesto they formulated and propagated, and the exhibitions they organised and boundaries. Our ability to explore these legacies will continue to engage us beyond their times. participated in indeed continue to resonate through the history of our national independence So, in this exhibition, we have only been able to scratch the surface. More critical research and song. After leaving Zaria, they dispersed to plant seeds of artistic and cultural expression exhibitions are required, and urgently too, especially on Simon Okeke, Okechukwu Odita and that drew inspiration from indigenous and foreign ideas as well as materials before creating a Oseloka Osadebe. hybrid cultural renaissance of a new Nigeria. It is important to stress the example members of Zaria Art Society established as a group working together for and on issues that advance and After the publication of Kojo Fosu’s classic book, “20th Century Art of Africa” in 1986, Zaria symbolise identity definition and political emancipation. The clarity of their thoughts advanced Art Society became a subject of interesting academic debate. First, the debate was over the by a written manifesto taught us the communal African heritage threatened by colonialism and membership, who is and who is not? There is also a gender debate: was Omogie’s name Western culture of individualism. excluded or omitted? Perhaps, the third and the most polemic issue is what Koju Fosu called the group- “Zaria Rebels”. Some scholars think that the phrase “Zaria Rebels” was inappropriate. In In conclusion, we have observed that collecting art also requires the deliberate provision of an their opinion, the use of the word “Rebels” is disrespectful and connotes a negative impression appropriate space (with the right preservation conditions), that will ensure proper management of the group. This led to the advancement of alternative names such as, “Revolutionaries” and protocol of these works, if the investment is to have its expected cultural and financial value “Zarianists”. What is often overlooked in this debate is that Fosu merely quoted one of their active sustained. Artworks are fragile; they require professional care, appropriate space, condition members, Onobrakpeya, who said, “we were sort of rebels”. The expression of their activities by and management. In the cause of putting together this exhibition we can come across some one of the members of the Society could not therefore be regarded as a coinage originating from works in places and conditions not conducive for their longevity. It is in this light that we would Kojo Fosu. The context from which it was first muted by Bruce Onobrakpeya could not also be like to see this exhibition become a catalyst that will kick-start a move where art collectors regarded as negative. would corporately establish an edifice that would house and celebrate not only these legends and their works, but also Nigerian art as a whole and the investment they have made in it. When the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello In our long relationship and interactions with these great cultural icons, they have always University, Zaria, undertook to do a major exhibition and conference on and around the Society expressed their hope and desire to see their works in a museum where the public, not only just in 1998, under the title, “Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”, the late Uche Okeke, the a privileged few, would have free access to view. custodian of the group’s records, provided not only the list of the members but also date of We would, therefore, like to challenge our partners, sponsors and especially art collectors registration record, payment of dues and other archival documents that reveal the high level to see the huge investments they have made in collecting art and come together to initiate of intellectual orientation, sense of documentation and history the group possessed. From the the establishment of a Museum of Contemporary Modern Art, (MCMA). This would be their journal Uche Okeke kept, the group had their inaugural meeting on Thursday 9th October 1958 reciprocal contribution to advance the sustenance of their priced collections for human and on the 16th June 1961, “the Art Society was folded up here in the college.” The names on civilisation and ensure the posterity of the works they so love. We believe that this is possible, the registered members as recorded by Uche Okeke had the following as its members: Yusuf giving the calibre and result-oriented profiles of our partners, sponsors, and art collectors. Grillo (Painting), late Simon Okeke (Painting), William late Olaosebikan (Painting), late Uche Okeke (Painting), Bruce Onobrakpeya (Painting), Demas Nwoko (Painting), Oseloka Osadebe (Painting), Jerry Buhari Okechukwu Odita (Painting), late Felix Ekeada (Graphic art), late Ogbonnaya Nwagbara (Graphic Curator art), and I. M. Omagie (Graphic art) and the only female.

The significance of Zaria Art Society in the evolution of contemporary modern Nigerian art has been well documented in the great works of Pat Oyelola, Paul Mount, Egonwa, Chukwuegu, Jess Catellote, Ogbechie, Okeke-Agulu, the National Gallery of Art, private galleries and institutions and a host of scholars. We would not be able to mention all of them here. The list continues to grow. Furthermore, these artists, as individuals, have been subject of scholarly work, celebration

ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 10 11

Zaria in the Fifties and Campus Life at NCAST

by Daniel O. Babalola

“…The main objectives of this chapter therefore are two fold. First, it aspires to present in graphic buttressed their points by laying emphasis on what they knew best, which was European. detail, the Zaria of yester-years, the most pure, inviting and stimulating environment. The smiles that Although that was irony, they meant no harm, they taught what they knew best and they welcomed one to Zaria apart from the permanent sceneries on guard, in the form of the tall and lanky excelled. baobab trees as one approached Zaria by road or by rail. The markets that differed from those of the south, that displayed the various traders with their wares including the slim Fulani women hawking Students, as earlier said, came to Zaria from various ethnic groups of Nigeria with majority their cheese and fura da nono. Often dressed in their best, they balanced their calabashes on their coming from south. They came to Zaria with the experiences of their various cultures. In Zaria, heads. Those calabashes have various traditional inscriptions and motifs, which offer attraction to the they met not only those scenes earlier on described, but other students coming from cultures totality of the Fulani female costume. and artistic backgrounds other than their own. There were cross-fertilization of ideas and these ideas permeated their art and they soon realized that they had to learn a lot. Not only had they Again the cattle Fulani male, who also dressed in his best, had barely managed to take off a holiday read various art books in addition to what they learnt from their diverse cultural awareness, the from the management of his cattle, was a spectacle to behold. Donkeys heavily laden with goods new awareness were elicited to form their unique compositions…” and farm produce gently plod their way to the market along the various path ways. The few available lorries, the, could not cope and had to be assisted by beasts of burden to carry marketers as well Extract by permission of the author, D. O. Babalola and publisher, National gallery of Art, from, “Schools bags of grains to market. Or was the Sallah, that usually displayed the dignitaries, commoners and of Art and Significant Events. In The Nigerian Artist of the Millennium: Historian Builder Aesthetician & chiefs dressed in their best attires seated waiting for the Emir to emerge, following which the Durbar Visioner. pp42- 44. celebration would start in earnest? The horses dressed in their best saddles and bridles of various colours were ready to show their preparedness for the race.

The joy of winning the race and the agony of defeat for the horse and riders, brought home the adage that the fastest runner may not win the race. For the students, it usually reminded them of the studies of horses by Marino Marini. Whichever way one views it, the Samaru village of those days (the 50s and 60s) seemed to breath an air of freedom, beauty and stimulating calm that welcomed visitors. How one was welcomed wherever one went, provided one was careful to observe the warning “ba shiga” sign, which forbid anybody to enter into the compounds or houses. But one was welcomed outside the door with enthusiasm and if it was the direction one was seeking for, immediate help was rendered.

Zaria city was alive with the traditional houses decorated to taste and the houses mostly with flat roofs allowed an almost unbroken areal view. The variety, simplicity, with the powerful rendering of calligraphic and Islamic inscriptions on the outside walls of the buildings were easily noticed. The sumptuous buildings carried the best designs and were meant to display the wealth and nobility of such people of Zaria. Old women and young men drew water from wells for the daily needs of their families. During evenings especially weekends, calabash and kalangu drummers entertained people far into the night…

…Lecturers in Fine Arts were drawn from all over the world. They came to Nigeria with enormous potential; to leave a mark of excellence in their various disciplines. Several of the lecturers were just as young as their students and the rapport, in most cases, was cordial. The lecturers also found their new environment fascinating, and as they were aware of the role African art played in the development of modern European art, went into action to record some of the glorious scenes of Zaria, Samaru and the environment. Some of these lecturers utilized their weekends to travel outside Zaria to places like Kano, Jos, Bauchi and Maiduguri. Others even ventured as far South as Ikot Ekpene in the East or Ibadan and Lagos in the West. They wee equipped with their cameras and sketch books and they came back reinvigorated. They were often welcomed everywhere they went in Nigeria with Oyinbo or Bature meaning “white person”. They often felt like Kings and Queens. Some of the lecturers preached the doctrine of visitation to “your local arts”. They emphasized research into the local arts, but often

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Zaria What? Say that again!

by dele jegede

The penchant that is rife in social and, particularly, academic circles of mouthing “Zaria Rebels” at every opportunity that arises to make meaningful contributions to the growth and competitiveness of art in Nigerian colleges and universities has, quite, unfortunately, become a cliché. It has been reduced to no more than a fad that is often meant to give some academics a hollow bragging rights. Pointedly, this is directly antithetical to the epistemological conviction that catalyzed the historic dissent that the students at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology (now ABU), Zaria, asserted as a way of challenging the staid curricula that their colonial teachers, some of whom were outright supercilious, insisted on foisting on them.

What is today’s remedy to the equivalent of such maladroitness? Walk with the elders. Invite these trailblazing painters, printmakers, sculptors, art educationists, and national icons to major symposia on college and university campuses. Launch endowments in their names that will allow students to undertake in-depth field and secondary research in their chosen topics. University faculty in art and design departments should be cognizant of creating pedagogies that are compliant with 21st century best practice in the area. Running after mandated doctorates, itself a reflection of the rot in the education system in Nigeria should not be an end in itself. The “Zaria Rebels” placed premium on innovation, authenticity, and indigeneity. They claimed their space, proudly and defiantly, on the world stage. They challenged orthodoxy and refused to play second fiddle to anyone. The question is no more about who are the “Zaria Rebels” or what their legacy is. For their bequeathment in art to Nigeria YUSUF GRILLO is unassailable. The question now is: What does your generation have to offer Nigeria in the field of art, design, and art history?

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Yusuf Adebayo Grillo (b. 1934) Yusuf Grillo was born in 1934 in the Brazilian Quarters of Lagos. Grillo was received his early education in Lagos where he obtained the Cambridge School Certificate and A Level GCE in Art and Mathematics. In 1955, he proceeded to the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology, Zaria for four years Fine Art Course. He completed his Diploma course in Fine Art in 1960 and took Art Education course leading to the award of the post Graduate Art Education courses and Education tours in Britain. He did Art Education and Examining, University of Cambridge, in 1966. In 1966, he was introduced to the use of polyester resin in sculpture in London. In 1969, he visited the College of Art and Printing in the U.S.A., And in 1972, he won the all African Competition in Painting held in London. In 1979, he visited the U.S.S.R. and studied Industrial Education in West Germany and Britain.

Grillo says that the practice and patronage of art has continued to grow from strength to strength. Barely fifty years ago, it was a different story. People did not want to pursue art as a career because prospect were very dim, but since then great strides have been taken. It is no more a profession which people shy away from. Patronage has continued to grow. In the beginning, patronage was limited to expatriates, but now, it is gratifying to note that quite a number of Nigerians are beginning to appreciate and patronize. The Government is doing its best. Apart from individual attending exhibition and buying art works, architects almost as a rule now try as much as possible to give scope to artists in building they design, especially if they are public buildings. Even in private buildings, architects do their best within the resources available to include something for artists. Grillo has done quite a lot of art in architecture which has more or less taken precedence over painting. Painting is his main field, but since he started practice, because of the commissions he has received, he has grown to know some materials which he did not know at school, such as mosaic and stained glass. These are permanent materials which will last for the life of the buildings in which they are used. Photo credit: Medina Dugger/SMO Contemporary Art Photo credit: As an artist, he has exhibited in Africa, Europe, America and Australia. As an educator and administrator, he had been the Head of the Department of Art and Printing at Yaba College of Technology. He has on occasions acted as Rector of the College. He also served as the Chairman of Lagos State Art Council (1978) as well as President of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA).

Grillo takes his subject matter from human activity in the world around him, particularly the Yoruba world. His paintings are distinguished by a refined and subtle use of colour and the mathematical structure of the picture surface. He created cool colour harmonies with a sensitive brush, avoiding stridency and discord. His use of blue and violet is reminiscent of stained glass. The generous folds of drapery of Yoruba dress become carefully balanced geometric shapes. Many of his figures are stylized almost to the point of abstraction, yet they never lose their humanity. Grillo’s treatment of the head sometimes makes direct reference to Africa mask forms, yet he never loses touch with the human clay. His elongated female figures breath an aura of dignity and elegance, not through extravagance of dress, but through the cool restrain of colour and design which reflects ideals of Yoruba character. Stability is expressed by his choice of a triangular structure for many of his works. Works such as Omolomo, Se efe and Abenugongo are visual metaphors resulting from his integration of morphologies and structure from the past.

Extracted from “ The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”. Published by National Gallery of Art Nigeria. Reproduced by permission of Publisher.

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to reject or advise those who we think shouldn’t do art. I was opposed many times, but I was Jerry Buhari in conversation with Yusuf Grillo lucky and respected and my work spoke for me. I couldn’t be pulled down. I was able to get by. There were some teachers who didn’t even merit being there at the faculty of arts. (Thursday 8th August 2019 at his residence, 28 Ogunlowo Street Ikeja, Lagos) There are people who are qualified but we know are not true artists and would add nothing to the programme. It is not a healthy situation we have on the ground. JB: How do you reconcile your public image and status exposed to different people and readings? JB: What do you think about the role of informal art education?

YG: it’s inevitable. What you cannot help you cannot accept. You live in a community and you YG: There should be enough room for both. There should be a stage where the wheat is are not alone so sometimes you have to give in. separated from the chaff before they are qualified for tertiary education, say for one year for I’ve been described as self-evasive. I don’t care much about public opinion, especially when example. And after, you can then know who are the real people who can deliver. There is a these opinions are not truly critical or opinions which are just meant to flatter. curriculum, which allows excellence in things like crafts, the use of computers and gadgets. It The artist is very alone. Very selfish. You should care for what your mind tells you more than is for people who are in the system to determine what will be what. There definitely needs to what other people say. Listen to your inner self. To be truly creative, you have to shut out the be a stage for separation of the sheep and goats. I think this is done well in medicine. That is opinions of others. You are no more in an art school. I like to be severely alone. Be true to what is needed. yourself. That’s what matters. I am my work and my work is me. You see my work, you see me. I can’t be separated from my work. JB: It is quite settled by history and by fact that you are among the fathers of contemporary art in Nigeria and you have laid the foundation for many and have disciples, so what kind JB: Was there a time somebody made some very critical observation about your work, of roles do you want your successors ahead of you to play? which you found irritating? YG: I think the question has been answered by events and artists we have, we have dele YG: The only annoying comment I have heard about my work and myself is that I am not jegede, Kolade Oshinowo and many others. open to people. That I am not prolific. I don’t regret it. I know that I am not prolific. My nature is my nature. I resist pressure. Let me be me. Do I have to be prolific for you? I take years over JB: Is painting dead? Is there really nothing to paint that hasn’t already been painted? Is paintings. there really no point to painting anymore? What is your take?

JB: You’ve spent a lot of time in the educational system on many different levels. Can YG: It is not dead, so long as the artists still live and express themselves with painting. You you give us a reflection on the educational system of Nigeria? can’t say that writing is dead because we have computers. A writer is still a writer, a poet is still a poet. So long as there are people who want to express themselves in that medium. If YG: It has evolved. Every so often a new minister emerges and says there will be a change in there are still people who are truly creative in that medium, it can never go dead, the thing is the curriculum. There is an issue of indiscipline with teachers. Distant teaching. Lack of interest finding people who are truly using that medium to express themselves, what they are saying from students to submit to what they have subscribed to. Back then at Yaba, I had to fight very is never dead. hard because what the Federal Ministry of Education was demanding could not be applicable to the faculty of arts. Art should not be treated the same as other subjects where you learn Those who say painting is dead may not know what painting is. Painting permeates from the theory and cram, there should be live studies, trips, live compositions, where you go out and soul, the spirit of the artist. It does not matter whatever you like or not. People are still looking do different things. Art school should be on its own and let those who are truly artists go and for the origin of Shakespeare, to find him in his work. Leonardo da Vinci, still lives on, in his manage it. The ministry education with its politics measures art with a yardstick that is lethal works. Gauguin died a penniless artist; he died on an island, but his work lives on. to the arts. I thank God that in my time I was able to fight and resist it. There is little one can do though, especially one from the outside. We can talk and talk, but the ministries are not Those who say painting is dead, do they refer to painting coming from a human soul or where? interested. Until we begin to have people in policymaking areas who truly understand art, that What would they say about the works of Shakespeare? Are Shakespeare’s works dead? is when we may be able to get to where we need to in the art educational system. Those who say painting is dead are ignorant.

JB: Technology has given art a new expression and definition. The the current discussion Painting is like the work of Shakespeare; can poetry or writing be dead? What about the works is that art schools are becoming more and more irrelevant. Some of the finest artists of Soyinka, or they talking jargon? What makes us take of Chinua Achebe more that Cyprian didn’t go to art school. Does this have to do with the pedagogy or curriculum or the Ekwensi? They were all writers. program? What are we doing that is making it impossible for our graduates to merge/ level up? Or is there some kind of conspiracy? JB: On Saturday 10th August 2019 8:01 am YG called to say he wanted to expand on the question of the death of otherwise. YG: When you rely solely on JAMB for taking in students into the faculties, there is no way such things won’t happen. I left teaching a long time ago, and I was lucky when even when JAMB YG: We started with assumptions. We ought to have started with definitions to distinguish qualifies some students, we still subjected them to drawing tests at Yaba, and we were able between the subject and the object, people’s idea and category of painting. The question I

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ask is, is painting a canvas or a message emanating from the soul of a human being? As far as I am concerned, I think that when people say painting is dead they are referring to painting JB: When do you decide that a painting is qualified to be signed? as a graphic message. But painting on a canvas purely comes from the soul of one human being say Picasso, Bruce or Enwonwu. If this is the definition of painting, then it cannot be YG: My paintings weren’t signed for a long time until some collectors and galleries I was dead. Even when the artist is physically dead, the painting remains alive. The human being is a involved with insisted that my works should be signed. The reason was that I never considered combination of two elements - flesh or body and the soul or the spirit. Jesus Christ (JC) is my them completed. brother. I acquired him. Those who do his will are JC’s brothers. In the garden of Gethsemane JC said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is dead. I remember that I wrote a pamphlet. God did not create our flesh. When God said, he created man in his own image. The Bible is a collation of many writers. My spirit is the image of God. We created God in our image, but God created us in His image, omnipotent. God is right inside us. The Koran said God is right inside us nearer than our jugular. God created light, truth, he is generous, forgiving, all that is good, in light. Before then God left the world unattended to, by revelation, God is in his domain in heaven where light is everywhere. In God’s domain, there is no darkness.

JB: Is it okay to say that there is a sense of affinity you share with impressionists? Because of the ways and technique in which you work?

YG: Indirectly. I see impressionist as artists who want to catch the moment and do everything at a go. But I don’t work like that. But in the sense that every part of the painting goes together, I think the similarity is there.

JB: Is it deliberate that your work has a dreamy, glassy effect?

YG: The painting grows on its own. The painting at every stage dictates what the next step should be. It is a conversation, a continuous dialogue till we are satisfied. There is a negotiation between the mind and the canvas. There is no right there is no wrong. Whatever my mind tells me.

JB: I noticed your interest in politics, of the family in your work, is it deliberate?

YG: The painting titled, Not one but two is intended to be political. I hope it will show the intended head of state I have in mind. God didn’t make democracy for us. Democracy is not the best system for us at all! What God made for us was ruling by divine authority. You see it all through the scriptures in Islam, Christianity and traditional religion. God ruling through his prophets, telling them what to do, and punishing them when they fall out of line. It was we humans who asked for a king and decided to leave God out of it. To get the best form of government is very difficult. Other religions will object and may not go your way. We have so bastardised the situation that to turn back will be very difficult. Democracy will always be a problem as long as human beings are in charge.

JB: Your works have very comprehensive literature, it would seem that there is a particular climax in a story that you arrest with your works, which you embellish with other narratives. How did you come about this consummate knowledge of stories as your subjects?

YG: When one decides to paint, it has undergone so many natural processes, which I have described in some interviews. It is like eating different things. They all go into you, but a minute part of it gets assimilated into your system to nourish the body. The bulk of it you now pass out as rubbish. That is the same process. A minute part of it may strike you so strongly that it inspires you. That the minute part is the little assimilation from all you’ve eaten.

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1 Yusuf Grillo Oloya Iyun Oil on canvas 2014-2017 54 x 36 in Artist Collection

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2 Yusuf Grillo Omi Iye Oil on canvas 2015-2018 48 x 24 in Artist Collection

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5 Yusuf Grillo Not One But Two, Kabiyesi Oil on canvas 2018 48 x 42 in Artist Collection

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3 Yusuf Grillo Seleru Agbo Oil on canvas 2018-2019 36 x 48 in Artist Collection

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4 Yusuf Grillo First Day of the Year in Irepodun 6 Oil on canvas Yusuf Grillo 2017 Sokoti Ati Omo Oloja 48 x 48 in Concrete Artist Collection 1980 38 in ENQUIRIES Artist Collection

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7 Yusuf Grillo First Bank Pillar Concrete 1987-1988 74 in Artist Collection

8 Yusuf Grillo Trinity Stools (made for St. Dominics Church, Yaba) Wood 16 x 16 x 16 in Artist Collection

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9 Yusuf Grillo My Taiye Stained glass 75.5 x 45.5 in 2003-2009 Private Collection

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10 Yusuf Grillo Blue Moon Oil on board Circa, 1960 23.5 x 23.5 in Private Collection

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Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art

by Ola Oloidi

Zaria was to modern Nigerian art what Kumasi was to modern Ghanaian art, Makerere to the whole of East African art, London to the British or Commonwealth art, Florence to the Italian art and Paris to the French art. This is why the word “Zaria” has come to identify all those who are either instructionally, creatively or ideological linked to Zaria art experience. Within the same creative wall of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST) has also emerged, experimental or artistic achievement or successes; the experience brought about by the members of the Zaria Art Society between 1958 and 1961. Zarianism, therefore, is a philosophy of creative revolt, artistic pride, standard, originality, intellectualization, experimentation and liberty.

At the time both colonial government and the Nigerians themselves had little or no regard for art, as it was considered developmentally irrelevant and academically inferior and inadequate, it was a group of art students at the NCAST that, between 1955 and 1956, challenged this art condition and made many naturally shy away from studying, or identifying with Fine Arts. This was the first agitation in modern Nigerian art, carried out before the 1958 revolutionary agitation of the Zaria Art Society. The agitation was mainly for the welfare of the students whose certificates were not quantified by the government and who were given second class treatment in the college by the college administration and non-art students. This agitation was championed mainly by Solomon Irein Wangboje, T. Adebanjo Fasuyi, Cryprian Ihejiahi, James Nkpbi, Bode Fasuyi, G. M. Eneremadu, and other pioneers within the set of 1955/1956 session. The students’ agitation was embraced by the art students generally and things began to move towards achieving success, particularly with the formation of the first Association of the Fine Arts Students (AFAS). Unfortunately, the Lalupon train disaster occurred in 1957. And many of the art students in this primal struggle lost their lives. This tragedy created a dispirited atmosphere, which eventually terminated the students’ agitation. Meanwhile, academic activities were going on steadily, and the art students were generally enjoying their Slade, Academy instructional mode and programmes.

The occidental form of art instruction in Zaria was of a high standard, and the art students, as regards creative responses, were not seen to be inferior to their European counterparts. But the Zaria art department, which had already received the torch of art development in Nigeria, experienced the second art agitation in 1958, planting a tree that would be an additional shade for modern Nigerian art teaching, practice and development. This was the agitation of the Zaria Art Society which rejected, among other things and though non-departmentally and unofficially, the exclusive authoritarian European or Academic mode of art instruction that did not, according to the members of the society, acknowledge or take into consideration the African or Nigerian cultural and artistic traditions. Thus, the Zaria Art School, had recorded another art event of art historical permanence.

11 … However, notable graduates of 1960mt0 1962 included Yusuf Grillo, Akin Salu, Bayo Ajayi, Yusuf Grillo Isiaka Osunde, J. Oyewole, Jide Oshiga and Uche Okeke. Others were Simon Okeke, Demas The Comb Screens Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Jimoh Akolo, Ogbonnaya Nwabara, Felix Ekeada, Oseloko Wood Osadebe, Okechukwu Odita and William Olaosebikan. All the above Zaria graduates majored Artist Collection or specialized in one of the three most popular art subjects of the period: painting, sculpture and

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graphics. According to Uche Okeke, drawing was the most sensitive part of the departmental courses, and it was the general belief that a weak draughtsman would also make a poo artist or designer, no matter the area of specialization.

Thus, the students, particularly with the aggressive artistic radicalization of the Zaria revolutionaries (and not “Zaria Rebels”) between 1958 and 1961, prepared the foundation for good and solid artistic standard in modern Nigerian art.

Extract by permission from the author, Ola Oloidi and publisher, National Gallery of Art: “Zaria Art School: A Creative Sanctum in Modern Nigerian Art, In “Zaria Art School: 50th Anniversary Exhibition 1955-2005”. PP183-185.

DEMAS NWOKO

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Demas Nwanna Nwoko (b. 1935)

Born on 20th December, 1935 at IDUMUJE UGBOKO a town in Aniocha North Local Government Area (LGA), Delta State Nigeria. Toa father who designed an Architectural monument as his palace, among other building activities, founding his interest in architecture from an early age.

I Studied Fine Arts at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria from 1957 to 1961. Pursued private studies in Creative Architecture from 1956 at Ibadan, Nigeria. Studied Theatre Architecture and Design for the stage (Scenography) at Centre Francais Du Theatre. Also Fresco Painting and Architectural Decoration at the Ecole Des Beaux-Art both in Paris, France, from 1961 - 1962. Pioneer staff of the School of Drama, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, teaching Designs, Dance Directing and Applied Aesthetics from 1963 - 1978. Won a Rockefeller travel grant in 1964 to study the Theatre of Africa, Asia, China, Japan, Canada and the United States of America.

Part of Development of Contemporary African Theatre, I Carried out Experimental Production Styles which Resulted the Following Production:-

• ‘The Palmwine Drinkard’ for a Travelling Theatre troupe in 1963 which was also Presented as Nigeria’s entry at the Pan African Cultural Festival held at Algeria in 1969.

• A Dance play, titled ‘DANDA’ which was presented at the First Negro Art Festival of Dakar, Senegal in 1966.

• A pure Dance Production titled the ‘Olympic Dance’ was the Nigerian Cultural Presentation at the Olympic Games of Mexico 1968.

• When Nigeria hosted the Second World Festival for the Black world FESTAC in 1977, I Presented another Dance-play called the ‘Children of paradise’.

Research and Development of African Architecture I pursued privately the study of Creative Architecture of the world from 1956 with great interest in Traditional Architecture of Africa, the Arab world and the Far East I won my first National architecture commission in 1960, to design and build the National Arts and Craft Pavilion during the Nigerian Independence celebration in Lagos.

Mural Painting and Public Sculpture Commissions • The mural ‘The Blacksmiths’ at Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria in 1960. • The mural ‘Talents’ University of Ibadan 1961. • Sculpture ‘Rendevous TOTEMS’ Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos 1980. • In 1967, I carried out an experiment on the movement of mud as a viable contemporary building material with the introduction of an a mixture of ten percent of Portland cement. The resultant mix was used to construct my studio, The New Culture Studios’ Ibadan. • Following this architectural experiment, I received subsequent commissions to design and construct:- – The Dominican Monastery Ibadan, Designed and built between 1970 – 1975

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– The Benin Cultural Centre from 1975 – 1995 Jerry Buhari in conversation with Demas Nwoko – Ibadan Cultural Centre as Theatre Design Consultant 1975 (5th May and 15th August 2019, at his residence in Idumuje-Ogboko, Delta State Nigeria) – My private Home Idumuje-Ugboko 1977 – 1978

– Chapel at Issele-Uku - designed and constructed 1984 JB: Since Kojo, Fosu named members of the Zaria Art Society, Zaria Rebels, there have – Benedictine Monastery Ewu – Architectural Consultant 1986 - 1997 been attempts by some of your members to re-interrogate that identity. Some scholars call you Zarianists, others Revolutionaries. What are you’re your take? Uncompleted Commissions Include:-

– Theatre Design Consultant to the Onikan Cultural Centre Lagos 1985 DN: My answer to that is that the movement was not a rebellion, it was an attempt to fill in the – Design and construction of private Mosque at Enugu – 1984 gaps in the the teaching of the curriculum of the institution at that period, for example, outdoor – Design proposal for Grand Mosque with a capacity for twenty thousand worshipers freehand sketching of life and features of the entire environment. at Ilorin- 1974 b, we sought to see the importance in the studying of traditional arts. Withdrew service from the University of Ibadan in 1978 to establish a building component and materials development Centre in my birthplace Idumuje Ugboko. All theatre fittings for the c, On my part, it was important to encourage every student in the university to develop their Benin Cultural Centre were also manufactured in this location. These included structural steel, artistic talents, which I believe, would be of immense benefit to whatever career they are woodworks, Theatre seats, and some light fittings. pursuing, for me especially students of the architectural department.

In 1978, the New Culture Studios Ibadan was converted from private studios into a training JB: What do you think about the publicity of your works and yourself? Centre for the Performing Arts and as Design Centre. The facilities in the studios include - an

Amphitheatre, Dance studio, Music Studio and Design Studio. There is also a cinematographic DN: My business is to create the work. Whatever happens to them and how they are used is film laboratory. entirely out of my control.

New Culture Art and Culture magazine: A publication section in the studio published ‘New JB: How do you relate to public opinion about your creative work and by extension Culture’ an Art and Culture Magazine, in 1979 as well as other Arts related books. yourself? Do you think that we can separate the two?

Craft furniture: The design and manufacture of Craft furniture since 1975 DN: My opinion about my works is legitimately free because the works were produced for the consumption of everybody; what the works do to them is legitimate and will have nothing to do with my personal relationship with them from my own side. The adverse effect or otherwise on the aesthetic evaluation of my works on my person is negligible. Positive strikes are usually thoroughly enjoyed by me and are great encouragement to my further activities in my creative endeavour. The bottom line is that I work for an audience never for myself. My audience is usually universal. My immediate community is my first concern.

JB: How would you look at our educational system in comparison with that of the US today? What, in your opinion is/are the most critical areas of challenge in both? What should be done?

DN: I am never involved in the comparison of the educational systems of the different people of the world. Educational systems should be designed entirely to provide the needs of each unique culture. If that should be accepted it means that the system that we are operating now is a complete disaster. The content of the Nigerian educational system, in my opinion, has no bearing with the true instructional needs of our people, which is to design an educational system to actualise the working of culture. The the first challenge is to design a new culture and the natural follow-up to that would be to design an implementation strategy that will involve the entire population.

JB: Let us look at art education in specific? What are your thoughts about the curriculum, the pedagogy, etc.? I say this in the light great artists without formal education. What are the formal institutions missing?

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DN: In principle the syllabus of formal education today can be said to be faulty in the sense The second part of art production is to use your records as a motivation to create a work of art. that it is paying less emphasis on the acquisition of skill by humans. This is a great omission To me, a work of art is a creation that takes on a life of its own, when my work on the subject because there is nothing that can become a physical reality without the formation of a human was done. At times the motivation could end up playing not so noticeable role in the final work hand. So the development of craftsmanship should be the foundation of all education. that results. That means that a final work of art would have been built in its new existence with whatever powers that the artist have chosen to release to the consciousness of its society. JB: We consider Society, Zaria Art Society, are clearly the fathers of contemporary and That is to say that the artist, through his work of art, has contributed to new realities and modern Nigerian and by extension African art. We recognise the founding roles that dimensions in the culture of the society. The audience is supposed to interact with the work of Aina Onabolu, Lasekan, Enwonwu played as pathfinders. What kind of role do you still art as knowing that work has a legitimate existence. see yourselves playing and what role/s would you like your successors to take on?

DN: The development of an art culture like all cultures thrives and evolves as part of the contemporary life of my any people. The faith of any particular time in space does not necessarily depend on the performance of the preceding time; neither does it systematically become the projection of the future. Each particular age throws up a reflection of the realities of the prevailing culture. This makes it difficult to assume that cultural occurrences in time could be truly aggregated to what could be termed as a developmental progression from the past. It seems that the aesthetic quality of culture/s of any given time will ever remain unique to that period. That is why my expectation of the positive recognition of the efforts of our group by the next generation cannot be written in gold. This is in spite of the fact that we have laboured, hopefully, for the better tomorrow. At best we hope that our intentions would be read as positive.

JB: What are some of the things that you would have done differently?

DN: None.

JB: Consider the idea advanced in some quarters that painting or conventional art has been exhausted or even dead; that there is nothing new to add. What is your opinion?

DN: Further to some answers already said, art is the first creative activity of humanity since the inception of society, I do not believe that it will cease to exist. As long as a society exist at any given time some activities that will cover that essential need of humanity will always be practised. So art will never cease to exist and I may underline that every definite form of art which might be identified with certain times and age might not truly be all that new as most forms must have been practised at any given time and place in many forms. Art is the creative encounter of man with the manipulation of materials available to him at all times.

JB: What is your opinion about the place of conceptual art, for example, installation art, performance art and new media, etc.?

DN: All arts are valid.

JB: Share with us how you approach the creation of a work of art? I know that each work may bring its own unique creative approach or challenge. But, can you talk generally on this?

DN: To me there are two parts to art. One is the craft of recording experience, by experience from all sense of the body. The first instinct is, when it occurs to record it, is to put it down as a freehand sketch. This occurrence might be instantaneous as it happens and the environment is conducive to record it or as it is played back from your memory no matter how distinct in the past the occurrence was.

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2 1 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko The Combatant (Soja 1) Senegalese Woman Oil on board Gouache on paper 1967 1960 29 x 23.5 in 34.5 X 21.5 in Artist Collection Artist Collection

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3 Demas Nwoko Ogboni Chief Oil on board 1960 29 x 20 in Artist Collection

4 Demas Nwoko Night Club in Dakar Oil on hard board 1965 23.5 X 18.5 in Artist Collection

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6 Demas Nwoko The Wise Man Wood 1965 36 in Artist Collection

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5 Demas Nwoko The Warrior/ Soja 1 Oil on board 1967 35 x 46.5 in Artist Collection

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7 Demas Nwoko Mother and Child Cement 1958 24 in Artist Collection

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10 Demas Nwoko 8 Head of a Lady Demas Nwoko Terracotta Onile Gogoro 1970s Terracotta 10 x 16 in 1970s Artist Collection 12 x 8 in Artist Collection ENQUIRIES

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9 11 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko The Elephant Woman Agbo Dancers Terracotta Terracotta 1970s 1970s 30 x 19 in 22 x 10 in Artist Collection Artist Collection

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14 Demas Nwoko Beggars on Train Charcoal pencil on paper 1958 22.02 x 15.05 in. Artist Collection

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15 Demas Nwoko Life Drawing-Study Pencil on paper 1960 14.9 x 22.2 in. Artist Collection

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12 13 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Praise Singer Praise Singer-Detail Pencil on paper Pencil on paper 1961 22.02 x 15.05 in. 22.02 x 15.05 in. Artist Collection Artist Collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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16 Demas Nwoko The Wise Man Wood Undated 28.5 in Private collection

17 Demas Nwoko Indian Girl in Sari Watercolour on paper 1965 20 x 29 in Private collection

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18 Demas Nwoko Senegalese Woman Oil on board 1970 36 x 24 in Private collection

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20 Demas Nwoko Palmwine Drinkard Performance Poster Screenprint 1962 29 x 20 in

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21 19 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko The King and I Danda Oil on board Performance Poster 1961 Screenprint 55 x 27 in 1966 Private collection 29 x 20 in

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22 Demas Nwoko Danda 1966 60 x 72 in

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23 24 25 Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Demas Nwoko Dominican Chapel Dominican Monastry of Matyrs New Culture Studios, Ibadan Interior, Ibadan 48 x 79 in 48 x 48 in 1970-75 48 x 79 in ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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26 Demas Nwoko Palmwine Drinkard, EMMANUEL ODITA Complete Gentleman Print 1962 60 x 72in

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27 Totem at Murtatla Mohammed International Airport, Lagos 1980 60 x 77in

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ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 56 57

Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita (b. 1934)

Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita was born in Onitsha in Anambra State, Nigeria. Odita graduated with Dip.FA from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1963. He worked in the mediums of Painting, Drawing, Sculpture and Textile, and was involved in many one-person and group exhibitions during this time. After graduation, Okechukwu Odita was employed at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. While at Nsukka, Odita was awarded a commissioned to do several mural paintings at the Presidential Hotel, Enugu, Nigeria in 1963. This same year, he left Nigeria for Iowa City, Iowa, in the United States to further his artistic studies. Okechukwu Odita graduated from University of Iowa with an MA, and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking. Odita subsequently returned to the University of Nigeria as a Lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts.

In 1966, Okechukwu Odita returned to the USA to study for his PhD in the Department of History of African Art at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. After his graduation from Indiana University, he remained in the United States due to the Nigerian civil war. In 1969, Odita became employed as Associate Professor in the History of Art Department at the Ohio State University, and soon after become Professor of African Art and Archaeology. During his tenure at the Ohio State University, Odita contributed to the enrichment of art and art history in Nigeria.

Okechukwu Odita designed a summer abroad program for Nigeria in collaboration with the Ohio State University, and from 2001 to 2006, Odita and the Nigerian National Gallery in Lagos Nigeria offered courses to the Nigerian Art Community, where students from all parts of Nigeria were invited to attend, especially Art Teachers in K-12. Odita taught contemporary African art, as well as traditional African Art and culture as a professor in the Department of History of Art at the Ohio State University. His research has focused on twentieth century African Art and its relation to traditional African Art and culture. His participation in numerous contemporary African Art conferences in Africa, Canada, Europe, South America, and United States, as well as field trips to Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Zimbabwe have all combined to make him a seasoned professional in his discipline. From the year 2001 to 2012, Okechukwu Odita curated contemporary African Art exhibitions at the KIACA Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, a non-profit organization committed to establishing a solid platform for contemporary African Art and artists in the community.

Okechukwu Odita has had many exhibitions in museums and galleries, and has published and lectured widely on contemporary and traditional African Art and culture. Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita retired in 2012 from full Professor of African Art and Archaeology at the Ohio State University, and currently maintains his studio practice in Columbus, Ohio and Calafia, Mexico.

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The Zaria Art Society its artworks and art THE SECRETARY OF ZARIA ART SOCIETY 1958/59 - 1061/62 technique prompters GOD’s GRACE STILL REPORT (1958/59 - 1961/62 -- ACADEMIC YEARS) by Emmanuel Odita Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita, Dp. FA; M.A.; MFA; Ph.D Wakefield Forest, Columbus, Ohio

In the daily studio practices of the Zaria Art Society (ZAS) the Nigerian College of Arts, Science Depart of History of Art. and Technology, and now, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, there was a distinctive Art Studio, Professor of African Art and Archaeology involving production of artworks and conversational art technic prompters, discussed below College of Arts in details. However, Zaria Art Society’s aim at artistic and intellectual activities propelled their The Ohio State University desires for fame and fortune, especially by the foremost pioneers transferring from Ibadan Columbus, Ohio University, Ibadan, Nigeria, who were exceptionally tough and fearless of uncertainties. www/Foca art.com Observing that ZAS members, in their various specializations were gifted and prolific artists, the pioneers organized exhibitions in Nigeria and beyond. Equally effective in organizing ZAS United States of America activities were the following: Simon Okeke, who in 1959, resigned the presidency of ZAS. Uche Okeke happily replaced him in February 10, 1960. Also, William Olasebikan resigned the Today, through the good services of Mrs. Kavita Chellaram of Arthouse, Lagos, Nigeria and office of secretary for unknown reasons in May of 1960. Thereafter, Emmanuel Okechukwu the able Professor Jerry Buhari of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, cooperatively offer quality Odita became the secretary of Zaria Art Society, ending in the 1961/1962 academic year. artworks of seven Zaria Art Society pioneers for exhibition in Lagos Nigeria, namely, Yusuf Grillo, Simon Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Osaloka Osadebe All active members of Zaria Art Society from 1958 to 1962 included the following: Jimo and Emmanuel Okechukwu Odita. This exhibition is thoughtful and timely. Akolo, Bolaji Bamgboye, Yusuf Grillo, Godfrey Okiki, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Osaenwesi Omigie, Osaloka Osadebe, Oshumibah Osunde, Ogbonnaya Nwagbara, Demas Nwoko, Emmanuel Before I end my statement, let me attempt answers to a few of the questions raised by Okechukwu Odita, William Olasebikan and Udo Udosen. Historically, it was a glorious period Professor Buhari. It is noteworthy that the Zaria Art society is regarded as the father of modern of innocence and infinite youthful strength. Nigerian Art. The role I see myself playing in that and my successors to play in the continued development of Nigerian and African Art is reflected in my life work in theory and practice. My Finally, art technique prompters learned in the studios of the Zaria Art Society essentially education in Fine Arts and the History of Art prepared me to offer guidance in the development served to guide in the artwork evaluation among Zaria artists. These were in the area of Art of Nigerian and African Contemporary Art. In my book, Foundations of Contemporary African techniques, Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Design, Department of Fine Arts and Applied Art (FOCA’ART), I proposed classifications of Contemporary African Art. Major reference about Arts, Zaria, from 1958/59 - 1961/62 academic sessions, when ZAS common wealth of art these classifications can be found at my website: www.foca’art.com technique prompters were emphasized and useful to all. These were as follows: FOCA Art identifies four major art styles: 1. Vitu Art; 2. Soyan Art; 3. Sankofa Art; and 4. Ijinla Art. These major art styles also have sub-styles. The emphasis on these classifications are on 1. Knock It Down. Tone Down Artwork›s intensity in finishing. art styles and artists. This study shows that the quality of art defines the rank of the artist and 2. Fade Less. Observe artwork’s illusion of distance. explains the artist’s experiences. The quality of art blurs the separation between the trained 3. Cut In. Bring important features of artwork in front. and the self-trained artists, as well as distinguishes the artist’s style. 4. Face It. Get on with artwork›s processing bravely. 5. Twist It. With dry brush, unify artwork›s areas. 6. Force It. Complete major design area of artwork. 7. Calm Down. Technical problems are now resolved. 8. Hang Up. Stop artwork if finished. Show time, next. 9. Benin It. Benin student (via S.W. of Nigeria) Carving. 10. Hausa It. Hausa student (via N. of Nigeria) Sculpting. 11. Ibibio It. Ibibo Student (via Delta of Nigeria) Painting. 12. Igbo It. Igbo Student (via Eastern Nigeria) Painting. 13. Yoruba It. Yoruba Student (via Western Nigeria) Sculpting. 14. Bow and Arrow. In ZAS. All for One and One for All.

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3 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Flames Without Borders Oil on canvas 2017 95 x 47 in Artist collection

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1 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Why would the Eye of a Bull be a Target Oil on canvas 53 x 64 in Artist collection

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2 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita African Dna Oil on canvas 2017 59 x 35 in Artist collection

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4 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita The Drummer Oil on canvas 2017 60 x 24 in Artist collection

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5 6 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Njikoka The Church Silkscreen Pastel on paper 1982 1964 35 x 23 in 17.5 X 20 in Artist collection Artist collection

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7 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita It Survived Charcoal and pencil on paper 1964 28 x 22 in Artist collection

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9 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita 8 Coconut Charcoal on paper Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita 1964 Tomatoes and Grapes Pastel on paper 17 x 25 in 1964 Artist collection 16 x 20 in Artist collection ENQUIRIES

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10 Okechukwu Emmanuel Odita Life Saver Pastel on paper 1964 16 x 20 in Artist collection

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The Mystical Zaria Art Society by Jacob Jari

I have had my doubts about the true nature of the Zaria Art Society. Some of my misgivings are published in The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness (1998), edited by Paul Chike Dike and Pat Oyelola. Why and how the Society operation continue to be shrouded in controversy especially as we read more recent publications such as There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012), by Chinua Achebe. In this book, Achebe writes that he and Christopher Okigbo, led by Ulli Beier, their Professor, set up the Mbari Club while they were at the University College, Ibadan. The Mbari Club, as we are aware, was attended by some of the members of the Zaria Art Society. Timothy Fasuyi in Timothy Adebanjo Fasuyi: A Renowned Artist and Accomplished Educationist (2018), edited by Abdullahi Muku and Simon Ikpakronyi, recounts Beier’s romance with Zaria. His observation that the founding of the Zaria Art Society was induced by ethnic bigotry makes interesting reading particularly because of the similarity between the Society’s objectives and some aspects of the Ahiara Declaration eventually produced by Achebe and his colleagues. Despite this seeming mysticism around the Society’s existence however, there is no doubt that it has engendered a veritable art historical discourse, which is no mean feat. SIMON OKEKE

The Enduring Legacy of Zaria Art Society by Ozioma Onuzulike

I consider “documentation” a very enduring legacy of the members of the Zaria Art Society. Without it, much of the history of modern art in Nigeria would have either been completely lost or remained in overarching doubt. Thus, they laid the groundwork for the history and criticism of modern and contemporary art in Nigeria. How we have built, or are building, upon this legacy remains a burden on our own shoulders.

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Simon Obiekezie Okeke (1937-1969) Simon Okeke was born in 1937 in Igbo-Ikwu, in the eastern part of the country. He attended Edo College, Benin, and the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology, Zaria from 1956 – 1960. He won an honourary mention in a literary competition organized by the Nigerian Art Council during the independence year. He joined the Antiquities Department as a Technical Officer and worked in the research laboratory of the British Museum in London. He travelled to the following places, visiting museums and attending conferences on museums and African culture: Paris, Athens, Rome, Zimbabwe, U.S.A., Libya and some French speaking African countries. In 1964, he became the Curator of the National Museum, Lagos and a part-time lecturer in drawing and sculpture, Yaba College of Technology. In 1966, he returned to the then Eastern Nigeria as a result of the Nigerian Crisis and joined the Ministry of information, Enugu.

During the Biafra days, he designed postage stamps and currency for Biafra and had to travel to Portugal regarding these. He was primarily a painter and sculptor; his work can be described as painting in the limbo of time. Moods seem to be his subject and he imposes his own colours on the true colour objects. Simon was indebted to Rembrandt’s sense of colour and dramatic lighting effects. He was also deeply influenced by the sculptural works of Nok, Igbo-Okwu, Ife, and Benin as represented in museums of the Nigeria and British Museum, where he spent some time in the research laboratory. His technical knowledge and experiences match his fertile imagination and preoccupation with ritual events and the tragic consequences of life experienced in his Igbo society. Like the Okwa-Opi of traditional times, Okeke announced the coming of light from his vantage ground in the twilight place.

Starting with white paper he built up his dark, richly coloured forms so they have a density and mass uncommon in water colour technique. The roundness of the forms is achieved not only by the use of light and shade but also by the scratching away of the paint to form highlights. Many Source: National Gallery of Art, Nigeria Source: of these forms are them silhouetted against a dark, densely pigmented, plain background. He has a preference for simple, compact figures in which heads, legs and arms are drawn tightly to the bodies. In other to group compositions, the figures are so densely crowded that it is difficult to disentangle them. Okeke frequently distorts figures and objects to enhance the compactness of his designs. His figures are composed of simple, rounded shapes, free of descriptive detail. Sometimes intertwined with his figures are simple, spherical objects such as calabashes and bowls. For Okeke, art is life itself, not a way of living. Family was dominant theme in Simon Okeke’s work. The Family I is not the family of just the living but entire agburu (kindred family) both dead and the living, which is the foundation of Igbo culture. During the Commonwealth Festival in 1966 exhibition of Contemporary African art were organized in Cardiff by the Dennis Duerden, featuring works by Simon Okeke, which attracted the attention of the Duke of Edinburg, who bought some. Okeke was an artist with a strong sense of detail. He was a perfectionist and he never considered that he had finished any work until he took it to an exhibition. Night after he used to work at a painting, being the strictest critic of his own work.

Looking at Okeke’s works, one recalls the words of Herbert Read: “Art is an escape from chaos. It is a movement ordained in numbers; it is mass confined in measure; it is the in determination of matter seeking the rhythm of life”. In his works Okeke exalted African themes, African forms and the African notion of beauty. However, timorous of fixing titles to his works, he used to ask clients and friends to make their suggestion.

Extracted from “ The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness”. Published by National Gallery of Art Nigeria. Reproduced by permission of Publisher.

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The Legacy of Uche Okeke and the Zaria Art Society in the Study of Nigerian Indigenous Arts

by Rebecca Wolff

In his now canonical speech-cum-manifesto “Natural Synthesis” presented to the Zaria Art Society in 1960, Uche Okeke declared, “The artist is essentially an individual working within a particular social background and guided by the philosophy of life of his society…. I disagree with those who live in Africa and ape European artists… Our new society calls for a synthesis of old and new, of functionality and art for art’s sake.”1 A call for the decolonization of culture, Okeke firmly rooted the artist in his sociocultural environment. He emphasized the importance of “looking back” at indigenous culture in order to move forward as an independent nation and combat the domineering cultural influence of Europe. Thus, Natural Synthesis, as crystallized by Okeke and advocated by the Zaria Art Society, was an inward-looking theoretical approach that promoted the study of artistic precedents from within Nigeria’s national borders. Accordingly, the Art Society’s activities included spending parts of holidays researching indigenous art forms and sharing their findings with the group. This belief in close observation and analysis of indigenous cultural forms to inform artistic output persisted in the practices of many Art Society members after they left Zaria. Indeed, the insistence on the methodical study of Nigerian culture for artistic inspiration has become one of the Art Society’s most enduring legacies.

This legacy is perhaps best exemplified by the academic curriculum Uche Okeke helped develop for the Fine and Applied Arts Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). When Okeke arrived at the university in 1971, shortly after the end of the Nigerian Civil War, he took advantage of the “blank slate” created by the reopening of the school by systematically reinventing the department’s curriculum and educational mission. Along with key allies including Chike Aniakor and V. C. Amaefunah, he instilled his ideas of Natural Synthesis embodied by his artistic approach based on uli into the curriculum.

Okeke ensured that Nigerian art became the cornerstone of the department. He not only taught a Nigerian art history course, but he also stipulated that students complete mandatory B.A. theses on some aspect of indigenous culture or Nigerian art history. Students thus learned about indigenous Nigerian art forms by going into the field to research, often to their hometowns and often choosing uli as their subject. It greatly strengthened students’ understandings of uli and other Nigerian art forms, which in turn, influenced their artistic practices. Through uli, Okeke and his supporters created an educational program that produced artists rooted in their culture and history with a unique artistic identity.

Following the previous endeavors of the Zaria Art Society, Okeke succeeded in embedding the UNN Fine and Applied Arts Department in Nigerian art and culture. Uli was his means to accomplish this goal, as it was studied by many students for their research component and became entrenched in the aesthetics and philosophy of many faculty members and graduates. Generations of artists have now come to carry on this stylistic approach based on uli. Moreover, similar movements inspired by the deep study and exploration of indigenous Nigerian arts took 1 root throughout the country, including the notable Ona art movement at Obafemi Awolowo Simon Okeke University in Ife. Today, these artists continue the ethos of Natural Synthesis that began with Mother and Child the Zaria Art Society. Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1966 Notes: 1. Uche Okeke, “Natural Synthesis,” The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in 25 x 18 in Africa, 1945-1994, ed. by Okwui Enwezor (Munich: Prestel, 2001), 453. Private collection

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2 Simon Okeke Untitled Oil on board 1966 44 x 34 in Private collection

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4 Simon Okeke Lady Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1965 12 x 10 in Private collection

3 Simon Okeke Untitled Watercolour, pen & ink on paper Undated 22 x 9 in Private collection

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6 Simon Okeke Untitled Watercolour, pen & ink on paper 1966 14 x 11 in Private collection

5 Simon Okeke Untitled Oil on paper 1962 27 x 20 in Private collection

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UCHE OKEKE

7 Simon Okeke Girl with Urn Watercolour on paper Circa, 1951 14.5 x 10.5 in

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Uchefuna Christopher Okeke (1933-2016)

An outstanding artist of international repute, Professor Uche Okeke remains one of the pillars on which contemporary Nigerian art rests and the unarguable kingpin of Uli art practice in Nigeria.

Uche Okeke was born on April 30, 1933, in Nimo, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria. Between 1940 and 1953, he attended St. Peter Claver’s (Primary) School, Kafanchan, Metropolitan College, Onitsha and Bishop Shanahan College, Orlu, during which time he had already begun to demonstrate an avid interest in drawing and painting. Before being admitted to read Fine Art at Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Uche Okeke had already exhibited taxidermy work during the Field Society meeting in Jos Museum, participated in the preparation and presentation of Nigerian Drawings and Paintings with Bernard Fagg as curator and had a solo exhibition of drawings and paintings, in Jos and Kaduna with Sir Ahmadu Bello in attendance.

As an undergraduate in 1958, Uche Okeke together with Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, and others inaugurated the now historically significant Zaria Art society. In that same year, he opened a cultural centre at 30 Ibadan Street, Kafanchan, which later grew into the world-famous Asele Institute, Nimo, where among other cultural activities a part of the Smithsonian-Institution sponsored educational film Nigerian Art-Kindred Spirits was shot in 1996.

In the early 1970s when he was appointed lecturer and acting head of Fine Arts Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he reviewed the entire course programme introducing new courses and research into Igbo Uli art tradition. In 1973, he also designed the first-

Photo credit: Uche Okeke from Newark Uche Okeke from Photo credit: course programme of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu and initiated postgraduate courses in the Department of Fine Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He has been Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Visiting Professor to the Department of Creative Arts, University of Port Harcourt, Honorary Deputy Director-General (Africa) of International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, among numerous other engagements with many educational and cultural institutions in different parts of the world.

It is certainly difficult to encapsulate all of Uche Okeke’s activities and contributions to contemporary art in a brief sketch such as this one. Beginning from the 1950s, he has literally traversed the landscape of modern art in Nigeria, leaving in his stride bold, remarkable, and enduring footprints which have inspired many Nigerian artists and Africanist art historians, including some of the world’s avant-garde.

That Okeke carried the Uli experiment beyond the walls of Zaria and stood in the forefront of its transformation into a modern idiom in the 1970s, from the studios at Nsukka remains a feat of inspired originality. That his “natural synthesis” philosophy blossomed to become fount and factor in the development of modern art in Nigeria represents a logical and sustained triumph of both vision and imagination. All these have transformed him into a father figure in the history of Nigerian modernism and he has carried the burden of history so gracefully that his ideas and legacies are sure to find followers among generations of artists to come.

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What was the response of the other students to the activities of the Art Society? Uche Okeke: Interview by Chika Okeke-Agulu The rest of the students misunderstood us generally. They thought we were out for trouble (Nimo, August 31, 1997) making. That’s why you hear such descriptive terms as “rebels” applied to the Art Society. Why Zaria Art Society? Why did a group of young students come together to form that So you don’t subscribe to the “rebel” terminology? Society? Certainly, As far as we were concerned we were not “rebels” because we had very good There was a necessity for it. There was no other group functioning at that time. rapport even with the European staff. In 1959 for instance, they asked me to accompany them on a trip down South, We went to Lagos, Benin, Ife. We went also to see the Tada bronzes (sic) Did you have to have any group at the time? and Esie stone sculptures. During that trip, I learnt quite a lot myself. Yes, you have to pressure with a group rather than have an individual talking about issues pertinent to him and his peers. As a group, you operate from a position of strength. It is interesting to note that there were some European teachers that were sympathetic to the Art Society. So there were issues that needed to be addressed in the Zaria environment. In which Personally, I never had any problems with them, though I was the President of the Art Society. case you reasoned that the formation of a collective was the best alternative. This is an important part of the story which a lot of people don’t understand. I had to travel with It was not just the local environment, we were concerned about development in our national them on that 1959 trip. But the reason was that 1 wanted those of them from Europe to also polity. Art was not given any serious consideration. The problem at that time was that there know the socio -cultural environment as well as the kind of art made in our traditional society. were the state festivals which were de-facto jamborees after which children were asked to Do you think that it was as a result of the misunderstanding of the Art Society by the rest of the make drawings at school. But there was no long term focus and we were worried about our art students that the Society did not continue after the graduation of its founding members? careers after graduating from Zaria. Of course, the other point was that, it was the period of It couldn’t have continued because it was dissolved. national struggle for independence. We had the point of identity. We wanted to show that Nigerian art could also have a distinct Nigerian character rather than posturing as a colonial Why? transplant. The members by 1961 were graduating and if we allowed the Society to continue after us, it would have been completely messed up. So the formation of the Art Society was your contribution to the political ferment within the emergent nation? You are saying that it would have been impossible even for younger students, who Well, that was the political part of it. It was necessary that outside the usual art students’ shared the ideals of the founding membership with equal zeal to have continued with association there should be a more serious minded alternative group that could come together the Society after 1961? to talk about their problems. We had meetings. We met often for discussions, not just to draw As a group we dissolved the Society. If there were people who wanted to continue, nothing or paint, for our problems were beyond the acquisition of technical skills as artists. People had stopped them from doing that after we were gone since the Society was essentially an idea. It to think and develop ideas based on what was there before them. was not the papers or association’s documents that made the group; it was the membership. So if there were people that shared our motivations, our interest and visions, they could have What was the nature of your meetings? gone on with it. But there was a formal dissolution and the little money we had in our purse, we We didn’t meet to draw or paint, as I said earlier, because our curricular schedules took care used to buy art books which we shared out to the members. But the point is that in different of that. We were concerned about the nature of Nigerian art; what it could mean in the face of years, the Society didn’t have as many students because people were dropping out and others our traditional and transitional art. Were we to jettison these and embrace the kind of art taught didn’t pay up their dues. by our white lecturers? These formed the focus of our deliberation then. You had one female member in the Art Society, according to the records. Was she just What then was the theoretical or ideological basis for these enquiries? a paying member, or was she active in the Society? After studying the problems, we decided to talk about synthesis She was a young member. She wasn’t terribly active. If I see her today, I may not be able to recognize her. She came in ‘61 which was the third and last year of the society. So she was a What was this synthesis about? member for just one year. I call it natural synthesis, that is you had to synthesize. Of course art by its very nature is a synthesis, old and new ideas, old and new techniques, and our individual ideas. That was the Would you describe the Zaria Art Society as a wasted effort? major contribution of the Art Society. Wasted effort? You can see from the membership. As I told you, we were more involved in the realm of ideas, and how we could help ourselves get on in our profession. It was members You use the first person singular here. Does it suggest that you came up with the idea of of the Society that started the SNA and some other groups. Some also have set up their synthesis before it was adopted by the group? own institutions and all these were a result of the zeal with which we formed the Art Society. The Art Society was moving towards that idea. I more or less provided the packaging. Everybody And since after Zaria, we the members still have that understanding. For instance if there is a was agreed that if you were a Yoruba you didn’t have to throw away your Yoruba background. programme or event, and I know that Grille is the man for it, I would send his name. We envisioned a kind of synthesis that would bring out art from our ‘tribal’ enclaves or ethnic cleavages and put them on the platform of national significance.

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So you maintain some sort of fraternity? It is important and that is what the younger people should learn because unity is strength and an artist, no matter how smart, cannot reach out to everybody at the same time. But the situation is better when you are two or three, and share the same kind of ideals. This is the same in every profession. One tree cannot form a forest.

You certainly don’t have any regrets about the Art Society? Regrets! It is you people who should pass judgement, not me. But I know that we have tried our own bit as we could, and I am sure that our members are happy that they were part of the experience.

Extract from THE ZARIA ART SOCIETY: A New Consciousness. A Publication of the National Gallery of Art. 1998. By permission from the Publisher and author.

1 Uche Okeke Self Portrait Oil on board 1959 36 x 24 in Private collection

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2 Uche Okeke Joseph Ink and brush on paper 1962 24 x 17.5 in Private collection

ENQUIRIES 4 Uche Okeke Untitled Ink and brush on paper 1962 24 x 17.5 in Private collection

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3 Uche Okeke Mother of Christ Ink and brush on paper 1962 24 x 17.5 in Private collection

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6 Uche Okeke Stations of the cross I and II charcoal on paper 1976 17.5 X 22 in each Private collection

5 Uche Okeke Male Model at Rest Oil on board 1966 24 x 24 in Private collection

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8 Uche Okeke Onwa Ikenga Watercolour on paper 1993 24 x 18 in Private collection

7 Uche Okeke Sitting Female Oil on board 1960 24 x 36 in Private collection

9 Uche Okeke Primeval Forest Gouache on paper 1965 63 x 55 in Private collection

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ZARIA ART SOCIETY ︱ CELEBRATION OF LEGACIES 90 91

11 Uche Okeke The Burial Procession Oil on board 1961 24 x 48 in Private collection

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10 Uche Okeke Adanma Uche Okeke Oil on board Jumaa 1961 Oil on board 47 x 23 in 1961 Private collection 35 x 47 in Private collection ENQUIRIES

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A Singular Vision, with Diverse Ideologies and Multiple Communities “When we toil for the cause of art; we must realise that we are making history. We must therefore have faith and trust in our ability to search for knowledge and truth”.

by Uche Okeke

(Excerpt from 2nd edition of Art in Development – A Nigerian Perspective, The Growth of an Idea, Zaria Art Society, September 1959. Pg. 22)

The above excerpt for me encapsulates the collective spirit, singularity of vision and sense of purpose with which the 10 core members of the Zaria Art Society approached what they saw as a responsibility to ensure that generations of artists and creatives coming after them, would have a solid foundation on which to build the future of contemporary art practice in Nigeria. Their vision was broad in perspective and looked holistically at art practice, including the very important foundation of art education and technical application. In my view, the individual contributions of these 10 individuals are yet to be thoroughly researched and fully documented. For instance, there is one female in the group that has not been properly recognised or documented, there are multiple layers to the Society and its members. I believe that they were a group of unique and highly intelligent individuals, who took a calculated leap of faith. The contributions, talents and the single-mindedness, energy and sense of purpose BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA they encapsulated as a collective, is yet to be reproduced in any of the generations of artists that have come after them.

Those words written by my father for me is representative of each individual member’s essence and the significance of the Zaria Art Society in shaping my father’s practice. It also highlights for me some of the core elements that drove his calling and singular vision. A vision that is intertwined with the genesis of Asele Institute. As far back as I can remember Asele Institute has been at the core of my father’s artistic and academic practice. The Zaria Art Society was a powerful springboard for his artistic, creative and scholarly ideas, but Asele was the engine room that drove Uche Okeke’s ideologies and the repository of the materials and art works collected/produced over decades. The Institute was where these ideas were implemented. It is very difficult to separate the man Uche Okeke and the place Asele and by extension Nimo, the final location for the Institute, and the final resting place of the man and artist.

Ijeoma Uche-Okeke Johannesburg, South Africa 19th September 2019

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Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya (b.1932)

Recourse to the roots while admitting the changes of the times and the fertilizing influences, which come from outside our cultural spheres, is the basic tenets of the Zaria Art Society. Formulated at the time when many African countries were engaged in the struggle to gain freedom from colonial domination, their manifesto propelled a revolution that would direct the pace of our art that would materialize our thoughts and actions in the post-independence Nigeria. Bruce Onobrakpeya was a member of this student group which the art historian Kojo Fosu nicknamed the “Zaria Rebels.” in the now defunct Nigerian College of Art Science and Technology (now, Ahmadu Bello University).

Bruce Onobrakpeya grew up in the traditional society where the land comprising of forests, water, and the sky, are peopled by visible and invisible beings. His early works were folklore, which sought to explain myths of origins. Later, his art grew to embrace the totality of human life as experienced through the environment ecosystem, religions, politics, and economics of survival.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, now in his late eighties can be described as an experimental artist whose restless search has created innovations that have touched on many disciplines within the visual and literary arts which have helped him to sustain the expression of a multitude of ideas. Apart from his passion for visual and intellectual output, Bruce Onobrakpeya is involved in art education at both the formal and informal levels. After teaching for many years in both the secondary and tertiary level, he instituted the Harmattan Workshop Series at Agbarha-otor in Delta State where artists meet to share ideas and learn skills for growth,

Bruce Onobrakpeya’s contribution to the development of Nigerian art has been acknowledged and rewarded with many awards from within and outside Nigeria. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from two Nigerian universities. He is the recipient of the prestigious “Living Human Treasure” awarded by the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with UNESCO. He has also received the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM). His art works are in the Vatican Museum Rome, the Museum for African Art, Washington DC, and the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London.

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BO: It is great! During our time we were exposed to rudiments of art, materials, techniques Jerry Buhari in Conversation with Bruce Onobrakpeya and a bit of art history. How to make art, what constitutes art continue to be taught in Nigerian schools. This is a good thing. But art education must flow into informal art education. (Wednesday 7th August 2019. At his residence on 41 Oloje Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin, Lagos.) Exposure to practising masters and working with them is very important; so also is exposure

to workshops under informal experience and environment (not academic). These will expose JB: How do you see the future of art in Nigeria? the artist to new possibilities all the time. The result is freedom and it builds self-confidence

and the ability to express. An artist, however, must know where to dig out materials. Formal BO: I look at the situation in the fifties; there was no hope for you as an artist. Parents grudgingly education is good; but later, the artists should work with masters in an informal setting so that would pay your school fees. David Dale’s story is a case in point. His parents vehemently they can become artists themselves. opposed his interest in art. In the end, he left home. It was his sister that paid his school fees.

The pressure is less now with good examples of successful artists. Now parents don’t have JB: People live with you in a way because they have your works in their homes and a problem with their children studying art. Today artists speak about the potentials that are in spaces all over the world. How do you respond to that kind of experience of visibility? art as an investment. Art is big business and Nigerians are seeing it. In the near future art will

be an alternative source of wealth comparative to oil. Art museums are emerging; art galleries BO: I have to defend what I am doing because sometimes people may feel producing so many are growing in their numbers. In future art and artists will be playing important roles in society. artworks for so many places is counterproductive. People like rarity and want works that are Art is meant to give body to thought and to enrich our imagination. Art is meant to elucidate. rare. From the economic angle, producing any work is not good and is not encouraged, but We can use art to educate and bring out about vague ideas. An artist is meant to have a for me, it’s my policy and target to reach as many people as I can, and because of that, I have message that is peculiar to him or her, the culture of a people, and what they think. developed ways of multiplying my production in order to do the latter/above. Produce as much

as possible so that it will get to as many people as possible so that people can enjoy it. Artists must try to put themselves on a higher level than others. If you’re on the same plane

with others, like your audience, you cannot give them anything new. They know what you JB: What do you think about the publicity of your works and yourself? How do you want, what you have. Then after some time, they are tired of it. Abroad, sometimes, as an respond to that kind of visibility? artist, once they put you in a certain box, you can never get out. You have to liberate yourself

from the people’s expectations, needs and demands. You have to even make art that people BO: Two ways. Sometimes, I had to defend what I am doing. I believe in continuous work, will not buy, but one day someone will come for it. And once someone else sees it, and more producing so much and letting the works enter many places. I know that some people may and more, you can take off from there. Yan artist must be restless and ever-changing before think this to be counter-productive. Some people want rarity. But to me, the more many works others catch up with you and bastardise what you have done. go to many homes the better. The economics part of the capitalist part may not very good.

This is my view: my policy is to get my work to reach as many people as possible. So, in my JB: How do you respond to failure in experimentation? How long does a piece of work opinion, development is the ability to multiply production to reach many people and not just take you? a few. Take for example a situation where we have only a few cars or one car. This will not be

able to take many people to their destination/s. I think the same can be said of art. An artist BO: It depends on the level of inspiration, you get. You keep working on it till the end, but should produce as much as possible to reach more people to enjoy and relate to it, even to sometimes you’re doing the work and the inspiration dies down and you can’t move forward. solve spiritual challenges. I am happy that my works can reach out to different many people. You leave the work and it can be there two to five years, and you can wake up one morning

and you know how to how to move the work forward.

Don’t throw any work away. Keep things as an artist, be a hoarder. Have space where you JB: What is the importance of public opinion on your art practice? keep all sorts of things and works. They will be useful one day. If you have an idea and you have

a problem, try it out many ways. If you don’t get away forward don’t worry. You have left the BO: The artist is a member of a community and what comes out of him reflects the community. problem to the subconscious. You have given it an assignment. When the assignment is done The community relies on the artist to express what they cannot express. When an artwork and the answer is ready, it will come out. It will come to your conscious. expresses the ideas of other people, the artist is not doing anything unusual. An artist merely

brings out ideas that were floating. When people react to a work of art, it is confirmation of the JB: All the members of the Zaria Art Society have cut a lifestyle that is quite interesting. floating ideas made concrete. You all have an active practice life and you all have a legacy of teaching and love to

teach and communicate, share and mentor. What do you think maybe responsible for JB: Reflecting on how art education in Nigeria has evolved, what do you consider being this striking resemblance of a multidimensional creative expression? the most critical area of challenge in art education?

BO: The first job open to artists in those days was teaching. Teaching is also learning. If you BO:Art education as it affects the ordinary man in the streets: our fathers did not accept art want to learn you want to teach and vice versa. education as it is accepted today. Thy never thought art could bring bread and butter to the

table. Our parents did not see art as a useful thing in society; but over the years, things have JB: What do you think about art education today? changed.

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JB: What our thoughts about our curriculum that led to the production of artists today? Shonibare and others who don’t use paint as a medium are in a way of painting too. They use Do you think it ought to be reviewed? already created materials to paint a picture or experience to bring out an inner expression, to tell stories, direct the future, to reflect on different subjects, and possibly even bring out an BO: Change must continue to take place. There must be a constant revision in the way we answer. Painting is an element of discovery. teach and use all sorts in the country in order to bring out the highest benefit of the arts. We must not minimise the time spent on art. The same teacher that is supposed to teach music We shouldn’t be fixated by the medium or material. It is what is there that no one knows. is the same teaching art, and other arts subjects all lumped together. JB: Can you give us a brief summary of some of the techniques that you have JB: What about informal art education? How do you see informal art education as an experimented with which you consider being your most profound discovery? After alternative to formal art education? Is formal as relevant as informal art education? painting what was the first printing you produced? What kind of technique would you call it? BO: They work hand in hand. What is very important to note is that the formal educational set up only reaches a select set of people, while informal reaches everybody from different walks BO:My attitude to art was more decorative and graphic, but I went into painting because all my of life. Informal education gives people something to do, empowers them to make a living out artist friends were there. Before I left Zaria, I got associated with the Ulli Beier group. He started of art and become useful in society. It is more self-sustainable. The informs educational set his workshop. I was in the 1961 workshop. That was where I discovered printmaking, etching up is a corrective way of bringing artists out from rigidity, of doing things only in a particular and so on. I realised that art was very scientific. Art has a lot of science in it. In our indigenous way and putting them on a path of freedom to create and self-discovery the self. Informal art arts, crafts and vocations there is science. education helps them to go back into themselves to bring out something very unique that will be useful to society. After the workshop, it took me three years to get my materials. I bought hydrochloric acid instead of nitric acid and that damaged my plates. I was so depressed. But this gave me the JB: What kind of challenges would you like your successors to take on, to solve with direction today, which is called additive plastography. This was what led me to create my own their art? workshop to help people to rediscover themselves. Additive plastograph is the opposite of plastography etching. BO: One of our challenges now is that artists are so engulfed in their own artistic production. You see, don’t be satisfied with that which you have now, there is always more you can do That kind of attitude prevents them from living a fuller life that can thicken the good things of and remember that there is something you can always do better. That’s how an artist can keep life around them, and not work so much. moving forward, and always having something new and challenging. There is always a new thing to be done. Artists now are not able to press and push for certain things in their society. The artist of today is too selfish with his style and work.

The next generation of artists should go ahead and be proud of that has gone before them and use those things in order to move forward. They should take a stand about their identity as African artists.

They should be open to taking in ideas from outside that will help us add to our own and reinforce.

We must use the fact that what we do must reflect and project the way we stay in our environment and project our thoughts to make us live better lives.

Artist must grow slowly; otherwise, you lose your bearing. Grow with experience. It’s wrong when very new young artists suddenly blow and get invited to participate at mega art fairs.

JB: If painting is dead, according to Yinka Shonibare in interaction with Chika Okeke in the 2018 Art X, why then is David Hockney’s painting fetching as much as 90 million dollars? Will painting reinvent itself or its been faced out?

BO: Painting is not just the application of colours on canvas. Painting is drawing from your own inner experience and putting it down. People live different lives and experiences, and that is what we want to see in art, and in painting.

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References: Identity and Direction in Nigeria Art Practice: Dike, C. and Oyelola, P. (2003). Nku Di Na Mba: UcheOkeke and Modern Nigerian Art, Abuja, National Gallery The Zarianists’ Legacy of Art. Egonwa, O. D (2011). “The Evolution of the Concept of National Synthesis,” US0 Vol 3 (1&2) pp 52-60. Egonwa, O. D (2011). Nigerian Art: Introductory Notes. Ibadan & Abraka, Ababa & Egosay Publishers. by Osa Egonwa Egonwa, O. D. (2017). Contemporary Art in Africa. Ibadan & Abraka Artfield &Egosay Ltd. Okeke, U, (1979). “An Introduction to Contemporary Nigerian Art 2”. New Culture Vol. 1, (2) pp12-18

The core contributions of the Zaria Art Society hereinafter referred to as Zarianists, to Nigeria’s contemporary art practice revolves around three significant manifestations resulting from one historically monumental event. This event is the articulation of the theory of natural synthesis and later its actualization in practice. The idea of art in Nigeria which is stylistically and iconographically related to the cultural history of its producers had been muted by Murray (1902-1972) from which Ben Enwonwu (1921-1994) got the impetus for his paintings and sculptures from 1946 before the advent of the Zarianists ( Egonwa 2001:57). Ulli Beier (1902- 2011) mentored the Zarianists as well, who “nicodemously” began to work on an art deriving from that of their ancestors but integrating relevant tenets of mainstream art yet scalable globally.

If contemporary art refers to all recent art, which exhibits a feasible synthesis of adorable indigenous and foreign ideas of art making in terms of style, subject matter, techniques and media in their expressions, then the evolution of the idea culminating in the theory of natural synthesis, must rightly be ascribed to the Zarianists. The theory of natural synthesis appears historically as a post - Zaria Art Society event, considering available evidence. This accounts for the many unvoiced inputs of other kindred artistic spirits. Nevertheless, synthesis has contributed and continues to contribute to influence almost all succeeding generations of Nigeria art practice (Odita, 2003: 177-8). As a creative ideology, it is the content or design of the artwork that synthesis addresses not technique since the technique is universal and answers to anyone who cares to apply it.

An objective and comprehensive search of available literature, non-literature materials and studio practice reveal among others, the following practical manifestations of the influence of the theory in shaping, the cultural history and global visibility of Nigeria’s current art: a) Re-establishment of Nigeria’s artistic styles in the visual arts. Synthesis restored in a changed manner, our indigenous art, which Onabolu did not recognize as art into practice. According to Okeke, (1979:14) Onabolu claimed there was “no pictorial art in West Africa before him”. But for the Zarianists, Nigeria’s visual arts would have remained what the West did in Nigeria. b) Decolonization of Nigeria’s artistic style as defined by Onabolu’s modernism from continuance into the post-colonial era. By maintenance of a culturistic advocacy in the various art schools or settings they found themselves, they endeavoured to decolonize art practice of our time to establish the Nigeria identity and socio relevance. c) Production of manpower for the art industry in Nigeria. Active artists or art historians, on the art scene today are sons or grandsons of Zarianists. This is through direct teaching or mentorship. The art training centres in Nigeria were covered- Abraka, Auchi, Awka, Benin, Enugu, Maiduguri , Nsukka, Owerri, Port Harcourt, NGA, NCAC, New Culture Design Development Centre, Asele Foundation Nimo, TAFAS , Zaria, and more.

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1 2 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Emo Ekpen Boli Woman (Young Leopards) Lino cut Additive plastocast 1965 1987 20 x 19.5 in 27 x 37 in Artist collection Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

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4 5 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Kabiyesi and his Eighteen other Vignettes Panel of four: Emiovwo Beroma I, Plastocast on six accordion panels Ore mu vwo OgboII, Agogo III,Tisha 1978-2012 Copperfoil relief on board 82 x 179 in 1983 Artist collection 56 x 166 in Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

3 Bruce Onobrakpeya Thanksgiving Dance Painted plastocast relief 2015 56.5 X 75 in Artist collection

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8 Bruce Onobrakpeya Hunter’s Secret Oil on board 1961 36 x24 in Artist collection

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6 9 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Images II,III Two Faces Plastocast on board Lino cut 1993 1966 43 x 94 in 18.7 X 22.7 in Artist collection Artist collection

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7 Bruce Onobrakpeya Maria Oil on board 1961 40 x 30 in Artist collection

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11 Bruce Onobrakpeya Adjuju ive (TwoFaces) Mixed media on canvas 1993-2019 33.5 X 42 in Artist collection

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10 Bruce Onobrakpeya 12 Udje Ekpevwe (Thanksgiving Dance) Plastocast on board Bruce Onobrakpeya 2015 Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel IX) 56 x 41.5 in Deep etching on paper Artist collection 2008 35 x 28 in ENQUIRIES Artist collection

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13 15 Bruce Onobrakpeya Bruce Onobrakpeya Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel X) Oracle XI Deep etching on paper 1993-2010 2008 37 in 35 x 28 in Artist collection Artist collection ENQUIRIES ENQUIRIES

16 Bruce Onobrakpeya Oracle X 1993-2010 37 in Artist collection

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14 Bruce Onobrakpeya 17 Dance to Enchanting Songs (panel XI) Bruce Onobrakpeya Deep etching on paper Oracle IV 2008 1993-2010 35 x 28 in 37 in Artist collection Artist collection

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OSELOKA OSADEBE

18 Bruce Onobrakpeya Return to Farming III Recomposed Installation 2012-2018 265 x 236 x 53 cm

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Oseloka Okwuii Osadebe (b.1935)

Professor Oseloka Osadebe (born 1934) is an outstanding artist, playwright, theatre director, and teacher. He grew up in Onitsha, Anambra State, and from an early age, distinguished himself as a brilliant draughtsman, eventually earning acceptance to the prestigious Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria. He became a pioneer member of the famous Zaria Art Society and graduated in 1962 with a specialisation in painting and sculpture. He proceeded to teach art at the University of Nigeria Nsukka from 1962 to 1965, before leaving the country on an Aggrey Fellowship for African Students to pursue graduate studies in the United States. He graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1967 and received a second master’s degree in 1973 from the Goodman School of Drama also in Chicago, specialising in scene design, lighting and directing. He completed his doctoral work at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1981, specialising in Western and African Theatre and Drama and spent his career teaching theatre and set design at numerous universities including Jackson State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Tougaloo College, Spelman College, and Central State University. He is a member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education and the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education. Osadebe retired in 2007 and has spent the last twelve years reviving his passion for visual arts at his studio in Jackson, Mississippi. He returned to Nigeria for the first time in over 50 years in October 2018 to present a retrospective exhibition of rare works he created from 1960 to 2014, entitled: “Inner Light”. Photo credit: Sandra Mbanefo Obiago/SMO Contemporary Art Photo credit:

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We must also acknowledge the fact that Ben Enwonwu who schooled in Britain was also a The Zaria Art Society and the Development of pioneer of the reinvention of traditional arts within the new Modernity dominated by the West. He was older than the pioneering artists from Zaria and also started his art career much earlier Indigenous Art Epistemologies and Praxis than the members of the Zaria Art Society. by Kunle Filani It is, therefore, safer to say that Uche Okeke, who professed to be the theorist of the Zaria Art Society, was able to articulate the concept and appropriately gave it the acceptable vocabulary Much had been written on the Zaria Art Society being the group of some art students that - Natural Synthesis. The significance of the concept is far-reaching in defining artistic creativity studied at the famous NCAST and now the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1958 and in the Post-Independence era in Nigeria and indeed the 20th Century Nigerian art. 1961 when the association was formed and thrived. Using the above premise as the background to the study, it is, therefore, plausible to opine As acceptable as the heroic narratives of most of the direct members and participants of the that the most significant achievement of the Zaria Art Society is the intellectualization of artistic activities of the group seemed to be, there were sceptics who dismissed the formation of the philosophies that are indigenous and peculiar to the various ethnic groups of core members. Society as insignificant. They claimed that it was actually a rebellious gang up of dissident As Africans, and closer still as Nigerians, the peculiarities of each ethnic group are still students who perhaps couldn’t meet up with the rigours of verisimilitude in the European ensconced within the confinement of African cultural identity. Therefore, the efforts of each of curriculum offered at the Fine Arts department then. It was claimed that most of the proclaimed the artists can still be understood to represent profound art praxis for the entire Sub Saharan successes of the group while in the College were afterthoughts if not concocted fantasies. Africa.

However, everybody seems to agree that truly some radically inclined students associated The efforts of the individual artist members are far-reaching in the development of indigenous together and served as a pressure group that allowed for free expressions of African themes. epistemologies for Nigerian visual arts. Each of the acclaimed Zaria Art Society members Most importantly, the students also lend impetus to the acceptance of the exploration of validated Uche Okeke’s postulation of the theory of Natural Synthesis by adopting and adapting indigenous forms by students, alongside the established curriculum that was largely British their indigenous creative traditions to suit contemporary temper. and thus occidental. Their exploration of home-grown concepts of art assisted in the establishment of indigenous As expected, the opposing pockets of voices to the inherent claims of the members of the art praxis. Their theoretical framework for the production of art serves as the pedestal on which Zaria Art Society largely came from some of the pioneering students of the Art department cultural aesthetics and theories of art could be further postulated. Comprehensive scrutiny of who graduated before the core members of the Zaria Art Society, and of course, some of the artworks produced by vibrant members such as Bruce Onabrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Uche their school mates who were not listed as members. Observers often dispel this opposing Okeke, Demas Nwoko and a few others who flourished in the diaspora will reveal the tendency view as sentimental outpourings of envious schoolmates. Whatever the facts are, everybody to gravitate towards cultural aesthetics. seems to agree that the post-university contributions of most members of the Zaria Art Society The efforts of the members of the Zaria Art Society and indeed the entire pioneering graduates are landmarks that further define and indeed strengthened the development of contemporary of the Zaria school led to a large extent the establishment of creative offsprings such as the Uli Nigerian art. and Ona art movements in the Eastern and Western parts of Nigeria. These recent ideological art groups following the Zaria articulation of the theory of natural synthesis could be said to While recognising the wonderful contributions of the members of the group, we nevertheless have properly defined the 20th Century art in Nigeria. must appreciate the fact that indeed all the pioneering graduates of the “Zaria School “ (especially those who were students in the first decade of the establishment of the Fine Arts department which eventually had Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as it’s permanent site) were equally vibrant and mostly also engaged in exploring indigenous concepts as basis for their art practices.

Notable individuals such as Solomon Wangboje, Banjo Fasuyi, Jimo Akolo and a host of other prominent graduates from Zaria demonstrated that they also belonged to the period when colonialism had become stale, and the agitation for independence was rife in most countries of Africa. The popular Negritude philosophy of Leopold Senghor and other African leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe focused on affirming African culture instead of dancing to the tunes of the colonial masters who deliberately sponsored Eurocentric worldview and impose such on Africans and their institutions. In fact, most artists and creative scholars within and outside Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s were very sensitive to what Uche Okeke later aptly captured as “natural synthesis”. This is a kind of hybridization of indigenous traditional values with the prevalent Western cultural orientation.

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1 3 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Fallen from Grace Nne delu nwa Pen and ink on paper Uli sketch 1972-1976 1964 36.5 X 38 in 10 x 7 in Artist collection Artist collection

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4 Oseloka Osadebe Inner light II Conte crayon on board 1981 36 x 24.5 in Artist collection

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2 Oseloka Osadebe Folklore: bird and the man Acrylic on paper 1973 50.5 X 32 in Artist collection

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5 7 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Inner light I Piggly Wigglies VIII Conte crayon on board Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 39 x 27 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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6 8 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies VII Piggly Wigglies V Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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9 11 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies III Piggly Wigglies VI Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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10 12 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Piggly Wigglies Piggly Wigglies III Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 1965 1965 14 x 11 in 14 x 11 in Artist collection Artist collection

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13 15 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Folklore: bird and the man Untitled Acrylic on canvas Wax crayon on paper 1968 1972 49.5 X 32 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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14 16 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Milk maid Untitled Oil on canvas Pencil on paper 1965 Undated 40.5 X 23.5 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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19 17 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe

The Lion and the Jewel Steal Away Theatre poster/drawing Theatre poster/drawing 1980 1988 22.5 X 16.5 in 22.5 X 16.5 in Artist collection Artist collection

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18 20 Oseloka Osadebe Oseloka Osadebe Collage graque 1912 Untitled Watercolour on paper Charcoal on paper 1965 1972 11 x 8.5 in 17 x 14 in Artist collection Artist collection

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The Place of Zaria Art Society in History ZARIA ART SCHOOL: Relevance and a Major

by Kolade Oshinowo Reference Point in the 21st Century

The Zaria Art Society occupies a very unique space in Nigeria’s contemporary art history. by Mike Omoighe These are men made in ABU Zaria, Northern Nigeria but who later on went to father multitude of children, professionally, through remarkable influences in their works, In the East by Uche “In communication and cultural studies, it is as important to be alert to potential meanings Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Demas Nwoko. This in effect helped to establish the formidable (even when they are at cross purposes) as it is to search for exact information. This is because triangle upon which the diverse contemporary art practice in Nigeria today has developed. the object of study is the social world that we ourselves inhabit- communication is not an ‘exact science’. One of its basic tenets (taken from structuralism) is that without difference there is no meaning.” John Fisk (1983)

“The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society is a historical evergreen as proven in the past sixty years till date. Both will always remain a reference point in the history of contemporary art in Nigeria” Mike Omoighe (2019)

Background The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society is evergreen as proven in the last sixty years to date. Writing on the relevance of Zaria art school/society naturally poses a challenge of where to start in order not to sound as nothing existed before. It is therefore advisable for any writer on the historical Zaria art school not to limit self to the Zaria content alone. It is on this premise that a historical background overview of the ‘Art Schools’ then in Nigeria and their growth be established in chronological perspective as a guide. However, it is important to mention that the very short history of western art education in Nigeria has been The Zaria Factor unduly politicized for no other reason than to celebrate the ego of university education. Every country has her educational history just as every educational institution have their individual by Krydz Ikwuemesi history, which can at best be understood by reference to other educational systems within the same country. ‘Their most precise characteristics are in being what the others are not’, If we take contemporary Nigerian art as a river with many tributaries, the mouth of the river (Fisk 1976). Each of such educational schools, for example, operating within the confines of should be located at Zaria where fate brought members of the Zaria Art Society together in a the establishment act is significant only to the extent that it relates to others. If any institution way that redrew the contours of the story of art in Nigeria. The realities and schools that define operates euro-centric patronage of categorization and self-glorification with readymade Nigerian art today are due to the exertions and efforts of these artists. For us in Nsukka, there historical information without reference in relation to others before/after their establishment, is no doubt that Uche Okeke; the leading light of the Zaria Art Society, played a pivotal role in they would have succeeded in shortchanging their otherwise rich past/background history. laying the foundation that ha inscribed the international art map in bold relief. However, it is sad Historical documentation does not necessarily have to be in consensus agreement; however, that scholars and historians have not really engaged the Zaria legacy in a way that can look the unstated factual differences are important issues at stake that would continue tohoist beyond the Zarianists themselves and link the practical contributions to some of the prevailing its head every now and then. Relationship in common business, trade or education needs a realities in the Nigerian art field today. historical perspective not stage-managed to elucidate one system against the other. Perhaps the seemed lopsided history in our educational system needs a better level of honesty and loyalty towards national building devoid of egocentric maneuverIngs of information. The otherwise very simple history of contemporary art schools in Nigeria has been over-politicized and jettisoned to a point almost affecting the collective achievement of the art sector. This may sound like the religious issue of ‘my God is bigger than your God’. Let the truth be said and history set aright in the interest of the Nigerian nation.

The ‘Yaba Art Schoolsystem ’ existed as the first higher educational outfit established in Nigeria in 1932. The school trained intermediate students in all areas of discipline (Science, Engineering and Arts) who later completed their curriculum programmes in the United Kingdom. Early medical doctors, Surveyors, Engineers, Artists, among others were beneficiaries of the Yaba higher college since 1932 situated then at the present site of Kings College Lagos (1909). Among the students we’re, Akanu Ibiam, M. A. Majekodunmi, Oba Erediawa Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Solomon Ogbeide, among others. The western colonial masters

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established the United African Company, West Africa and the early school system partly for The Zaria Art School Spirit Since 1955 commercial business. The Yaba art school among others in Africa like Achimota in Ghana and The relevance of the Zaria Art School and Zaria Art Society will ever remain the everlasting Makerere in Uganda were initially established for commercial art purpose (Advertisements, gospel in the anal of art history in Nigeria and beyond as proven in the last sixty years to Posters, Labels and Billboards) to meet the needs of the colonial government. The Yaba Higher date. In revisiting the actual members of the Zaria Art Society in an interview with the financial College (1932) became Yaba Technical Institute in 1947 and the first set of pioneer students secretary in 1997, a lot of unspoken details about their membership and operations in earlier of the College of Science Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) was moved from Yaba in 1948. In documentation available till date emerged. There was physical proof that they did contribute 1952, the ‘Yaba Art School’ officially began with Paul Mount of blessed memories who passed money to a common association purse. They all agreed on African philosophy being the centre away recently in the UK. From Ibadan the first set of students for the College of Science and focus and content of their art works. Their financial secretary also had a proof for the actual Technology, Zaria was moved in 1956. John Godwin also taught a non-diploma or degree membership and financial members of the ZAS. The record revealed that they were seven in awarding drawing classes at the ‘Yaba art School’. Grillo among others like Erhabor Emokpae, number- Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Osadebe Oseloka, Max Carrena, Vivian Osemwegie (nee Ologbosere) and Jerome Elaiho attended the Yaba Art Nwagbara Ogbonnaya and Okechukwu Odita. He also mentioned a parting ‘GIFT’ (withheld) School before going to Zaria. Though the Yaba art school at the time did not award ND/ which they bought for authentic members of the society. He asked to challenge anyone apart HND Diploma, but the art school flourished like others across Africa, which grew steadily and from this authentic list who claimed membership of the Society to produce the parting gift. This gradually to achieve the ND/HND Diploma status later. This is the very simple missing link in very interesting submission fired my interest in trying to unravel the actual truth with regards our chronological art history and institution in Nigeria. Each of these schools, the Yaba higher to the original members. Apart from the records of the financial secretary, the truth has been College/Technical Institute and College of Science and Technology, Zaria are both significant illusionarily elusive. Again when in 1998 I was opportune to be among the National Gallery only to the extent that they relate to each other. of Art curatorial team on “Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness”, Simon Ikpakronyi and I had an exclusive combined interview with Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko in both Nimo and Membership of the Zaria Art Society Idumuje-Ugboko. Armed with a team of professional video and still photography camera men The almighty Zaria Art School is almost synonymous and often interchangeably used with (Shola Shodiya and Shobowale Hughes) respectively. Our team interviewed Uche Okeke alone the Zaria Art Society; a movement credited to the seven-man team that actually participated in Asele Institute, his Nimo house, studio and gallery. But when the actual membership of the in the “revolutionary movement” in concept and idea of African Art Philosophy as a basis for Society became difficult to resolve, we convinced him to kindly let us move the interview to their art practice. One wonders what the contemporary art scene situation in Nigeria would Idumuje-Ugboko the home town of Prince Demas Nwoko and he agreed. We thought this have been without the Zaria Art Society. The mysterious intertwining narrative of who the smart move of the joint interview would resolve the membership impasse, but alas it was a actual members of the Zaria Art Society perhaps needed to be unraveled as the sunset era huge joke. It became a huge joke among two fraternal brothers and roommates who planned of the active participant is almost around the corner. Having been a student and curator/co- the Zaria Art Society coup (so they claimed (Omoighe 1998). However, their financial records curator of all the Zarianist at one time, or the other minus the recent OSELOKA OSADEBE with the financial secretary tally with the official photograph of the Zaria Art School- courtesy INNER LIGHT (the only missing link till SMO’s rediscovery exhibition of 2018 at the National Uche Okeke. Any wonder why Collette Omogbai, Ikpomwosa Omigie, Felix Ekeada and others Museum Lagos), I consider myself qualified through experiences and personal contact with didn’t have a relationship with the Zaria Art School after graduation. Another important point in them to reveal some perhaps ‘unknown facts’, comments and observations for history and the history of Nigerian art is the theory of propagation in the growth of art institutions and artists posterity sake. The members of Zaria Art Society are professional fathers in the Nigerian art in Nigeria. Where are the historical placement of Pa Aina Onabolu, Lasekan and Ben Enwonwu platform and are uniquely a collective huge blessing to Nigeria as cultural icons endowed by and their contemporaries (not even referring to the very robust traditional art history)? Thanks their creator. Luckily all individual interviews with them in voice, audio, video, recordings and to Chika Okeke-Angulu’s recent book, “Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization still photography works are national archival materials and legacies, which are currently in safe in Twentieth-Century Nigeria”. Recently I saw a painting titled ‘The impeachment of Aina custody with the National Gallery of Art, (in trust for the Nigerian nation). Onabolu’. Perhaps the title of this painting summarizes the lopsided history of art and art Some schools of thought have dispelled the Koyo Fosu’s “Rebel” appellation to the activities schools in Nigeria before 1948/50. of Zaria Art Society. No matter how we wish to rationalize their sojourn, actions and claims in the Zaria art school as students, history has vindicated them as cultural rebels. There was The Zaria Art School and the Zaria Art Society will always remain a reference point in the history a clear rebellion as evidenced in their submissions and contributions to the evolution of the of art in Nigeria for so many reasons. Apart from being the first art school to award diploma Zaria Art School and Nigeria till date. I am simultaneously pressured to ask: ‘if Gani Odutokun’s and Bachelors of art in Nigeria, they are distinguished as an art school with big names in the intervention in the narratives of evolution in the Zaria Art School is not rebellious/revolution visual art profession across the globe. I congratulate the ‘Arthouse’ team and the curator Jerry enough, what then is it? We should rather focus on the content analysis and the contextual Buhari, one of the foremost saviours of the Zaria art school spirit for this historical exhibition issues for a balanced historical map guide to propel the generation next. Art history is yet coming twenty-one years after the ‘Zaria Art Society– A new consciousness’. It is a great to situate the Nigerian cultural value of our artworks both in content and context in clearly opportunity to mention other great names earlier overshadowed by the wild harmattan fire known and understood perspective, hence, the need for more researches in the area of enkindled by the Zarianists. The roll call of the Zaria art school graduates is overwhelmingly studio art practice for visual documentation by artists themselves. This may help to uphold very impressive since 1955 when the first set of students transferred from the College of the seeming fast eroding cultural heritages, which are being documented in the Studio art Science and Technology Ibadan to Zaria. The Zaria school parades a robust catalogue of practice researches. Thanks to Rowland Abiodun, Babatunde Lawal, Toyin Falola, Cornelius who is who in the art world of Nigeria. ‘The pioneer students included majority of the famous Adepegba, Dele Jegede, Ola Oloidi, Ademola Adejumo, Denis Osa Egonwa, Jacob Jari, Zaria Art Society members who were given admission in the year 1955/7 academic session’ Kunle Filani, Frank Ugiomoh Chika Okeke, among others for their immense contribution to (Ikpakroyin2009). The pioneering students of 1955 fondly here remembered include– ‘Irein documenting the Nigerian/African (art) history. Wangboje (RIP), T. A. Fasuyi, Bode Fasuyi, Cyprian Ihejiahi, James Nkobi, G. M. Eneremadu

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and Adamu Baike among others’ (Oloidi 2009). The status of the first Diploma and Bachelor’s degrees awarding art school built the professional profile for the image of artists in Nigeria. The Zaria Art Society in the In conclusion, this short comment focuses on the issues of actual membership number of the Zaria Art Society and the fact that the Nigerian modern art scene was not entirely all Evolution of Modern Nigerian Art barren until the Zaria art school was born in 1955. The members of the Zaria Art Society were seven in number. The first set of students for the Ibadan campus of the College of Science by Frank Ugiomoh and Technology were transferred from the Yaba High School (1932), which later became The Zaria Art Society remains auspicious in its time and the in annals of the evolution of modern Yaba Technical Institute in 1947. Since the essence of history is to shape and inform life’s Nigerian art. The Society was formed at the cusp of Nigeria’s independence in 1959. As a experiences, it is, therefore, necessary to include this missing link in the chronicling of ‘modern student association, it keyed into the spirit and ideological ferment of the time, by exploring art’ and art schools in Nigeria. The history in the development of higher education started from its privileged grounding in cultural productions to engage in the activism of the decolonisation Yaba Higher College (1932) to Yaba Technical Institute (1947), where the first set of students agendas on the continent at the time. Its reality, considering modern Nigerian art validates were transferred to College of Science and arts Ibadan (1948) and later College of Science, some suppositions in art history. The first is its confirmation that ideological currents govern Arts and Technology Zaria 1955 academic session. the perception of any age and directs the actions of individual actors while guaranteeing their freedom. The second is that such liberty expanded modern Nigerian art and its emergent Notes iconography. Oloidi, O. (1998). Zaria Art Society-A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Oloidi, O. (2009). Zaria Art School. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Ikpakronyi, O. S. (1998). Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Ikpakronyi, O. (2009). Zaria Art School. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Omoighe, M. O. (1998). Zaria Art Society- A New Consciousness. National Gallery of Art, Nigeria. Fisk, J. (1983). Key Concepts in Communication. Methuen Publication London. Owoso, O. (1987). Yaba College of Technology at Forty-40. Adeyemi, K. (2017). The Visual Vanguard- A Journal of Arts and Architecture. Yaba College of Technology Library, Yaba, Lagos. Akinwunmi, A. & Omoighe Michael. O. (1987). Yaba College of Technology at 40, School of Art Design and Ptinting, Yaba, Lagos. On Zaria Art Society Interviews: Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Yusuf Grillo (85years old) 1992, 1998 & 2015 by Duniya Gambo Giles Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Bruce Onobrakpeya (87years old) 1994, 1997,1998 & 2016 Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Uche Okeke (83 years old!- RIP). 1986, 1998 & 2012 Through the works of members of the Zaria Art Society we see the domestication of foreign Omoighe, M. In personal contact interview with Demas Nwoko (85 years old) 1998, 2006 & 2011(3times) materials, techniques and concepts for an innovative contemporary African expression, (Natural Synthesis) that document, interrogate and conceptualise forms as well as issues, summarises their legacies.

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art initiative, and it must pass the litmus test of the era of YG. It is this complex that is attributed Jerry Buhari in conversation with Olu Amoda to his days that informed the use of the word “vacuum.” I feel flattered by your categorization of

my humble self being “his presence.” The Yaba School, before YG, had Paul Mount of blessed JB: We are requesting a selection of individual artists and scholars who have related memory whom I can boldly say is the mentor of contemporary sculpture in Nigeria. Director with members of the Zaria Art Society academically and professionally to make Paul Mount believes in recruiting potentials and creates an enabling environment to flourish. statements around their legacies in the development of contemporary Nigeria art. How YG, in the interview, instils commitment that is expected from an employee, and by studying would respond to this? the works of Paul Mount, one can see the trajectory from where YG philosophy emanated. In a conversation with Paul Mount, Alice Gaskell stated that: Paul Mount embraced sculpture when OA: In a situation where information is released scantly to the masses, and not entirely, it will he became the founder-director of the art department of Yaba College of Technology. He did not be out of place for one to make up the rest by projecting. In the School of Art, what you this primarily in response to the needs of his students who stood a far better chance of earning are told is what they think is enough for you. If you ask for more, you stonewalled. The issues a living from three-dimensional work than they would from painting. raised in this interview are based on scanty information released at meetings and on personal interpretation as encountered. YG, a painter who later succeeded Paul Mount, also employed the same strategy of executing

large exciting sculptures by collaborating with his junior colleagues and students. Any not Jerry, you know I am not an art historian, what will my statement do or say that has not homegrown kid like me has no choice but to step-up. While one did not have the privilege of been said? To start with Yusuf Grillo [YG] had already retired when I joined Yaba Tech; so I being mentored by YG, however, those who succeeded him made life too miserable for my type cannot claim that he was my colleague, although, he was the external expert on the panel by not embracing the Paul Mount/YG litmus test of experimentation. This ‘litmus test’ changes that interviewed me for the job. After retirement, he remained the major consultant for almost so frequently based on who is in the helm of affairs. One is continuously confronted harshly every administrative faculty member of the School. He did not turn his back on the institution for experimentation and critiquing of the Establishment. It seems that the wind of change in and has been very instrumental to major employments/appointments till date. There are lots of the early eighties that swept the big trees off their roots also gave these surviving smaller trees one’s colleague today though we’re yet to buy entry form to study at the School of art when a new lease of life. But the new lease of life exposed them to harsh sunlight, which was too he retired now use his name to open doors. They exploit the fact of working as an assistant intense that the surviving smaller trees were running full capacity from solar energy. These to him on some of his commissions. His retirement left a huge vacuum that those who came small trees experienced rapid growth that they started to tend towards self-cannibalization, after him are still struggling to fill. So am not sure what the fuss is about, but the truth is that and in the process, order and due process were thrown overboard. The babies in the dirty till date, we are still suffering from the post-YG syndrome. There seems yet to no clear path.” water belong to the gutter, yet in they cite days of YG as the justification. Independence is not

synonymous with self-liberation. It makes one wonder why it was erroneously stated that the JB: Why do you say that YG departure “left a huge vacuum”? You were not there; you Yaba School started with YG, and not Paul Mount? Not even a stool is credited to Paul Mount only met his departure. What did you see on arrival that, could I say, left with him? in the current dispensation. Beginning with Paul Mount, through YG and up till eight years ago, the sculpture program was hinged on experimentation. OA: It is not about taking any issue with his style of human engineering, but more about Art historians seem to miss something here about the Yaba School (or School?), which they those he left behind whose business it should be to continue where he stopped. Lots of my now see as synonymous with YG. colleagues who are regulars at his Salah bash go there for consultation as value-added to the

party experiences. Upon return, they often boast of continuing in his footsteps but soon flutter. JB: What do you say about the edifice he helped realize. Before it, the department was It thus creates what seems to be lack of grasping of his ideology or philosophy if indeed he said to be nomadic on campus, and it was reported that you had your classes all around initiated one. Up till our last Deanship, some factions in the faculty politics still name-dropped the other departments with no space of your own? YG in other to influence votes. These are the ones who were yet to be students when he was

the Director. Some rightly conduct their research on YG: his art and managerial skill as the OA: Yaba School started with Paul Mount as the first director of the School, with just space, no Director of the School of Art. They are awarded a Masters and PhD degrees by some of the furniture. From no furniture classroom to the nomadic era! It thus seems quite a radical change top Nigerian Universities. from the space to the magnificent edifice we have now. But having a permanent dwelling place

for learning also comes with unforeseen problems. JB: Let us start with your humble self. With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that With so much office and studio space, comes its badge. If you were familiar with the size of plots he was able to interview and recruit you because he saw in you excellent material. in Ikoyi, you agree with those who feel that surveyors drew boundaries by merely converting The sculpture school has tremendously benefitted and continues to benefit from your their ranging poles to javelin. This method of setting boundaries seems to explain why some inspiration and contribution to the international profile of Yaba College as a whole. You plots are more significant than others. Metaphorically speaking, such was the case with office are his presence, in a sense. How can there be a vacuum? allocation here at School of Art Design and Printing when the Building was commissioned. Just

as land in Ikoyi then was not accorded to need, so office allocation was just assigning vacant OA: Maybe the word vacuum is less than apt in terms of continuity of the school system since room according to seniority and closeness to the studios. Toilets’ lobby was converted to the people go and people come. But, for instance, the employment/promotion policy has changed ample office space for new faculty while older ones lived lavishly. The bigger office space where since he left. Without sounding condescending, we are currently suffering from academic incest. two more faculties could be accommodated was assigned to one big wig. The older faculty In the sense that almost the entire faculty of the fine art department is made up of alumni of Yaba office was equipped with two or more tables and at least 4 chairs, all in one room! Some even College of Technology or ABU. Always, “the days of YG” is the yardstick to measure any new had 3-seat sofas in their offices with their fridge brought in. If the microwave had been popular

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then, some big wigs would have installed a complete home kit in the office. Office service was The basement is currently being renovated to accommodate the proposed Ford foundation preferred since Iya Laraba in the food village was just a few kilometres of a walk from the art Yaba College of Technology School of Art Museum. With the Building built in phases, it would complex. The female fashion students are always around to render the service of the delivery have been the crown of the jewel if the top of the last of the Fashion and Painting studios could woman; sometimes, they are made to fund the bill. have been used for this Museum.

It was like being at home/hotel while one was actually in the office. It might be as a reaction It will be helpful to conclude that many members of faculty who claim to be protagonists of the once nomadic adventures, but the mister big wig has now finally found a permanent of YG need to go back to him not to seek his endorsement for running for Deanship but to dwelling. Let’s start by saying that I was very fortunate not to be around when the entire art learn or to refresh their memories about how to be a better teacher/human being. Running a department passed through that nomadic phase. By 1987 when I resumed, it appeared that campaign based on seniority presupposes that age, not exposure, matters the most in running most offices and studios were disproportionally allocated with no clear path for evolutions that an institution. both programs and technology will offer. All eyes were on this newly built art complex, and the need for the College to solve immediate needs informed the way space was assigned. The basement was assigned to the Library when it was undergoing rebuilding, School of Business and lately Mass Communications department. A studio space in the building was used as the College Store at a time. Anytime there is an accommodation crisis anywhere in the college, the art complex seemed to provide the solution. Many Directors, after YG, could not fend off this pressure for office space encouragement. We can indeed say this is one instance of the vacuum created by the departure of YG and yarning to be filled.

From nomadic feeling come these barrages of external office accommodation pressures. The big rooms that were once commodious for one person now have to be shared to two or more faculties. The facilities in the new Building are now subjected to heavy use that results in frequent breakdowns. The Art complex is thus now permanently a construction maintenance site. From plumbing to electrical, rat, and bug-infestation; now, the art complex is used to art students. Working overnight is now sleeping overnight. Students open the taps in the upper floor studios forget to lock them when no water is running during the day because of demand at the lower floor and then by the evening, when the need of for water is reduced, the water pressure pushes the water to the upper floor, and this results in a mini-disaster of waterfall that creates flooding on the lower levels. This was the era before students converted studio to sleepover spots. The Director of Works reacting to this frequent mini-disaster orders swiftly all sinks be removed and water outlet plugged. The solution would have been to replace the turn facet to push type that automatically locks self if the hand pressure is lifted. Thus he compounds the disaster. Fast forward! The Building is seeping with water from water pipes from the internal water pressure partly from aged galvanized pipes and the direct result of plugged water taps. Students have to turn on the hydrant for fire hoses water for studio use. Thank God for the art students who broke the law by sleeping in the complex that promptly arrested a few fire incidences. No fire alarm system in place!

The second misadventure is having office spaces determined by or apportioned according to need but only according to seniority. Toilets lobbies with yanked wash hand basin and four toilets are converted to large office resulting in a shortage of toilets; individual confiscate toilets close to their office for personal use. Also, toilets corridor became the school gallery. The list goes on and on. Now, because there is no clear path on space utilization, studios are currently converted to hostel and kitchenettes. Just as a corridor with four toilets is now the school gallery; similar space with four bathrooms is converted to accommodate the most decorated past Dean of the School. After retirement, a new past Dean looks forward to moving into the same office with the current Dean because he is too afraid to rock the boat. Some studios with obsolete machine and gadget are left in place to secure spaces to show the size of department space not use.

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Archive Photo Authors Contributing Short Essays and Statements Professor Osa Egonwa, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Delta State University Abraka Delta State, Nigeria

Professor Jacob Jari, Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

Rebecca Wolff, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History, University of California, U. S. A.

Kolade Oshinowo, Former National President Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA)

Professor Gambo Giles Duniya, Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

Emeritus Professor Ola Oloidi, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Olu Amoda, Yaba College of Science and Technology Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria

Krydz Ikwuemesi, MFA PhD, Painter, Art Critic, Ethno-Aesthetician, Writer and Culture Entrepreneur, Associate Professor of Fine Art, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Professor D. O. Babalola, (Retired). Former Professor of Art History, Department of Fine Arts, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

dele jegede, PhD. Professor Emeritus, Art & Art History, Miami University Oxford, OH, U.S.A.

Dr. Mike Omoighe, Yaba College of Science and Technology Yaba Lagos, Nigeria

Dr. Kunle Filani, Federal College of Education, Technical Akoka Lagos., Nigeria

Ozioma Onuzulike, is Professor of Ceramic Art and Art History, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria

Professor Frank Ogiomoh, is an independent scholar and a non-institutional affiliate professor of history of art and theory, based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Ijeoma Ucheke-Okeke, Asele Institute Foundation Nimo, Anambra State, Nigeria Some of the members of The Zaria Art Society: Chika Okeke-Agulu is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art and Archaeology, Front (L-R): Bruce Onobrakpeya, Simon Okeke and Uche Okeke and Department of African American Studies, Princeton University. Back (L-R): Okechukwu Odita, Demas Nwoko and Oseloka Osadebe Courtesy: Uche Okeke

Generously Supported By:

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Acknowledgements

First we must thank the artists and their estates whose cooperation, support and believe in us gave us the confidence that this project is important and that it could be a reality.

Our art collectors were not only generous in releasing their collections but they did this so graciously. We thank you for the trust in Arthouse, your generosity and ensuring that we had a rich representation of the artists’ works.

We must also express gratitude to Sandra Obiago of SMO Contemporary Art who, through the solo exhibition of Osaleko Osadebe and her cooperation made it possible for us to connect with the family of the artist to assist us gained access to his works. We are grateful to the Obi of Onitsha whose role was critical in facilitating access to this relationship and linkages. We have special gratitude to the National Gallery of Art who gave us access to Odita’s works and gracious use of extract from some of their publications.

This exhibition was made possible by our treasured sponsors, whose contributions have not only made the project a reality but also successful. We thank them for being partners in continuing the advancement of art and culture in Nigeria. Specifically, we sincerely thank the management of KIA Motors who have always granted us the use of their show room, Access Bank has not always been a pillar of support also but a very significant agent in the advancement of the creative industry as a whole. Dana Group, Ford Foundation, 7Up, Channels TV, Eric Kayser, Lasis Security Services, Le Connaisseur, Guardian Arts and Veuve Clicquot have given this project special support. We are grateful to all of them.

I reserve special gratitude to my family whose constant encouragement to take on any project I consider important. Their support has always been invaluable. I must make specific mention of my husband Suresh who has encouraged this incredible journey I have had with Nigerian Art, my children Amisha Hathiramani and Aditya who have also helped me make it possible.