Nigerian Modernism - 4

Nigerian Modernism - 4,

at Tate Modern.

This is the fourth post on this exhibition. As usual I am including the introduction which also appeared in the other three posts.

Nigerian modernism was not a single movement, but a variety of responses to the country's shifting cultural and political identity. Nigeria was established as a British colony in 1914. By this time, prosperous African kingdoms and societies had been profoundly altered by decades of military campaigns and colonial exploitation. Under British rule, artists continued to find innovative ways to express their ideas, histories and imaginations. They embraced and rebelled against the colonial education system. Some created their own art societies and curriculums, while others travelled abroad in search of professional opportunities.

Throughout Nigeria, artists were influenced by Pan-Africanism and European art forms. They also drew inspiration from local cultures. Artistic and religious traditions from the region's many ethnic groups - including Fulani-Hausa, Igno and Yoruba peopoe - met Christian and Islamic practices.

In 1960 Nigeria gained independence from Britain. New artistic and literary clubs were founded across the country, providing spaces to explore the intersections of art, poetry and performance. During this time Nigeria experienced an economic boom, but it also faced a devastating civil war. In the aftermath, artists established new visual languages in their search for a new postcolonial identity.

Obiora Udechuksu, Refugees, 1977, (oil on board)

Obiora Udechukwu, Musician, 1975-76, (oil on board)

Obiora Udechukwu, The Moon Has Ascended Between Us, 1976, (oil on hardboard)

Obiora Udechukwu, 1946, 1993, (ink and acrylic on stretched canvas) - 4 panels

A bold yellow spiral unravels across the canvas symbolising the sacred python, a divine guide in Igbo cosmology. To create layered designs, Udechukwu used sgraffito, a technique in which a sharp implement is pulled through wet acrylic paint. Shadowy figures embedded in the yellow band evoke wartime displacement and national crisis. Udechukwu references the Nigerian Civil War and perhaps the political unrest which followed Nigeria's 1993 election.

El Anatsui, Solemn Crowds at Dawn, 1965, (tropical hardwoods, tempera and house paint)

El Anatsui, Leopard's Paw-Prints and Other Stories, 1991, (tropical hardwood)

El Anatsui, Earth-Moon Connexions, 1993, (wood, paint)

El Anatsui incised Uli, Nsibidi and other indigenous graphic languages into the surfaces of his wooden sculptures.

Using chisels, a chain saw and fire, he cut and burnt designs into the wood's surface. For Anatsui, the chainsaw is a metaphor for the violence of slavery. his works explore the destruction and reconstitution of African cultures before and after colonialism.

Tayo Adenaike, Alhaji Takes the Floor, 1980, (pen, ink and watercolour on paper)

Adebisi Fabunmi, Masquerade, 1965, (lino print on cloth)

Nigerian Modernism - 3

Nigerian Modernism - 3

at Tate Modern.

Nigerian modernism was not a single movement, but a variety of responses to the country's shifting cultural and political identity. Nigeria was established as a British colony in 1914. By this time, prosperous African kingdoms and societies had been profoundly altered by decades of military campaigns and colonial exploitation. Under British rule, artists continued to find innovative ways to express their ideas, histories and imaginations. They embraced and rebelled against the colonial education system. Some created their own art societies and curriculums, while others travelled abroad in search of professional opportunities.

Throughout Nigeria, artists were influenced by Pan-Africanism and European art forms. They also drew inspiration from local cultures. Artistic and religious traditions from the region's many ethnic groups - including Fulani-Hausa, Igno and Yoruba people - met Christian and Islamic practices.

In 1960 Nigeria gained independence from Britain. New artistic and literary clubs were founded across the country, providing spaces to explore the intersections of art, poetry and performance. During this time Nigeria experienced an economic boom, but it also faced a devastating civil war. In the aftermath, artists established new visual languages in their search for a new postcolonial identity.

Georgina Beier, Gelede, 1966, (woodcut)

Georgina Beier, Untitled, 1988, (oil on hardboard)

A fantastical world of humanoids, birds and reptiles in an expressionistic style.

Jacob Afolabi, Untitled, 1984, (oil on board)

Rufus Ogundele, Sacrifice to Ogyn, God of Thunder, 1965, (oil on board)

Rufus Ogundele, Iyo Sango at the Shrine, 1965, (oil on canvas)

Ogundele once remarked: 'Some call me the 'Picasso of Nigeria'... What sense is there in saying that I, an African, produced work which resembles the man who has copied African art? That's nonsense, Rufus is Rufus'.

Twins Seven-Seven, Condemning Witchcraft - Red Skulls, 1968, (oil on board)

Jimoh Buraimoh, Figural Abstract, 1973, (beadwork on panel)

Buraimoh's bead paintings recall the intricate surfaces of traditional Yoruba beaded cloaks, staffs, crowns and stools. In Yorubaland, beads are sacred, inbued with ase (spiritual energy) and worn during ceremonies and worship of the Yoruba deities.

Nike Davies-Okundaye, Osyn, 1972, (embroidery)

Nike Davies-Okyndaye, Animal World, 1968, (embroidery)

Nike Davies-Okyndaye, Osun, the Goddess of the River, 1987,  (batik with natural dyes)

Muraina Oyelarni, Birds in the garden, 1971, (oil on paper)

Muraina Oyelami, Untitled (Noble Man), 1965, (oil on canvas)

Muraina Oyelami, Shrine, (oil on canvas)

Nigerian Modernism - 2

Nigerian Modernism - 2

at Tate Modern.

This is the second post on this exhibition. You can see the first one here . As usual, I am including the introduction from the first one in this post.

 

Nigerian modernism was not a single movement, but a variety of responses to the country's shifting cultural and political identity. Nigeria was established as a British colony in 1914. By this time, prosperous African kingdoms and societies had been profoundly altered by decades of military campaigns and colonial exploitation. Under British rule, artists continued to find innovative ways to express their ideas, histories and imaginations. They embraced and rebelled against the colonial education system. Some created their own art societies and curriculums, while others travelled abroad in search of professional opportunities.

Throughout Nigeria, artists were influenced by Pan-Africanism and European art forms. They also drew inspiration from local cultures. Artistic and religious traditions from the region's many ethnic groups - including Fulani-Hausa, Igno and Yoruba peopoe - met Christian and Islamic practices.

In 1960 Nigeria gained independence from Britain. New artistic and literary clubs were founded across the country, providing spaces to explore the intersections of art, poetry and performance. During this time Nigeria experienced an economic boom, but it also faced a devastating civil war. In the aftermath, artists established new visual languages in their search for a new postcolonial identity.

Ladi Kwali, Shallow bowl, (stoneware)

Uche Okeke, Primeval Beast, 1967 (oil on wood)

Uche Okeke. The Conflict (After Achebe), 1965, (oil on board)

This painting depicts a scene from Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, set in pre-colonial Igboland. In the centre are the egwugwu, ancestral spirits that are part of Igbo masquerade. In the story Enoch, a convert to Christianity, violates Igbo sacred practices by unmasking an egwugwu. Achebe writes: 'The band of egwugwu moved like a furious whirlwind to Echoch's compound and with machete and fire reduced it to a desolate heap. And from there they made for the church, intoxicated with destruction'.

Demas Nwoko, Praise Singer, 1961, (oil on board)

Demas Nwoko, Nigeria in 1959, 1969, (oil on board)

This painting captures the tension and unease between colonical officers and their Nigerian subordinates on the eve of Nigerian indepence. The white officers are shown in various awkward poses, their drawn faces marked by fatigue and disillusionment. Nigerian soldiers, once enlisted to protect the colonial regime, loom in the background, seeming to herald the end of empire.

Demas Nwoko, Night Club in Dakar, 1963, (oil on board)

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Girl in Front of a Mirror, 1914, (woodcut)

Avinash Chandra, Hills of Gold, 1964, (oil on canvas)

Jimo Akolo, Fulani Horsemen, 1962, (oil on canvas)

Jimo Akolo, Man Hanging from a Tree, 1963, (oil on hardboard)

A figure with a white body and red skull hangs upside down beside a disembodied skull. These figures act as mysterious symbols within an expressive landscape of sweeping gestural brushstrokes. The sudden shifts from black to white, and from red to blue to yellow, convey a dramatic and unsettling mood.

Yusuf Grillo, Drummer's Return, 1983-99, (oil on board)

A group of drummers at the end of a long day. The gangan, or talking drum, can imitate the tone and rhythm of Yoruba speech. It can be used to praise, provoke or recount stories. The figures' stylised forms are given weight through thickly applied paint, while the abstract background, structured with vertical and horizontal lines, evokes the urban landscape of Lagos.

Yusuf Grillo, The Seventh Knot, 1969, (oil on board)

A stylised figure which recalls the African mask forms that influenced Cubist art. Grillo was drawn to the colour blue, influenced by the deep indigo tones of traditional Yoruba textiles and the sombre works from Picasso's Blue Period.

Jimo Akolo, Northern Horsemen, 1963, (oil on canvas)

Jimo Akolo, Hausa Drummer, 1961, (oil on board)

Simon Okeke, Heads of Two Women, 1961, (watercolour on paper)

Bruce Onobrakpeya, Negritude, 1960, (oil on board)

Solomon Irein Wangboje, Portrait of a Man, 1965, (woodcut on paper)

I have to say here, that I found this exhibition very poorly curated and organised.  There were so many paintings where it was impossible to tell who the artist was. I asked the guards (I never know what the people guarding the rooms are called) and they tried, but could not make any sense of a lot of it either. So, I might have attributed some paintings to the wrong artist. Equally, I do not know who the artists of the painting above, or the ones below is. But, I like them, so I have included them.

This and the ones below might be the work of Ubgodaga-Ngu's work. Many of her works capture women traders in market scenes. She was the first Nigerian woman to receive European artistic training.

Efhabor Emokpae, The New Seekers, 1969, (oil on board)

Erhabot Emokpae 

Okpu Eze, Untitled, 1989, (woodcut)

Okpu Eze, (mahogany)