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There Is Modern Nigerian
Visual Art!
Simon O. Ikpakronyi
Art Historian, Curator and Researcher
(Assistant Director, Research)
National Gallery of Art, Nigeria.
Introduction
This paper is partly a response to the wrong notion held by the West
that Africa has no modern art tradition. This attitude has survived
up till the millennial turn. Yet Africa, including Nigeria, has
contributed immensely to world civilization through her art and
other cultural manifestations. Historians and other scholars hardly
acknowledge the significant role played by Africa in the birth of
modern art, for at the time Africa encountered colonization and was
trying to imbibe Western ideas, including artistic ones, African art
was also impacting positively and instrumentally on European
artistic through the works of the pioneer modern artists. Demas
Nwoko (2005: 33 & 37) states that in the beginning of the 20th
century, European artists had discovered the intrinsic aesthetic
validity of African and other similar art styles around the world.
In other words, modern art in Africa is a receptacle for a
cross-current of ideas and visions. The paradigmatic shift
engendered by colonization in the stylistics of Nigerian art did not
necessarily severe pre-contact Africa from the colonial and
post-colonial.
At this juncture, an understanding of
the modernist theory may be pertinent. Modernism is a reaction
against tradition, especially in its close ties with the
Enlightenment and subsequent industrialization. The New Webster’s
Dictionary defines Modernism as a kind of movement dating from the
late 19th century, which aimed at harmonizing traditional beliefs
with modern scientific and philosophical thoughts”. In Nigeria and
Africa in general, modernism is said to have taken place from the
point when contact with the western world was established. Modernism
in this context does not always connote a total repudiation of
traditional ideas; but also a dynamic revitalization of tradition.
Saleh Hassan (1991) states that “Modernism entails a self –
conscious attempt to break with the past and search for new forms of
expression,” According to him, “the history of modern expression as
defined by Western scholars is relatively short in Africa…it came
about as a result of the rise in Western patronage which was
characterized by the establishment of art workshops, formal art
schools and Academy of Art fashioned after Western art
education…..It also came as a result of the nationalistic and
cultural resurgence of many independent nations. Hassan adds that
“in the second half of the 20th century, African art movements with
new initiative emerged either as reaction to or as a rejection of
Western art education offered through art workshops and art academy
in Africa or acquired through study in the Western world” the result
is today’s African art with art movements, art associations and art
festivals.
Having defined “modern” and what Saleh Hassan said of modernism, one
can now attempt a perspective on the emergence of modern art in
Nigeria, its principles, styles/techniques as well as
themes/concepts associated with it. This, I think, will ensure an
insightful comprehension of what we actually refer to as modern art
in Africa.
Emergence of Modern Nigerian Art
Modern Nigerian art since its emergence and can now compete
favourably with the art of other nations of the world. Though, there
have been various arguments as to when modern Nigerian Art started,
I will look at its emergence from the period of Aina Onabolu in the
early 20th century. The popular view for this is that Onabolu and
his contemporaries broke away totally from the classical/traditional
Nigerian art which started to receive foreign influence gradually
from when contact with outside world was established which has been
described as “transitional period”. I have discoursed this issue
extensively in another paper.
But how did Onabolu and his contemporaries begin this venture? It is
held that they achieved this, first, through self training using
photographs, trade articles that carried package designs, prints,
adverts, leaflets and periodicals which were in circulation at that
time to practice European kind of realism which was then new to many
Nigerians. In doing this, they perfected themselves in the emerging
new art. According to Demas Nwoko (2005: 32), the new style of art
which was distinctly different from traditional forms demonstrated
the scientific aspiration and content of European culture in which
everything had to be proved scientifically true in order to be
accepted. To further perfect themselves, Onabolu and his group were
taking correspondence courses from Britain in art.
At a point, these artists saw the need to further improve and
sharpen their creative skills and abilities through formal training.
Thus, in 1920, Aina Onabolu went to United Kingdom to learn all he
could about the techniques of painting and the sciences of
perspective and anatomy. Some others who had the opportunity also
studied outside the country and those who did not have the
opportunity learnt from them. They produced art works characterized
by photographic realism. Their major intention then was to destroy
the myths by some Europeans that Africans, were not competent in
realist art. Aina Onabolu actually proved them wrong through his
powerful and skillful portraits of high officials and elites he
executed.
To discourage the idea of every artist going outside the country to
train, Aina Onabolu made serious efforts to introduce art in schools
in Nigeria. He started teaching art as a volunteer to encourage
interest in it. He was actually an itinerant teacher, moving from
one school to another. As he was doing this, the syllabus he
designed was approved and adopted by the Colonial Education
Department for teaching of art in secondary schools. Ben Enwonwu and
others were among the pupils at this time even up to the time Paul
Mount, a Briton and a renowned sculptor who was invited by the
government to start art in Nigeria introduced and was running a Part
Time British Council art classes at Yaba Technical Institute (now
Yaba College of Technology). It was an informal group set up with no
formal entry requirement, that is, no examination was conducted
before admission. The only requirement for entry was aptitude and
portfolio of works to show that one could cope. Many young people,
including staff of advertising studios, printing industry, etc; took
part in the programme. Artists, mostly Benin artists, participated
in the programme, they include; Felix Idubor, Idehen, Isiaka Osunde,
Abayomi barbers, Yusuf Grillo among others. Ben Enwonwu later was
trained in the Goldsmith College of Art in England.
Then came the establishment of Nigerian College of Art, Science and
Technology in the early 1950s at Ibadan, and later at Enugu and
Zaria with Fine Arts being first introduced at the Ibadan branch in
1954. The aim, however then was to train art teachers for the
Nigerian education system. But in 1955, the art section was
transferred to Zaria branch where courses in art were re-designed
along European lines with mostly foreign (European) art teachers in
charge. The school was affiliated with Goldsmiths College, London.
Thus, the teaching of art in Zaria then was very much like in any
art school in England. According to Demas Nwoko, the courses were
planned to train art teachers and not artists, so the emphasis was
on drawing, painting and very little design and sculpture. Very
little was done to orientate courses towards the cultural reality in
Nigeria. The courses in art then were only offered at the
Certificate and Diploma levels.
Not only that. Degree Courses in art were not offered in Nigeria’s
art schools of Nsukka and Zaria until after independence. Gradually
many universities where art were offered started giving degrees in
art. polytechnics, Institutes of Technology, Colleges of Education
and other similar institutions also offered art side by side at
various levels of diploma and certificate. Thus, today in Nigeria,
there are so many art departments in most of the universities,
polytechnics and colleges of education producing artists and what
these artists produce are within the framework of modern art from
Nigeria.
Like modern art elsewhere in the world, modern Nigerian art means
the art of Western-trained visual artists as against the classics
which are often tied to tradition. Modern Nigerian art include works
of Nigerian visual artists who are mostly urban- based, who produce
works according to the norms of Western/modern art, exhibiting in
galleries and museums, first class hotels and foreign cultural
centres. Their creations are different from the
traditional/classical artists whose works are always found in
shrines and palaces and other non-elitist centres. To some extent,
modern artists are internationally known, and their patrons include
governments and related institutions, expatriates and the
Western-educated (indigenous) bourgeoisie.
The works of modern Nigerian artists reflect a clear knowledge of
their artistic heritage. They use the most diverse techniques and
media from Nigeria and the West to enhance the power of expression
of their works, which are usually vibrant and rich with traditional
symbols, motifs and patterns. The styles and subject matter of
modern Nigerian art are highly heterogeneous and vary according to
ideology, artistic training and the medium used. But regardless of
the differences in their works, these artists share the same
ideological and intellectuals’ orientation, which they express
through visual diversities and vocabularies in terms of style,
iconography, symbolism and techniques.
Principles, Styles/Techniques in Modern Nigerian Art.
At the early stage of modern art in Nigeria, Aina Onabolu and his
contemporaries used artistic expressions based on European
principles. Thus, after their training, they started portraying in
their paintings, European idea of realism, that is, optical
representation of objects as they perceived them. They also were
concerned about European convention of perspective. Their works were
executed with emphasis on technical competence, as the art of
portraiture was the in-thing then.
The next group of artists which included Ben Enwonwu also employed
modern conventional style, showing their own modern educational
training as well. They introduced in their works various forms of
stylization, naturalistic, abstract as well as realistic works,
making use of various traditional imageries. Also, Uche Okeke and
his peers in Zaria rose against the conventional style of European
art which was introduced to them. Thus, they produced strong
stylization taken from both European and traditional forms. Their
sources were picture books with good productions of the masterpieces
of African Art, like the Bronze of Benin and Ife, carvings from the
Effiks and Bemenda and from Congo and Sudan belt of West Africa.
Also, from books published by renowned European Africanists,
archaeologists, anthropologists and museum curators (Demas Nwoko,
2005: 39). They merely studied them, but did not reproduce them so
as to achieve originality. Later, artists like of Kolade Oshinowo
and others moved a step further and involve themselves in the
various experiments targeted at creating art works which are devoid
of foreign elements. They also combined realistic, abstract,
impressionistic and illusionistic ideas with ethnic motifs to create
their most colourful art works. Hence, you find in some of their
works, a plethora of colours which could be described as heavy,
loud, harsh, brilliant, warm, and cool.
The fact is that, at this point all that could be obtained in
Western world of styles and techniques in visual art have been
exploited, various experiments carried out and everything made easy
for the budding artists. The young Nigerian artists of today are now
merely trying to improve on what their art teachers and studiomaster
artists have done or are still doing. They try to achieve more
balance between the traditional forms and Western art styles and
techniques. Thus, they continue to experiment, and the result is
that, today we have many styles and techniques in modern Nigerian
art. Most of the art departments established their own unique styles
and techniques. Thus, art works from the art department in Zaria can
easily to be identified with it. So also are works from the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Yaba College of Technology, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile – ife, Auchi Polytechnic, Institute of
Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu among others. Such unique
identification is made possible through the efforts of some of those
who started teaching there at the early take-off of the
departments.Today, Nigerian modern artists are quite rich with ideas
and techniques.
Themes/Concepts In Modern Nigerian Art
Like other aspects, themes and concepts have also developed
gradually and significantly too in modern Nigerian art and have
become varied, rich and interesting. Works that lack all these
characteristics receive less appreciation and suffer in the hands of
artists that produce them. As earlier highlighted, the theme of the
works of the first group of modern Nigerian artists centered mostly
on personalities, that is, their portraits, which they executed with
high skill. Initially, they were mostly crude portraits of local
chiefs, painting of landscapes or river sceneries with palm trees
and birds commonly depicted. Others were scene from the Bible which
could be found in local bars and sitting rooms of educated few and
wealthy traders of that time. Gradually, the portraits made were
mostly those of Nigerian elite, which were executed on European
academic formalism with well-balanced proportion and accurate
anatomical judgment. Sometimes, such were executed to record various
Nigerian ethnic groups and their rich attires. Works of some of the
artists, especially that of Akinola Lasekan portray common people in
the society and genre subjects as well.
Ben Enwonwu and his contemporaries often made use of familiar
traditional symbol/imageries from various ethnic groups. Ben Enwonwu,
for instance, painted dancers from various ethnic groups in Nigeria
based on their mystic theme. In their works they depicted Yoruba,
Hausa, Fulani and Igbo which are all geared towards calling for
unity and peace in Nigeria. The group of Uche Okeke took art to a
new horizon and experimented with new visual imageries that were
derived from traditional African aesthetics, through which they
created more original modern Nigerian art that adequately
represented Nigeria and of course Africa at large. From their period
till date, beautiful and interesting environmental themes started to
emerge. Such include beautiful landscapes (some with rocks) and
river sceneries spiced with rich vegetation, alluring and exotic
flowers, cattle rearers, Fulani milk maid with their beautiful
calabash decorations often balanced on their heads, donkeys – either
carrying their owner or loads to and from the farms, market, e.t.c,
others are in the area of architecture – palaces of Emirs, Obas,
Obis, kings and chiefs, festivals, Durbar processions, (Sallah day,
Christian festivities) mother and child (sometimes too, with loads
on their heads), Gwari women with load on their shoulders, (sometime
with a child strapped to their back), family returning from farms,
farmers at work, fishermen as well as certain interesting happenings
in the society which they captured and documented making interesting
viewing. The thematic vision of modern Nigerian art is quite
engaging. Folklores, which are told in various societies, are
interpreted visually in different media. The themes of social,
political, economic and religious life of the people are equally
highlighted.
Today, the themes have become highly explosive with young modern
Nigerian artists. They pick, develop and improve on everything which
they see from the artists before them and around them, all in an
attempt to advance the cause of art in Nigeria.
Conclusion:
The output of the art institutions in Nigeria has resulted in the
development of the Nigerian art scene with high growth in the number
of practising artists, experimenting with nearly everything in terms
of materials and forms. Modern Nigerian art has developed both in
content and form; that is, it has achieved for itself an enviable
identity through intensive experimentation with various materials
and forms.
Modern Nigerian artists have achieved varied expressions on a wide
range of themes and subjects. Themes/concepts in modern Nigerian art
started to grow significantly from the time modern it emerged and
has become more explosive. Indeed, it is a long way from home, from
Onabolu. There are certainly some challenges. But the fact remains
that in the last one hundred years, a tradition has been nurtured
and cultivated which institutes Nigerian modernism.and the point are
quite clear; that modernism is not an occidentlist monopoly but a
concept that can be approached and understood from various
standpoints.
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