By Tajudeen
Sowole
The fourth edition of Yusuf Grillo Pavilion, which
celebrated modern uli art exponent,
Uche Okeke, last weekend revealed how nationalistic characters of the founding
fathers of Nigeria influenced artistic offering of the artist.
THE revelation at
the 2012 Grillo Pavilion Art Fiesta, held in Ikorodu last Saturday came as a
surprise.
In his lecture titled Uche Okeke: An Endearing Embodiment of Art
Revolution in Nigeria, art historian, Prof. Ola Oloidi recalled that
though, Okeke had imbibed the art philosophy of Akinola Lasekan and Aina
Onabolu, there came a sudden and “new ideologically instrumental direction.”
Oloidi, a colleague of Okeke at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, Enugu
State noted that the hustle and bustle of political movement by Nigerian
nationalists such as Nnamidi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Anthony
Enahoro and Eyo Ita energised the artist.
Oloidi recalled that Okeke said that he
“was naturally constricted into the invisible army of nationalistic revolution
that was targeted at a non-physical war against colonisation.”
Prof Uche Okeke, listening to Prof Ola Oloidi's presentation. |
The art historian stressed that it
would have been impossible for young and dynamic man like Okeke not to notice
the radical changes taking place around him, particularly when Lasekan, his
master, was artistically employing his creativity to fuel the burning political
tension in the country.
“It was the period the Nigerian
political climate began to change with that desire for an all embracing and un-parasitic
freedom. It was an age that Lasekan, also an artist-nationalist, used his
cartoons in the West Africa Pilot of
Azikiwe, to fight colonialism. According to Lasekan, ‘I had to give Zik the
political art so as to make him complete his political act.”
Oloidi argued that it was therefore a
natural transition when Okeke, later, as a student at Nigerian College of Art,
Science and Technology (now Ahmadu Bello University), Zaria, in1958 gathered
his colleagues to form a group that radicalised art in the country, “which he
named Zaria Art Society.”
The group’s pioneer members such
as Prince Demas Nwoko, Simon Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Yusuf Grillo, Prof.
Oloidi asserted, “all embraced Uche’s ideology of ‘natural synthesis’ and helped
bring actuality in the society’s well processed objectives.” Okeke’s ideology, Oloidi
noted, was not really popular among the generality of students. However, few
students who were not members of the society, like Jimoh Akolo, he said,
embraced the ideology.
Founder of Yusuf Grillo
Pavilion, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi (left) giving the guest speaker of the event,
Prof Ola Oloidi Grillo Pavilion Award.
|
He summarised the society’s art ideology thus: “Among other
many nationalistic and culturising activities, the members of the Zaria Art
Society, or more particularly, the more aggressive Demas Nwoko, Onobrakpeya,
Grillo and Simon joined Uche – though in their private period – to start
producing art works that were violently instructed in African traditional art
formalism. In fact, their ‘anti-academic’ imageries were visually aggressive
and technically rebellious.”
Still on Okeke’s radical art, Oloidi
argued that the artist’s “modernisation of the traditional Igbo uli body art, is his most creative
achievement.”
The art historian noted that Okeke,
after his college education, “devoted attention, very fanatically, to the study
of uli.”
It should be recalled that the Yusuf
Grillo Pavilion was launched in 2009 as a resource centre for the promotion of
Nigerian art. So far, all the artists celebrated by the Grillo Pavilion are
members of the Zaria Art Society otherwise known as ‘Zaria Rebels,’ in Nigerian
art parlance.
In 2010, it was Onobrakpeya’s event,
and Prof. dele jegede delivered the lecture. Last year, a renowned architect,
Prof. John Godwin gave the lecture at another Zaria Rebel, Prince Nwoko’s
celebration.
Uche
Okeke (right), his wife and colleague at Zaria, Jimoh Akolo.
|
Earlier, at the 2012 edition of the
Grillo Pavilion fiesta, the founder, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi in his welcome
address tagged ...As
We March On Ceaselessly…
noted that
there was a “ferment
in arts consciousness” during the late 1950s, “which was parallel to the
political emancipation story of Nigeria.” Gbadamosi said the literary thoughts
of Okeke “blossomed then and it continued in the wake of the civil war. His
restless soul engendered the birth of another school, Ulism, a portrayal of the depth of artistic creativity.”
He argued that aside Lasekan, Okeke
also “hobnobbed with expatriates such as J.G.C Allen, Dennis Duerden, T.M Evans
of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and had even met Bernard Fagg, the
renowned ethnographer.”
Gbadamosi
assured that Grillo Pavilion would continue searching for the “authentic
intellectual underpinning of modern art in Nigeria.”
The exhibition of Okeke’s work at the Pavilion was declared open by His
Royal Highness, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe.
During the interactive session, Okeke’s colleagues —
Nwoko, Onobrakpeya and Akolo shared the experience of their Zaria days.
Nwoko said “Uche was a wonderful
colleague; with him no dull moment. I am glad we (Onobrakpeya, Grillo, Akolo)
are alive today.”
While Akoko admitted that “I used to be
on my own, though later shared the society’s ideology,” Onobrakpeya disclosed
that he gained from Okeke’s penchant for documentation, adding further that, “I
personally gained from Uche’s documentation of Igbo culture, which inspired me
to also document Urhobo.”
His Royal Highness, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, felicitating with the celebrant, Okeke |
Onobrakpeya recalled how Okeke “would
tell me ‘just write and don’t worry about the grammar, somebody else would put
it right.”
For the exhibition, some of the works, according to
Gbadamosi, were on loan to Grillo Pavilion. The donors, he disclosed include
Prince Yemisi Shyllon “who has allowed us to raid his priceless collection of
the exalted works of Okeke.”
Okeke was born in
1933, and later found out that his mother was an uli artist.
Former students of Uche Okeke, Chinwe Uwatse (left) and Nididi Dike |
He attended the Nigerian College
of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria from 1958 to 1961.
He founded the Asele Institute, a
cultural center now located at his residence in Nimo, which houses an art
library and a collection of contemporary Nigerian art.
Okeke's early work included pen and ink portraits, mostly on
Igbo folk tales as well as images in gouache published in Tales of Land of Death (1971).
Some of his works on Igbo mythical figures
and masquerades are expressed in scenes depicting Chinua Achebe's classic novel
Things Fall Apart.
Okeke and other scholars developed the art program at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from 1970-1985.
Yusuf Grillo Pavilion building, inside Rasheed Gbadamosi compound, Ikorodu, Lagos State. 2008 FILE PHOTO |
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