BY
TAJUDEEN SOWOLE
With
Osazuwa Osagie holding his solo show titled Views In Colours at the National Museum,
Onikan, Lagos from October 27 to November 3, there is no doubt that works from
his Objective Period will be on
display.
Though he expresses himself weekly, as a contributing cartoonist for a
national daily, The Nation, closing
that period of his art via the canvas and mainstream art scene, he says, “is a progression.”
Taking guests through some of the works
mounted inside his residence-cum-studio in Lagos recently aside from the soft
copies, the theme of the show begins to unfold. What exactly is Osagie’s
objective art content all about? “It is about creating argument with images,” he says.
Being among the Nigerian artists that
promoted full-time studio practice after graduating in 1984, Osagie’s seeming
less prominence in exhibition circuit in recent times takes nothing away from
his skill and rating.
In stylised figural Goje Player, his kind of dialogue with
art is not missing in a rendition of native and rarely seen musical instrument,
bringing rhythms and colours together. Though the strings of the Goje dissolve
into the colours, the powers of the high pitch instrument could be felt.
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Goje Player By osazuwa Osagie |
THE spiritual content of objectivity is captured
in internal dialogue as In Thought, a
somber and lone figure suggests. Between the thinker’s facial expression, made
louder and, perhaps, scary by dark shades and the wrapped up part of the arm,
the real depression mood is clearly seen.
From one work to another, the contrast keeps coming, yet
within the frame of dialogue. For One Too
Many, it’s a dialogue between a man and his bottles, a delicate and
dangerous medium of expressing frustration. With sharp brush or palette knife
movements, Osagie’s impressionist strokes send the message that we cannot run
away from your problems by indulging in alcohol. “Drinking does not solve
frustration; it gives temporary excitement that only adds more to your
problem,” the artist argues.
Every artist has school nostalgia in
different form; Osagie gets his from a painting. It is a work that was painted
during his undergraduate days at Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State. It’s a lady
in reclining posture titled Zuletu.
OLD
paintings and drawings are common sight on the walls of Osagie’s studio. They
are kept as part of his personal collections. Being possessive of his work, he
says, is a hard attitude to drop.
“If I have my way, I would not sell any of my works. I would rather build
a museum or gallery where I can keep them, including other artists’ works.”
Majority of works sold out by artists, he argues, end up in the hands of
art dealers who dispose them so easily. It’s therefore friendlier to sell
directly to collectors, who buy the works for the love of art and share ideas
with the artists as friends.”
It’s therefore not a surprise when he discloses that out of the 40 works
for the Views In Colours show, some would
not be for sale.
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