By Tajudeen Sowole
As short as the period of Nigerian modern art
is, the post-independence era is full of much energy, suggesting that the
emerging contemporary art scene of the country is less colourful. And that
quite a number of books, fora and other outlets of academia or intellectual leanings
have devoted so much space to Nigerian modernity confirms the towering posture
of the period.
Cover of Postcolonial Modernism |
In fact, the Nigerian modern art period
is a wide subject that requires segmentations, so suggests a new book,
Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria,
authored by Chika Okeke-Agulu, Associate Professor at the Department of Art and
Archaeology and the Centre for African American Studies, Princeton University,
U.S. Okeke-Agulu's
postcolonial-focus of Nigerian modern art, in this book, most likely, would
inspire future writers to explore the vast areas of the country's modernism.
The author is a familiar name in the documentation of Nigerian art across
periods and generations, having coauthored Contemporary African Art Since 1980
and coedit Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.
As a book that documents the trajectory of
colonial and post-colonial states of visual arts in Nigeria, Okeke-Agulu's
Postcolonial Modernism is no doubt a compact scholarly work that highlights the
dynamics of the past and politics of a period that could have been the Nigerian
renaissance in the post-independence era.
A Duke University Press (2015) publication, the
357 pages book starts with the periods of colonialism, dwelling on the art
academia, and in the advancing chapters highlights conflicting local as well as
foreign interests. In the concluding chapters, the book coalesces the energies
that consisted of Nigerian modernism and the residue that became issues in
post-colonial modern period.
It is important not to gloss over the
Introduction section as the author explains the appropriation of the book's title,
giving two reasons. Sub-topics of the introduction include Europe and Modern
African Art; Modern, Modernity and Compound Consciousness; and Postcolonial
Modernism.
In Okeke-Agulu's analysis of Nigerian
Modernity, non-mentioning of colonial photographer, Jonathan Adagogo Green
(1873-1905) appears to have confirmed that photography as a contents of art -
within the perspective of Nigerian art historians - has no retrospective
consideration. Like other historians who have written about Nigerian modernism,
Okeke-Agulu does not alter the Aina Onabolu (1882-1963) as pioneer of the
country's modern art. As the book tracks art education from the colonial era,
Okeke-Agulu compares Onabolu's pioneering years with that of expatriate,
Kenneth C Murray (1903-1972). He argues that "Murray's art teaching
unsuccessfully worked against the artistic and ideological tradition laid down
by Onabolu."
Between Onabolu's legacy and his stints
with colonial influence, there appears to be varied perspectives among writers
of the subject. For example, another author, Onyema Offoedu-Okeke in his book,
Artists of Nigeria (2013), notes that when Onabolu's art emerged in 1905,
"there was already an established contents of modernists practices in
photography and architecture that served as a foundation for the new art he was
creating."
Most prominent part of Nigerian
modernism, which was the emergence of a group of young artists at Nigerian
College of Art Science and Technology (NCAST) in the late 1950's to 1960s,
deservedly gets much attention in Chapter 3 (The Academy and the Avant-Garde)
of Postcolonial Modernism. The inspirations behind the Zaria Art Society,
formed by a group of students at the NCAST's Department of Art and the
emergence of the 'Natural Synthesis', a central focus of the group dominates
the chapter. He cites one of the members of the society, Uche Okeke's statement
to support the African direction of the group. "Natural synthesis as
formulated by Okeke was to be the foundation of a ' virile school of art with
the new philosophy of the new age - Nigeria's renaissance period." But one
may ask: has Nigeria really recorded a Renaissance?
Using the 1956 historic gathering themed First
International Congress of Black Writers and Artists, held in Paris, France as a
background, the author, in Chapter 4, Transacting the Modern, takes the
argument about Natural Synthesis further into a broader space. But this time,
he drags key contributors such as the Mbari Artists and Writers Club at Ibadan
and late German linguist, Uli Beier into the ring.
However, after several exhibitions, the
club soon grew to international level, he notes. "In November, the
Sudanese artist, Ibrahim El Salahi became the first African artist to get a
one-person show at Mbari or any art gallery in Nigeria."
Post-Zaria art texture of some of the 'Rebels':
Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Jimoh Akolo and Simon Okeke follows
in the next chapter. From Okeke's uli-inspired rendition, to Nwoko's adaptation
of Nok object style sculpture and Simon Okeke's leaning towards Igbo-Ukwu,
abstraction paintings from Akolo as well as folklore themes in printmaking by
Onobrakpeya, the author brings out what he considers as gains of the Black
Orpheus and Mbari Club.
Every profession has its politics, which
either strengthens professionalism or promotes clique. For the
post-independence era, Okeke-Agulu fingers Lagos as the hotbed of Nigerian art
where contents and space became issue. In fact, foreign influence, he writes,
played crucial parts in the local politics of space. For example, in the early
1960s, the dominating spaces, he recalls, were the Exhibition Centre and the
American Society of African Culture (AMSAC). In fact, he discloses that AMSAC
"was funded by the CIA."
Still in the same chapter, from the
rubbles of the politics that surrounds art and appropriation in the 1960s, came
the formation of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) - umbrella professional body
for artists. But the traces of the art academia and the large influence of the
Zaria Society members shaped the foundation of SNA. "Thus in January 1964,
a group of 24 artists held an inaugural meeting and exhibition of the SNA at
the Exhibition Center with Yusuf Grillo as the founding-president and T.A
Fasuyi as Secretary."
The last chapter of the book Crisis in
the Postcolony uses the works of Uche Okeke and Nwoko as a template to stress
how the disintegration of the political structures of country affected the
creative sector. "Nigeria's postcolonial predicament had wide ranging effects
on art," the author argues under the heading End of a Dream. "For
one, the cultural nationalism that had inspired members of the Art Society and
their colleagues in Ibadan and Lagos was replaced during the middle and late
1960s by doubt and angst about the role of art and culture in the independent
but increasingly distressed nation." He adds that the anxiety over Nigeria's nation state
survival "led to the failure of the government's dreams for robust and
effective national art and cultural institutions (led by the Nigerian Council
for the Advancement of Art and Culture, Lagos, NCAAC).”
In seven chapters, Okeke-Agulu's
Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentith-Century Nigeria
appears like a covert focus, mainly on the works of Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko.
From one chapter to another, the more one dismisses the insinuation, the louder
the two artists dominate history, critique and analysis of events in the book.
In fact, the works of the two artists also dominate nearly half in the 127
illustrations in the book.
Okeke-Agulu specialises on classical,
modern, and contemporary African art history and theory. He previously taught
at The Pennsylvania State University, Emory University , University of Nigeria
, Nsukka, and Yaba College of Technology, Lagos . In 2006, he edited the first
ever issue of African Arts dedicated to African modernism, and has published
articles and reviews in African Arts, Meridians: Feminism, Race,
Internationalism, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Art South Africa
and Glendora Review. He contributed to edited volumes such as Reading the
Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace, The Nsukka Artists
and Contemporary Nigerian Art, and The Grove Dictionary of Art. Professor
Okeke-Agulu is a recipient of the Arts Council of the African Studies
Association Outstanding Dissertation triennial award (2007). In 2007, Professor
Okeke-Agulu was appointed the Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor of Art
History at Williams
College , and Fellow at the Sterling and
Francine Clark Art Institute. He is also on the faculty of the Department of
Art and Archaeology, Princeton University .
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