A-ARTs: How Prof Buhari captured 'Yusuf Grillo like you've never seen'

'Omi Iye' (oil on canvas, 61 x 122cm, dated 2018) by Yusuf Grillo.

CURRENTLY showing as Yusuf Grillo's first posthumous solo art exhibition at Yusuf Grillo Museum, Ikeja, Lagos, the works on display have strengthened to the rich visual vocabulary of Nigeria. Titled Yusuf Grillo Like You've Never Seen, the exhibition opened on August 24, ending 30, 2024.

Professor Jerry Buhari wrote the review for the exhibition catalogue. He highlighted the gains of the exhibition in such areas as "archiving, preservation and presentation."

'Yusuf Grillo like you've never seen'

By Prof. Jerry Buhari

With this exhibition so aptly titled “Yusuf Grillo, like you've never seen,” the Estate of Yusuf Grillo presents to the world, perhaps for the ﬁrst time since the passing of the artist. The exhibition is giving us an inspiring example and lessons in archiving, preservation and presentation in how we could honor any human being living or passed. The exhibition also calls to attention the need for living artists to put their houses in order. It also calls for cultural institutions to consider the importance of documenting, and preserving for posterity works of cultural value.

The images in the catalogue have as an introduction, a rare and excellent black-and-white lateral view portrait of the artist. It captures his youthful look gazing into a world he is in, worlds he has gone through and experienced, worlds he will create and conquer. There is another rare photograph of the artist working at the mural in the building of Northern Nigeria Newspaper Company situated in Kaduna, in the seventies. It gives us an insight into how architectural design of the period considered embellishment of buildings a signiﬁcant part of ediﬁces. How sad that this culture appears to be set aside today.

Other photographs show maquettes of commissioned sculptures the artist undertook. These maquettes also provide an insight into the artist's creative process, discipline, attention to aesthetic detail and the professionalism he brings to bear in all his work. The maquettes were made for First Bank PLC, Lagos Island Local Government Council, and Lagos State Chamber of Commerce (certainly, these are only representative of the numerous commissions Grillo undertook in his lifetime). These commissions are testaments to the relationship Grillo was able to establish and build with both the government and the private sector in using art to build the corporate image and identity of institutions. The two photographs of the mosaic he made for the headquarters of the World Health Organization at Geneva could be related with the gouache designs he first painstakingly made before the ﬁnal work. Again, we see how these gouache designs inform his creative process and the professionalism he brought to bear in the commission. This is an artist of integrity who would prefer to engage the client transparently. The mosaic also shows the role Nigerian artists have played and continue to play on the international scene in celebrating and advancing world cultural heritage.

The mosaic commissions that Yusuf Grillo executed were created from the gouache designs he ﬁrst made, and in this catalogue, we have ﬁve excellent examples in full colour. Again, these gouaches evidence not only his work process but also the commitment he brings to bear in his work and relationship with clients. These gouaches and maquettes become contract agreements of a sort, between the artist and the client. That the Estate has been able to keep these works in such excellent condition with a little help from the expertise of Dr. Odun Orimolade and Dr. Adeola Balogun, is very commendable.

The catalogue also has one standing stained glasswork, “No Thanks” 2022. It is one of his last experimental projects said to be collaboration between artist and collector (Suresh Chellaram). It has turned out to be one of Grillo's ﬁnest projects where the stained glass works in churches and cathedrals have found a dialogue with the homes of mortals as well. It is most heartening to see that this work was executed with Gboyega his son. Do we take it that Gboyega would signify the continuing narrative of Yusuf Grillo's legacy? Why not?

Another stand-alone work is the wood screen sculptures, created to draw inspiration from Eﬁk combs. From my conversation with him, the inspiration came from the Eﬁk combs. This unique sculpture/s of the artist provides varying possibilities for installations and interpretation. Their heights and elegance are suggestive of naked masquerades, yet distinctively digniﬁed. They could also reference the connection with our vanishing forests.

Four oil paintings in the catalogue were made between 2017 and 2018. These too are Grillo's last works. They show the artist engaging in the creative worlds of impressionism and abstract expressionism. I ﬁnd the suggestive style of rendering a ﬂuid relationship between the ﬁgure and the ground symbolic of a closure of spiritual significance. Figure and ground attain their highest harmony exempliﬁed by purple, blue and white. These are celestial colors, meaning dust to dust? Who knows? Yusuf Grillo and the works that he created are not ﬁnished works. This is his deﬁnitive creative philosophy. And, he invites us even today to continue in the unfolding stories he has so articulately and eloquently presented to us. Prof. Jerry Buhari is of the Department of Fine Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

Art on chessboard with Tunde Onakoya, Lanre Olagoke