Despite its many challenges, Nigerian art remains steady on its stilts of development. It has grown through training (formal and informal), experiments, art exhibitions, art auctions, studio visits, corporate marketing, door-to-door-marketing, stylistic tendencies, and more. It has also beaten the barrier of the word “contemporary” that has redefined Western art. In Nigeria, contemporary art thrives more on artists of same period rather than the ideological features that provoke and reinvent art and its ideologies
BRUCE Onobrakpeya’s Harmattan Workshop debuted in 1998. It has since become a yearly ritual that takes place at Agbarha Otor, Delta State, the southern part of Nigeria. Since its debut, it has attracted a variety of already trained artists with various degrees and academic qualifications. Participants have been painters, sculptors, ceramists, graphic designers, textile designers, art scholars and artswriters. Since its debut, the number of participants has grown in leaps and bounds, and the results have been overwhelming. As a matter of fact, a dedicated gallery called Harnmattan Workshop Gallery was opened on Victoria Island, Lagos. Here, works produced by the workshop participants at Agbarha Otor were showcased to the public in Lagos. The gallery was open to other artists who might have no connection with the workshop. This was the reason the maiden edition of Mufu Onifade’s Araism Movement exhibition was launched at the gallery in 2006.
Presently, most artists who teach at various tertiary institutions and regular art practitioners are active participants at this annual feast of art and creativity. In fact, it has also recorded some international participants. To this end, it is much easier to conclude that the Harmattan Workshop is the longest-running art workshop in Nigeria.
One of the most fertile and long-sustained art workshops in Nigeria is Igun Street in Benin City, Edo State. While it has been established that the ancient craft of bronze casting is a vibrant and intricate part of Edo culture, the workshop is always handy for casting art pieces produced within or outside Benin. While there are other places in Nigeria where bronze casting takes place, none is comparable to the impressive mastery of the craft constantly evolving in Benin. For its relevance, productivity and creativity, Igun Bronze casting centre is described by UNESCO as a citadel of bronze casting, and has therefore become a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. Its contribution to the development of bronze casting in Nigeria is unparalleled.
The dynamics of Nigerian art and its history of development will forever remain incomplete if the efforts of art studios are not recognised. While there are so many individual art studios across Nigeria, it is important to mention a few that have operated as groups.
The first of such studios is the Abayomi Barber studio located within the campus of the University of Lagos. It was founded in 1972 when Barber joined the University of Lagos after his return from the UK where he had resided, studied and practised art. Abayomi Barber Studio took in its first student, Muri Adejimi in 1973. Others soon joined and the Studio became what Frank Aig-Imoukuede later described as the “Abayomi Barber School of Thought.” Barber’s craftmasnship is topnotch. He is a renaissance artist with a distinctive class as his mastery of human anatomy and draperies defined his artistic depth and creativity. He had successfully transmitted same to many of his students including Muri Adejimi, Olumuyiwa Spencer, Toyin Alade and others. His style, based on meticulousness of figural or zoomorphic treatment, fusion of superlative ideas and naturalistic tendencies, has been described as African super realism. The same approach is inherent in the works of his many students.
The Lagos-based Universal Studios of Art was situated at the Workshop Studios used by some artists who had worked with Erabor Emokpae as they produced works for the embellishment of the facade, the exterior and interior of the National Theatre, a national edifice that hosted part of the activities that commemorated the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), a major international cultural festival held in Nigeria in 1977. After the festival, some of the artists who came from Benin City stayed back in Lagos. They were joined by other Lagos-based artists and continued to practise their trade in the workshop space. It was a athriving studio that had started attracting more participants and dedicated patrons until the artists were issued a quit notice by the National Theatre. The Theatre managment had the need for the space and thought it right to eject the artists. The artists, however, fought back and took their case to the Presidency, which asked them to get properly registered as a body. That gave birth to the name Universal Studios of Art in 1995 with four trustees namely Bisi Fakeye, Monday Akhidue, Bunmi Babatunde and Abiodun Olaku. The Federal Government then granted them a permanent stay within the National Theatre premises. For this reason, they were relocated to the National Theatre abandoned massive mechanic workshop while the location it was moved from later provided space for the buidling of the National Gallery of Art, Lagos office.
INDEED, there is the need to also recognise the efforts of the administration of art in Nigeria. At the apex is the National Gallery of Art (established by the Federal Government in 1993) to preserve and promote Nigeria’s artistic heritage. There have been in operation many private galleries across Nigeria, and they compliment the efforts of the National Gallery. In their collective efforts, they have promoted Nigerian art in various ways. Also in coordinating and rallying Nigerian artists, the Society of Nigeria Artists, which was founded in 1963, has been effective and beneficial to its members. It has since been joined by other coordinating groups like the Female Artists Association of Nigeria, the Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria, Art Teachers Associations of Nigeria, Sculptors Association of Nigerian, Craft Potters Association of Nigeria and others.
It is also important to recognise such artists who in their personal efforts have achieved prominence that cannot be ignored: Ben Enwonwu, Kolade Oshinowo, Ben Ekanem, Jerry Buhari, El-Dragg Leonard Okwoju, Ellis Oyekola, Mufu Onifade and many more. They are outstanding and have contributed to the rich pool of Nigeria’s aesthetic legacies.
Despite its many challenges, Nigerian art remains steady on its stilts of development. It has grown through training (formal and informal), experiments, art exhibitions, art auctions, studio visits, corporate marketing, door-to-door-marketing, stylistic tendencies, and more. It has also beaten the barrier of the word “contemporary” that has redefined Western art. In Nigeria, contemporary art thrives more on artists of same period rather than the ideological features that provoke and reinvent art and its ideologies. While we also have some galleries bent on promoting such art that attacks fine arts, so many other galleries like Mydrim Gallery, Thought Pyramid Gallery, Tim & Carol Gallery, Omenka Gallery, Orisun Gallery (Abuj), and others in their likeness do not care. They stick to quality and standard that define and promote art of true meaning and identity. Proudly, Nigerian art now enjoys changed orientation from mere production to enterpreneurship, exposed to opportunities of grants, residency programmes, etc. It is also exposed to sponsorship from banks, oil and gas industry, government agencies, private individuals, online art marketing/galleries, social media advocacy and professional art management.
In conclusion, an excerpt fron an essay by Mufu Onifade titled ‘Of Icons, iconic, Iconoclastic and Iconography,’ suffices: “In the long run, the past is already serving as a backdrop of current trends. Yesterday has provided itself as today’s backdrop. So will today provide itself as a backdrop for tomorrow. That is the power of posterity. In the nearer or distant posterity, whose stories will be told? Is it of those who maintain and insist on standard or of those who abuse it? Posterity will judge.”