by Ifeoluwa Olutayo.
There’s a rich Nigerian history of artistic expression to explore, art that informed the subsequent generations of artists and creatives (still doing so to this day). The legacy of these artists only comes up in retrospective exhibitions and seldom finds rest in school curriculums outside of art courses and schools.
But, these artists can teach us a lot more than artistic expression, with their acts one that extends (and points) to the indomitable will of the human spirit, the triumph of organised community and seminal work, changing the outlook of Nigerian Modernist art.
One such group could be found– if one were to travel back in time to 1958– in Zaria in the years leading up to independence at the National College of Arts, Science and Technology (now known as Ahmadu Bello University).
Created by a group of undergraduates in the Fine Art Department at the time, The Zaria Art Society (or the Zaria Rebels as they were also described as) were focused on the creation of a truly Nigerian artistic expression, one outside the heavily focused British Art Curriculum taught at their school. They rejected the curriculum and the pedagogy of their (mostly) British Art lecturers, as they felt their learning neglected their roots and artistic (cultural too) heritage.
Bear in mind that this feeling was happening alongside a nationwide push for independence and a post-colonial agency and the feeling–if you joined the time machine I mentioned–was one of nationalist euphoria, of a nation on the cusp of social and political freedom. It would make sense to see how that feeling would extend to cultural considerations, as the arts are the lifeblood of a society. Reclamation of national identity was on everyone’s mind.
These students, led by Christopher Uchefuna Okeke (the group’s founder), began to conceive and conceptualise a way forward, a nationalist modern approach to creating the new nation’s art, and conceive they did. Among the founding members were Uchefuna Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Olu Oguibe, and Simon Okeke.
Uchefuna Okeke conceived the concept of Natural Synthesis, which meant a union of traditional themes, ideas and techniques with modernist expression, creating unique works that represented the Nigerian ideal they sought in the arts. The thought process was that since colonial rule stifled indigenous practices and methods, they must bring these elements into play for any hopes of a National art identity while also incorporating some of the modernist techniques from their learning that they found useful.
They believed that this would shape the identity of our art at the time, walking a fine line between the repressed old and the inviting new, all in search of something unique to accompany the young nation into the future, a decolonisation, if you will, of Nigerian visual art– significantly political. This search didn’t stop at only the work, as they regularly conversed about their creations and sometimes critiqued the ideologies behind their respective focuses.
Something quite interesting about the group was that some of the founding members had come to the University to become professional artists, having already completed previous art training, with some armed with a bit of experience; Uchefuna Okeke had completed a solo exhibition in 1956 at the Jos Museum and Demas Nwoko had won the silver cup for best entry in art in the Western Regional Festival of Arts.
The labour of resisting these colonial educational frameworks earned them the moniker, the Zaria Rebels. True to that name, the art society had contentious brushes with the college’s fine art department over the three years it existed within the walls of the National College of Arts, Science, and Technology.
In June 1961, the group was disbanded as Bruce, Uchefuna and Demas finished college (and they also wanted to remove the burden of an antagonistic relationship with the Fine Arts department) and as Uchefuna remarked, the struggle now lay outside of the Zaria College. Their impact cannot be underemphasized, as these pioneers went on to create a new Nigerian Modernist movement.
Uchefuna, who strongly believed that artists must occupy and express the political (a few believe his early writings earned the group the moniker of Zaria Rebels), was known for his artistic exploration of Igbo folklore, symbols, and cultural themes, chief among them his use of the design elements in the traditional Igbo art form, Uli.
Fortune Pot by Uchefuna Okeke (sourced from calabargallery.com)
Bruce Onobrakpeya draws from diverse sources, including Benin Art, regional Nigerian landscape painting, Nigeria’s relevant political situation, and Christian symbolism.
The Last Supper by Bruce Onobrakpeya (sourced from facebook.com)
Bruce Onobrapkeya’s work is also deeply entrenched in Urhobo culture, drawn from its rich folklore heritage, as subjects and in a sense, for preservation (in the arts). He is also a pioneer in printmaking, celebrated for his innovative printmaking techniques. He also handled all of the illustrations for Chinua Achebe’s novel No Longer At Ease, released in 1960.
Yusuf Grillo, a legendary painter, sculptor and muralist was (and is) widely celebrated for his incorporation of modern techniques with Yoruba sculpture forms, with drapes becoming geometric, expressive and leaning towards the abstract, but holding emotionality in all those edges.
His work is distinct in its hues, with the softness of blue and purple he constantly used suggesting an elegance of subject matter and a beauty in expressing it.
Demas Nwoko is also a legendary artist, architect and designer, whose architectural projects include the Dominican Institute in Ibadan and the Akenzua Cultural Centre in Benin City, which is a union of Japanese and Greek inspirations rendered in traditional Benin City aristocratic architecture with the choice of colour, the Edo traditional murals and the horizontal ridges.
A man of many talents–with no formal training in architecture–his early painting and sculpture style was heavily inspired by northern NOK Art. He is also a fine actor and dancer, having performed in many plays.
He has a rich history in the theatre, too, for his stage designs, particularly his stage design for the critically acclaimed production of Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drunkard, which was lauded for Nwoko’s inventive use of space and his organisation of the choreography.
These are but a few of the group’s achievements and legacies, with that pioneering technique (natural synthesis) still very much in application by today’s contemporary artists.
Some of the group also went on to form the core of the Mbari club in Ibadan in 1961, a group of artists, writers and musicians brought together by Ulli Beier, a German editor who was a pioneering voice in publishing, creating the first African Literary Journal in English– Black Orpheus.
They shaped (and continue to shape) artistic expression in post-independence Nigeria and in a country that now more than ever needs an art culture geared towards the political, this act of time machine-sponsored journalistic remembrance is crucial for continuity to exist. We must, once again harness the political potency of the arts in making statements, critiquing inadequate systems and provoking discussions about the state of affairs in our nation.
