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| (Right) Untitled (Left) see below |
Nigerian contemporary paintings on canvas
Nigeria today has become a country noted for its art works, both ancient and modern. Contemporary artists of Nigeria enjoy some of the success and
status of the ancient artists, producing a variety of works in artistic styles worthy of international acclaim. Contemporary artists in Nigeria are aiming for a
cultural synthesis of old and new in the form and content of their work. The infusion of abstraction, the artistic freedom to create new forms and inject new
meaning into art or to rework older forms have created a wide range of individual styles in the last two decades. These artists are not reluctant to make
bold commentaries in the context of their work on contemporary Nigerian society, but they do so with a visual repertoire that speaks to as wide an audience
as possible. (Found in South side of upper lobby and throughout upper and lower lobby)
*The Douglas Society will be hosting an event called “The Akire Shrine Painters from Nigeria” on November 15, 2006 (more information below the photos)
Nigeria today has become a country noted for its art works, both ancient and modern. Contemporary artists of Nigeria enjoy some of the success and
status of the ancient artists, producing a variety of works in artistic styles worthy of international acclaim. Contemporary artists in Nigeria are aiming for a
cultural synthesis of old and new in the form and content of their work. The infusion of abstraction, the artistic freedom to create new forms and inject new
meaning into art or to rework older forms have created a wide range of individual styles in the last two decades. These artists are not reluctant to make
bold commentaries in the context of their work on contemporary Nigerian society, but they do so with a visual repertoire that speaks to as wide an audience
as possible. (Found in South side of upper lobby and throughout upper and lower lobby)
*The Douglas Society will be hosting an event called “The Akire Shrine Painters from Nigeria” on November 15, 2006 (more information below the photos)
Akire Shrine paintings
Several years ago the Douglas Society made a contribution to the Native Arts Department at the Denver Art Museum to conserve a group of Akire
Shrine paintings. Several of these paintings along with a related video are in the new African gallery. Join us on November 15 for a multimedia program
by Moy Okediji, Assistant DAM Curator of African and Oceanic art, focusing on the Akire paintings and in particular, Tinuomi Afilaka .
The following is an excerpt from a paper authored by Moyo Okediji -
Afilaka is a member of the Akire shrine painters of Ile Ife, a group of women who practice an art of healing, a sacred art that addresses the spiritual and
physical needs of the artists and the community.
The Akire artists paint images that they regard as totemic self-portraits, images that they render traditionally as murals on the shrines of their divinity,
Orisa Ikire. They inscribe and engrave invisible invocations of verbal chants, prayers and songs into their visual compositions, because they chant, pray,
dance and paint as they sing:
O le keture
O se re mi lopo
Oloja lariye
Ggogbo ara jolonke
Luminous like a celestial disc
Infinitely beautiful to me
Lord of the homesteads
Absolutely symmetrical
They believe that their verbal chants, poems and prayers do not disappear, but that these crucial linguistic components dry into the wet paint, and
become part of the composition, even though these performed aspects remain invisible to the naked eye.
The creative processes observed by the artists are parts of the annual rituals of the entire city of Ile Ife. When the women cover the old mural with the
black paint at the end of the year, they mark the passing of the old year. The black color totally removes all the poisons of the old year from the bodies
of the people. At the beginning of the New Year, they paint a new mural on the wall as the herald of a rejuvenated body free of the old poisons, a body
healed of physical and psychological wounds. The women paint together as a group on the same project at the same time. Jointly executed as a
collaborative project, the group painting is part of an old tradition of collectively appealing to divine powers to heal the world.
Afilaka, one the painters, began to have recurrent bouts of inspiration in the late eighties, during which the invisible voices of the divinities incessantly
commanded her to make a solo painting, all by herself. It started rather strangely in the form of suggestions, desires and anxiety to draw and paint
certain interlocking shapes. These feelings grew into compulsions, but she could only paint in her mind, because, frightened, she could not realize her
vision in real life. Scared, she kept the vision to herself for almost ten years before she grew bold enough to tell the group about it. In the vision, the
divinities instructed her to stop using the style of the group, and to start writing letters to the divinities, to report the iniquities on earth to higher powers.
“There is too much corruption in the world,” Afilaka says. “Things are moving from bad to worse everyday. There is no security of life, or safety of
property. The world is upside-down. This is not the way things used to be. Life is too hard for the poor. And you see all these idle rich men with their
harems of wives and concubines. Where do they all come from? The root of wealth is corrupt, if I dare say.” It is her responsibility, she says, to tell it like
it is to the divinities, she says. In the process of fulfilling this vision, she developed a special linear style of painting that has evolved over the years. The
members of the Akire group to which she belongs accommodate her by giving her a section at the end of the wall on which they paint their mural, to
express her vision. Some of them think she is insane, others regard her as a genius with divine inspiration. Most people do not know what to make of her
strange work. The composition is stunning and original. She is clearly the most remarkable recent manifestation of abstraction in the Akire painting
tradition.
Afilaka completed Letters to the Divinities in 2002 in a sacred shrine, using symbols that she invented in her strive to express her angst and repair the
fragmentation of the world. I had provided her and the members of the group with acrylic and canvas, and she began to generate astonishing painting,
in this series. Her painting stimulates a discussion on modernity around several mythological conflicts and walls. These conflicts include the tension
between anthropology and art; between sacred versus secular art; between individual versus group creativity; and between functional versus “art for art’
s sake.” Afilaka’s painting explores modernity as an ongoing creative interaction that crosses the boundaries of simple or final definition, like a bird in
flight.
This totally independent invention of calligraphic abstraction within the indigenous figurative painting tradition, absolutely independent of any western
influence, is a border-crossing initiative from a figurative formalism to a nonfigurative idiom. It is directly reminiscent of Picasso’s border crossing from a
classical tradition to a cubist idiom in Les Demoiselles D’Avignon.
That Afilaka, one of the indigenous women painters, could totally independently develop abstraction demonstrates an uncommon talent and
sophistication, which her colleagues recognize and honor. The acquisition of the work of Afilaka by the Denver Art Museum creates enormous issues. Is
her work to be appreciated as a modern 21st century expression of passion, individuality, originality and innovation, or displayed in the same gallery with
Picasso? Or will her work be displayed anonymously with other objects exhibited without attribution to any artist, in the African art gallery? If her work is
displayed with her name in the African gallery, will this reference to a name bring “undue” attention to issues of gender and individuality in African art? Is
the work sacred or secular art? Is it even art or artifact? Does it belong in a museum of art or a museum of anthropology? These are some of the
questions that attended the museum acquisition and display of Afilaka’s work.
Several years ago the Douglas Society made a contribution to the Native Arts Department at the Denver Art Museum to conserve a group of Akire
Shrine paintings. Several of these paintings along with a related video are in the new African gallery. Join us on November 15 for a multimedia program
by Moy Okediji, Assistant DAM Curator of African and Oceanic art, focusing on the Akire paintings and in particular, Tinuomi Afilaka .
The following is an excerpt from a paper authored by Moyo Okediji -
Afilaka is a member of the Akire shrine painters of Ile Ife, a group of women who practice an art of healing, a sacred art that addresses the spiritual and
physical needs of the artists and the community.
The Akire artists paint images that they regard as totemic self-portraits, images that they render traditionally as murals on the shrines of their divinity,
Orisa Ikire. They inscribe and engrave invisible invocations of verbal chants, prayers and songs into their visual compositions, because they chant, pray,
dance and paint as they sing:
O le keture
O se re mi lopo
Oloja lariye
Ggogbo ara jolonke
Luminous like a celestial disc
Infinitely beautiful to me
Lord of the homesteads
Absolutely symmetrical
They believe that their verbal chants, poems and prayers do not disappear, but that these crucial linguistic components dry into the wet paint, and
become part of the composition, even though these performed aspects remain invisible to the naked eye.
The creative processes observed by the artists are parts of the annual rituals of the entire city of Ile Ife. When the women cover the old mural with the
black paint at the end of the year, they mark the passing of the old year. The black color totally removes all the poisons of the old year from the bodies
of the people. At the beginning of the New Year, they paint a new mural on the wall as the herald of a rejuvenated body free of the old poisons, a body
healed of physical and psychological wounds. The women paint together as a group on the same project at the same time. Jointly executed as a
collaborative project, the group painting is part of an old tradition of collectively appealing to divine powers to heal the world.
Afilaka, one the painters, began to have recurrent bouts of inspiration in the late eighties, during which the invisible voices of the divinities incessantly
commanded her to make a solo painting, all by herself. It started rather strangely in the form of suggestions, desires and anxiety to draw and paint
certain interlocking shapes. These feelings grew into compulsions, but she could only paint in her mind, because, frightened, she could not realize her
vision in real life. Scared, she kept the vision to herself for almost ten years before she grew bold enough to tell the group about it. In the vision, the
divinities instructed her to stop using the style of the group, and to start writing letters to the divinities, to report the iniquities on earth to higher powers.
“There is too much corruption in the world,” Afilaka says. “Things are moving from bad to worse everyday. There is no security of life, or safety of
property. The world is upside-down. This is not the way things used to be. Life is too hard for the poor. And you see all these idle rich men with their
harems of wives and concubines. Where do they all come from? The root of wealth is corrupt, if I dare say.” It is her responsibility, she says, to tell it like
it is to the divinities, she says. In the process of fulfilling this vision, she developed a special linear style of painting that has evolved over the years. The
members of the Akire group to which she belongs accommodate her by giving her a section at the end of the wall on which they paint their mural, to
express her vision. Some of them think she is insane, others regard her as a genius with divine inspiration. Most people do not know what to make of her
strange work. The composition is stunning and original. She is clearly the most remarkable recent manifestation of abstraction in the Akire painting
tradition.
Afilaka completed Letters to the Divinities in 2002 in a sacred shrine, using symbols that she invented in her strive to express her angst and repair the
fragmentation of the world. I had provided her and the members of the group with acrylic and canvas, and she began to generate astonishing painting,
in this series. Her painting stimulates a discussion on modernity around several mythological conflicts and walls. These conflicts include the tension
between anthropology and art; between sacred versus secular art; between individual versus group creativity; and between functional versus “art for art’
s sake.” Afilaka’s painting explores modernity as an ongoing creative interaction that crosses the boundaries of simple or final definition, like a bird in
flight.
This totally independent invention of calligraphic abstraction within the indigenous figurative painting tradition, absolutely independent of any western
influence, is a border-crossing initiative from a figurative formalism to a nonfigurative idiom. It is directly reminiscent of Picasso’s border crossing from a
classical tradition to a cubist idiom in Les Demoiselles D’Avignon.
That Afilaka, one of the indigenous women painters, could totally independently develop abstraction demonstrates an uncommon talent and
sophistication, which her colleagues recognize and honor. The acquisition of the work of Afilaka by the Denver Art Museum creates enormous issues. Is
her work to be appreciated as a modern 21st century expression of passion, individuality, originality and innovation, or displayed in the same gallery with
Picasso? Or will her work be displayed anonymously with other objects exhibited without attribution to any artist, in the African art gallery? If her work is
displayed with her name in the African gallery, will this reference to a name bring “undue” attention to issues of gender and individuality in African art? Is
the work sacred or secular art? Is it even art or artifact? Does it belong in a museum of art or a museum of anthropology? These are some of the
questions that attended the museum acquisition and display of Afilaka’s work.