Foreword
p. IV-V
Texte intégral
1This book is the product of a one-day seminar organised by the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) in May 2001 at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan on “Transmission of Knowledge in Contemporary Nigeria”. Five papers were then delivered and a short report was written by Lilian Trager, University of Wisconsin (USA), and published in 2002 by IFRA. Hence, this book includes three of the papers presented during the conference and two additional papers that were related to the central issue of the seminar.
2“Transmissions of knowledge” takes into consideration the changes that have occurred within the visual art landscape in Nigeria during the 20th century. This historical change is the result of new cultural exchanges between Africa, Europe and America, exchanges that developed different artistic practices and promoted new patrons. In this framework, cities have played a fundamental role in the development of modern art, especially because of the presence of a local or international art market. All the chapters of this book are related to specific Southern Nigerian cities: some are places of ancient royal art patronage (bronze casting in Benin City), some are city market where various popular expression of art could have developed (calendar in Onitsha), a few are strictly university based (Nsukka) but most of them have welcome elements of artistic lineages scattered all over Nigeria (the Fakeye family for instance).
3Lagos should be considered specifically. For more than fifty years, the city port is the central place for the display of modern art in Nigeria because of presence of galleries, newspapers, editors, art collectors, Federal Institutions and foreign cultural centres. Actually, art editors and art galleries have developed further in Lagos than in any other centre of the country (Pat Oyelola). For decades, the city attracts artists from all over Nigeria for exhibition or for permanent residence. Consequently, the influence of the urban environment on the artistic production becomes obvious: Lagos is both a City under siege and a place of cosmopolitan cultural heritage (Emmanuelle Spiesse). Since the 1950s, the Nigerian University system also contributed enormously to the development of new forms of contemporary art. For instance, the three generations of academics and visuals artists in University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) witnessed the role played by the university in the redefinition of visual art landscape (Chike Aniakor). Simultaneously, the so-called “traditional artists”, especially the one born within an artistic lineage, have faced an amazing change. The bronze casting families in Benin City as well as the Fakeye wood carving family from Ila-Orangun (Osun State) have adapted themselves to a new political, economic, social and religious environment (Peju Layiwola, Ronke Adesanya). They have changed the production, the shapes and styles according to a new art market. Even certain taboos have been suppressed if we only consider the fact that women can now cast bronze or carve wood. If the dichotomy between “traditional apprenticeship” and academic trained artists remains obvious, it is not pertinent to divide the visual artists in two antagonistic groups (contemporary versus traditional). Therefore this modem history of visual art does not exclude the “traditional artists” because their capacity to change testifies their modernity.
Auteurs
University of Paris I
French Institute for Research in Africa
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