Lagos : A City Under Siege (The Works and Words of Lagos Artists)
p. 67-83
Texte intégral
1In March 2002, Lagos played host to one of the four international conferences organized by DOCUMENTA XI. This is an international exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel (Germany), renowned throughout the world along with its Italian sister, the Venice Biennale.1 Okwui Enwezor, first African and Nigerian director/curator of this exhibition could not conceive of the first DOCUMENTA of the 21st century (Kassel June 8th-September 15th 2002) presenting an exhibition of international scope without making the international community aware of the state of the developing world. Failed Democracies; Experiments in truth; Justice in Transition; Processes of Truth and Reconciliation; Hybridism and Hybridization; Cities under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Kinshasa, Johannesburg and Lagos2 were the themes discussed by specialists from around the world. According to Enwezor, these conferences aimed to make it clear that an exhibition of contemporary art reflects a contemporary world. “The contemporary artist is not independent of the contemporary world. He works beside intellectuals, politicians and economists. The artist is the product of his society.”3 Because of this, we think it is pertinent to enquire into what it means to the Lagos artist “to be a product of one’s society.” We were moved by the fact that countries said to be on the periphery have very little chance (in fact almost no chance at all) of exhibiting at the events mentioned above.4 We propose to let three Lagos artists speak for themselves. They were chosen because their work seemed to be entirely in keeping with the theme “Cities under siege” mentioned earlier. This article will give us a general idea of what it means to be an artist in Lagos as well as an understanding of what lies at the core of Enwezor’s statement. It is because we are concerned about the problems affecting cities in developing countries that it is important to know more about the conditions in which artists in such countries work. Indeed, since specialists in contemporary art ought to be conversant with the problems inherent in cities of the Third World, should not these same specialists feel concerned about the works and working conditions of artists in these cities? This article aims to link the works of artists in the city of Lagos with everyday life in the city, giving the floor to three artists from the largest city in West Africa (Lagos has more than 12 million inhabitants) regardless of whether they have already exhibited, will exhibit or will never exhibit in the most important international exhibitions.
2Godwin Adesoye, Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo and Olu Amoda all live in Lagos. They are all professional artists who exhibit in Lagos galleries and were trained in Nigerian art-schools. Although Lagos is still the capital as far as contemporary art is concerned,5 art schools are distributed throughout the whole of Nigeria: Zaria, Nsukka, Ife, Benin City, Port Harcourt all have a department of Fine Art in their universities or polytechnics. To put an end to the concept of the untrained African artist producing art for tourists, we have decided to introduce Nigerian artists trained in art-schools whose work reveals aspects of life in an African city. These professional artists practising in Lagos force us to confront the West African mega-city without making any allowances. The works of these three Lagos artists will enable us to understand the indissoluble bond which connects an artist to his society, and to interpret their works through this connection. Indeed, the work of these artists seems like a slice of life exploding in our faces. The work of art thus becomes the mirror of a whole universe...
Godwin Adesoye: when youthful enthusiasm rejects the inertia of a city
3The young artist Godwin Adesoye was born in Lagos in 1974 and trained at the Textile Institute in Ikeja. He has exhibited at the most important Lagos galleries, including NIMBUS. His works are popular with both Nigerian and expatriate buyers. His street scenes belong squarely to the figurative tradition of the Lagos school. His swift brush-strokes as well as his subject-matter bring to mind the generation of artists which preceded him, especially the painter and cartoonist Dele Jegede (b. 1945) who now lives in the USA.6
4Two pictures, two yellow buses.7 We are in Lagos. Godwin’s first picture shows us a bunch of school children rushing to get into the back of a molue, one of the biggest city buses (plate 1). We are on one of the main roads. We can vaguely see a few posters stuck on to the pillars of a bridge in the background. It has been raining. Some children have jumped straight on to the running board at the back of the bus while others splash about in the mud struggling to get on. Obviously it is important not to get your uniform dirty. The uniforms are in the colours of the Nigerian flag – green for agriculture, white for peace. Godwin explains:
5“This is an everyday scene in Lagos. Many painters choose these buses as a subject because it is a favourite with buyers, especially expatriates. But I also paint as a testimony to the state of the city where I live so I can keep a record of it. These children are the Nigeria of tomorrow. They are dressed to go to school. But the state of the road and the bus are not helping them in their ambition to succeed. We are in Mushin, one of the high-density areas of Lagos. These children are determined to go to school at all costs. Rain has made it difficult to move about. The roads are flooded, the gutters over-flowing. To move about in Lagos on a rainy day is a real challenge. It is the same for everybody, even for someone sitting in an air-conditioned car waiting for hours to enter the city. What you can achieve in a day will depend on how easily you can move about.”8
6The following scene After the rain 2 (plate 2) shows two people in a similar setting. But the bus is smaller. This time it’s a danfo (minibus), the most common form of transport in Lagos. The open door shows us that the driver has got out; he is pushing the vehicle from behind, helped by a skinny schoolboy. These two people, on an equal footing, are defying the inertia of the city. Here the difficulty is not to get on or off the bus, but to get about at any price....
7Godwin does not bother with unnecessary details in his pictures. He isolates his subject and focuses on one practical aspect of city life, in this case, the daily journeys of school children. The city, washed out in the tropical rain, is brightened only by the orange bus and the white shirts of the children. In fact the city can only be seen through broad washes of faded colour. Electric poles or vaguely defined buildings are only hinted at. By choosing mass transport in Lagos as a theme (particularly mass transport in the high-density area of Mushin in Lagos northeast), Godwin puts his finger on the distinguishing feature of the city. In fact the danfo and molue satisfy the transport needs of some areas of Lagos, but mass transport is an abysmal failure in spite of a whole succession of projects aimed at improving it. For even though Lagos benefited from a good mass transport system in 1992, all the buses were poorly maintained and often broke down. Dele Jegede, who obviously influenced Godwin’s work, compares the bus to a predator stalking its prey in an erratic fashion.9 Thousands of Lagosians waste two or three hours a day on a journey of less than 20km! Most cities in developing countries with a population of more than 3 million inhabitants have a mass transport system – except Lagos.10 Like Pierre Belarger we can ask ourselves how the city manages to function. Lagos continues to exist despite an almost total absence of infrastructures, organization and planning, which define a city in the Western sense.11 Although the evidence of Godwin’s work confirms this statement, the painter also gives us the key to the riddle. After all, isn’t it the never failing dynamism of humanity that keeps Lagos going? According to Enwezor’s interpretation in Century City, the city thus appears as a manifestation of group activities defined by space and time rather than as a rigid construct.12
8In this ill-defined landscape, the smart uniform of the school children represents solid values. But what is behind the care lavished on uniform in the colours of the Nigerian flag? Hasn’t this country suffered for years from a series of strikes by teaching staff as well as other problems which affect education at all levels? Although it is not our concern here to establish the cause of these strikes, we must mention their effects.13 Kunle Filani, Deputy Provost of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos confirmed that the educational system is not only under-funded but also suffers from the consequences of repeated strikes, at all levels, from primary to university. As a result, a Nigerian student loses at least one to two years before completing a degree programme. The painter is not just presenting the viewer with a simple street scene but with a real problem: to what extent can the determination of young Nigerians overcome the inertia of the country?14 Transportation in Lagos, as we have seen, is a subject highly prized by gallery owners, collectors and therefore by Lagos painters. But what makes Godwin’s work interesting is that the viewer can actually identify people and events. What we will remember particularly about his pictures is a whole generation questioning its future.
9Godwin works alone in his tiny Ikeja studio. From time to time he gives his friends painting lessons, but he does not accept any remuneration. Unlike the art teachers at the Yaba Polytechnic and many other Lagos artists, Godwin does not belong to any of the numerous associations of artists. “I used to belong to the SNA (Society of Nigerian Artists), but I wasn’t satisfied with what they had to offer; so I ceased to be a member. That does not prevent me from taking part in official exhibitions;, thanks to my contact with Lagos galleries.”15 The most important thing for him is to sell his work so that he can finance his studies as soon as possible. “Without paper qualifications, you are nothing in Nigeria. An artist who is not well qualified is not taken seriously. That is why this year, thanks to the proceeds from the sale of my works, I have been able to enrol at Auchi Polytechnic (Edo State),” says Godwin.16
10Godwin’s works, intended to be sold as quickly as possible, must therefore satisfy a broad clientele. In fact, Godwin must respond to the taste of collectors who want to decorate their houses, not acquire a one-off piece of avant-garde art. It is thanks to the proceeds from the sale of his works in Lagos galleries that he can continue his studies. After getting his certificate, Godwin can aspire to a teaching post in one of Nigeria’s Polytechnics. Although Godwin’s paintings show us quite a lot of problems connected with living in Lagos, are we not invited to conclude on a positive note of optimism inherent in the youthful enthusiasm displayed in his pictures?
Nkechi Nwosu Igbo: beyond the silence of a woman
11The superimposed signs of Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo reveal to us a completely different aspect of the urban environment. Nkechi tells us bluntly about the significance of her work. “What I am trying to express in my work is the tragic side of Lagos experience.”17 Born in 1973 in Onitsha (Anambra State), Nkechi studied Fine Art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State. She now lives in Lagos and her works have featured in several exhibitions (including 2 solo) in recent years. Stolen stories (plate 3) and Beyond silence (plate 4) were shown at the exhibition Urban Valises at the Quintessence Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos in October 2001.18
12In Stolen Stories the shape of a section of film stands out on a black background. The top half contrasts with the bottom half, covered with many different signs. In the middle is the spider, a well-known symbol in the city where the artist was born. While the shapes of the film and/ or the swift brush-strokes remind us of urban culture, the central motif recalls the walls painted by the women of her village. The artist’s intention is clear: she is bringing together two sets of signs originating from different sources. The contrasts in line, form and colour express differing codes. By superimposing signs taken from different contexts, she condenses distance, time and movement, indicated here by a simple arrow.
13“I want to interpret the city by referring to a global culture, which we have arrived at after a long journey. Many have left traces throughout this journey. It is these signs that interest me because they represent the story of human beings. Here, it is the oldest sign I can remember that comes to mind stifling hope, just as one feels when arriving in a big city. The only way of escaping is through action and denunciation which is what I try to do in my exhibitions.”19
14The second picture, Beyond silence (plate 4) shows a central figure on a red background. This is a woman who has died as a result of rape and sexual mutilation. Dazzling colours and sharply angled lines express pain as much as outrage. Rejecting curves, Nkechi adopts a simplified style, pared down to the essentials. This female body, stripped of flesh and emptied of blood, becomes a symbol. The motifs on the right of the picture recall the fabrics worn by African women; the white rectangle, like a veil draped over her sex, is the negation of the same woman. “This woman has been raped”, says Nkechi,” and the police have put a piece of cloth over her mutilated body in a gesture of modesty. This picture is also an indictment of the silence imposed on women who have been raped. What I want people to understand is the sense of isolation felt by these women. They can’t say anything about what has happened to them. Our society says that rape is brought about by the way you dress and associates the crime with prostitution. In short, a woman who has been raped “was asking for it.”
15Nkechi asserts herself as a committed woman and uses her art to condemn a crime, which, for most women, is practically impossible to denounce. Her inspiration is derived from many different sources: cave drawings from sub-Saharan Africa, urban graffiti and signs taken from Uli appear side by side, like a summary of human history.20 A graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nkechi has inherited the uli tradition, known throughout Igboland. From 1960 onwards, the year of Nigeria’s Independence, the first Nigerian art teachers at Nsukka adopted the vocabulary of uli.21 This was originally an exclusively female art form expressed through motifs derived from plants, animals or elements from the cosmos. Geometric forms akin to writing decorated women’s bodies and the walls of buildings in the village. Displayed for all to see, they were commented on by everybody. Nkechi wants to show us the universal, timeless aspect of the sign as well as its permanent and persistent nature. For her, this sign symbolizing rape is a modern version of the signs that featured in the social system of village societies. This sign is indicative of the social environment, just like uli signs in a village setting. Whilst in the past this motif was used to beautify the female body, today it is used to condemn the aberrations of society. Nkechi endows both the sign and the act of painting with another function. The act of painting used to take cognizance of the harmony that existed between society and environment. Nkechi uses this same act, aware of an obvious absence of harmony. Contemporary art and Nkechi’s work of art, Beyond Silence, enable her to remind us forcefully of the function of uli signs: to give women the power of expression.
16“Art helps me to put across a message: leave women alone: they are the foundation of a sound society.”22 Nkechi attaches this new sign to her canvasses as a witness of her environment, just as village women were witnesses of their own environment. It is as though the artist were trying to encapsulate in a time-honoured sign the symbol of modern urban living and thus endow it with real significance. If the title recalls that silence which is imposed on women, we can understand even better the reason why the artist claims the right of expression, which used to be so natural in her place of birth. Nkechi is part of a perfect artistic continuum. This can be seen in the aesthetic references she uses as well as in her relationship with the first generation of contemporary Nigerian artists, who buckled down to the task of building an identity for the African artist on the eve of Independence and then committed themselves politically during the Biafran War.23 Nkechi’s work forms an indisputable part of the continuum established by the first two generations of artists who made an enormous contribution to the making of a committed Nigerian art.24 The sufferings of the Civil War (1967-69) are responsible for the tendency of visual artists particularly to express their commitment in the political arena. Far from being illustrators, they reject the realistic approach adopted by the Nigerian artists at the beginning of the 20th century25 and still used today by popular artists who do pictures for calendars.
17The success of her work arises from the contact she maintains with various institutions. This enables Nkechi to live by her art. Foreign cultural centres (the Goethe Institute, the British Council, or the French Cultural Centre), and the Nigerian press and television give her access to a public of varying outlooks.26 Her provocative works as she calls them, do not necessarily guarantee her a Nigerian clientele, but they wake up the critics. “The most important thing is that my works get talked about,” she says.
Olu Amoda: sculptor of fear
18Olu Amoda, artist and sculptor teaching at the Yaba Polytechnic,27 is also a craftsman. Born in 1959 in Okere-Warri (Delta State), he obtained a diploma in metal sculpture at Auchi Polytechnic (Edo State). As a result of his many exhibitions, not only in Lagos but also abroad, he had the opportunity of a three-month stay in an art school in France.28 Today this son of a goldsmith carries on the African metalworking “tradition” through his construction of reinforced gates. In fact reinforced gates make up the bulk of his commissions. Over the past twenty years, urban insecurity has continued to rise, forcing rich property owners to barricade themselves behind massive metal gates. This situation obliged the metal sculptor to produce his “Gates of Paradise” in response to the market demand.
19“I call my security gates, “Gates of Paradise”. I create them in an attempt to brighten up the world of the people who are shut in; so it’s very important for them to be both attractive and protective at the same time. They have an aesthetic and a protective function. They represent paradise from two points of view, the house-owner’s and the thieves’. It is the thieves who are really free because the streets and all the public spaces belong to them. Lagos is a city under siege. We are living in an upside down world.”
20Besides his commissions for gates, Olu works on art-pieces intended for exhibition in different galleries. But often, he says, Lagos galleries refuse his large pieces because they need special hanging, they are difficult to transport and they require a huge amount of space... not to mention the uncertain reception from the Nigerian public when confronted by works that even the artist regards as disturbing.29
21This is Lagos (plate 5) is the most impressive work ever created by the artist to date. It is made of scraps of metal, which have accumulated over time on the floor of his studio. The horizontal orientation of this work seems to be a response to the vertical nature of the reinforced doors, a necessary equilibrium. a sort of escape valve essential to his identity as an artist. Olu insists that it is not a representation of the city, it is a mental concept.
22“First, over a long period of time, I collected all sorts of objects picked up as I moved around the city. Gradually I tried to integrate them with the scraps of metal produced in my studio, sometimes in an orderly manner, sometimes at random, just like the buildings in some parts of the city. Here, the circuit of a computer, there a bronze-weight formerly used as currency, reminding us of the economic power of the city.”30
23“When creating this work, I wanted first of all to create new symbols, to give the city an identity through its rubbish. The bridges, represented by thin strips of metal, no longer span the lagoon, which cuts the city into two, but the slums born of my imagination. We are in a city besieged from within.”31
24The arrangement of the various elements of this composition suggests the rapid, uncontrolled growth of the city. Even if a plan for land use does exist for the city of Lagos, developers are constantly derailing it and everyone builds as he pleases if he has enough money to make his pressure felt.32 Just like an aerial photograph taken after a major disaster, Lagos is a vast expanse of slag, a reflection in the lagoon on a rainy day. Grey and dusty, it is not a welcoming sight. The paranoia of daily life in Lagos seems to be concentrated in the monotonous colour of the razor-sharp components. Olu shows the city through a tarnished mirror. This is not the Lagos of brightly coloured markets, so popular in Western pictures of the African city, nor the Lagos of a youth intoxicated by the rhythms of cult music (the music of Fela); this is a drab Lagos, which has ground to a halt. This image of Lagos, so different from all the cliches, is like a call for liberation. Behind all those reinforced doors, Lagosians remember the economic boom of the 1970, full employment and the high hopes of the rich, young Nigerian nation. But a succession of military regimes and economic crises changed all that. Corruption became entrenched at every level and scuttled the development of the country. Both the social and economic aspects of living have been affected by the escalation of crime, which has provoked social conflict and heightened insecurity.
25OPC, (plate 6) Amoda’s second metal sculpture is a reminder of this topical issue. For several years, the inhabitants of certain areas of Lagos have called on the OPC (Oodua People’s Congress) for help. The aim of this militia-organization was to make up for the ineffectiveness of the Nigerian Police and to ensure a more equitable sharing of the “national cake.”33
26“The work is composed of a circle, a perforated plaque, metal rods and strips, three plastic eggs, all creating a symbol of violence. The metal rods and the eggs recall the violence of the OPC, the circle in the middle indicates the internal cohesion of the group. Eggs are a metaphor that everybody in Nigeria understands; they refer to missiles hurled against their victims. People believe that the members of the OPC never miss their mark.”34
27As we have seen, security is an everyday obsession in all the big cities in Nigeria, but above all in Lagos. A militia-organization supported by the Yorubá majority of southwestern Nigeria, the OPC operates in Lagos among a population which is a mixture of different ethnic groups. For many Nigerians, the main danger stems from the fact that the primary aim of the OPC is to protect the interests of the Yorubá group that it represents within the federation of Nigeria. Because of the inadequacy of the police force, respect for “ethnic” militia-organizations has grown in the estimation of a populace weary of being constantly under attack. In Lagos, people believe that the OPC is often responsible for instigating riots, although at the same time some appreciate its efforts to control crime.35 The militia-organization constitutes a threat to social equilibrium, a threat to democracy. This assemblage of metal is both a symbol of violence as well as a force at work in a society striving to rebuild itself in the face of disorder.36
28Combining the roles of teacher, craftsman and artist, enables Olu to widen his circle of acquaintance and to diversify his sources of information. A member of several Nigerian associations,37 he is also a frequent visitor to foreign cultural centres. Nevertheless, he would like, above all, to advance in the teaching profession.
29“My students are not impressed by my art works. They can see clearly that I do not make a living by my art alone. They often do not understand my creations since they are rarely intended to be sold. In Nigeria it’s very difficult to finance your education. The students’ primary aim is to sell their very first works. Innovation is not a major consideration. Their priority is to sell their works as quickly as possible to finance their day-to-day living. How can they understand that reflection and research are the key to an artist’s creativity? In my opinion, they need to widen their horizons; but they are trapped in a system which forces them either to copy their teacher to get their certificate or to create a work of art that will sell quickly.”
30Even though the three artists discussed in this article differ from one another, their work are redolent of a social reality peculiar to the West African megapolis of Lagos. The contemporary Lagos artist belongs to the here and now, which is interpreted through personal experience.38 Contrary to what one would expect, the artist does not regard the city as a prison but as a wide-open space to be conquered. Contemporary Lagos artists use their power to display their interpretation of the city. By transforming the city into a work of art, they are asserting not only their individuality but also their political consciousness. Contemporary art, on the other hand, is regarded as a means of transmitting knowledge. This becomes clear in the interviews. Godwin’s work tells us about the present, whilst Nkechi takes up a language long denied to women precisely to speak more forcefully about women. As for Olu, he wants to teach so that he can introduce his students to other experiences. For Godwin, Nkechi and Olu, as for many other Nigerian artists, Lagos is indisputably the best place for showing works of art in Niger ia since Lagos has the greatest number of art galleries.39 But even though these galleries sell to a local clientele, they clearly lack the means to build up a personality which could make an impact on the international art market. It is because it is so difficult to acquire knowledge of the contemporary art and artists of the cities of the Third World that we have presented these differing accounts given by professional artists. It is just a small contribution to prevent the cities of the Third World from being seen merely as centres of poverty and overcrowding, and to show that contemporary African artists are far from being “vendors of never-ending pictures of tourist delights.”40

Plates I and 2: After the rain I & H
Date: 2001
Artist: Godwin Adesoye

Plate 3: Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo, Stolen Stories, Urban Ugliness
Date: 2001
Acrylic & wood dust on canvas 71.5 x 56cm

Plate 4: Nkechi Nwosu-lgbo, Beyond Silence, Urban Ugliness
Date: 2001
Acrylic, wood dust & cloth on canvas 94 x 76.2ctn

Plate 5: Olu Amoda, This is Lagos, details
Date: 1999-2000
Metal, 300 x 300 cm

Plate 6: Olu Amoda, OPC
Date: 2000
Mixed media, 130 x 120 cm
Notes de bas de page
1 The Goethe Institute played host to the organizers and participants, Sunday Umweni. (Programme Assistant at the Goethe Institute) emphasized that the Goethe Institute only offered its premises for the fourth conference of Documenta XI. It was not the organizer of the event, Interview with Sunday, March 8th, 2002.
2 Democracy Unrealized, Vienne and Berlin, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation, New Delhi, Créolité and Creolization, Santa Lucia, Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, were the four international conferences which took place between March 2001 and march 2002.
3 Okwui Enwezor, reported by Chika Okcke “DOCUMENTA XI heats up the Lagos scene”, in The Guardian, March 16th 2002, p. 28.
4 Even if the Nigerian sculptor, Sunday Akpan, exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2001 in a pavilion labeled “Pavilion of Humanity”, artists from countries said to be on the periphery and living in their countries of origin exhibit in very small numbers compared with artists from leading Western countries. See A. Quemin, L ’art contemporain international entre les institutions et le marche (le rapport disparu), J. Charnbon: Artprice, 2002, p. 91, 175, 229, 239.
5 S. Ottenberg, New traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1997, p. 3.
6 Dele Jegede has published more than 100 cartoons in the Nigerian press. He played an active part in the art-life of Lagos at the Yaba Polytechnic and the University of Lagos. His latest article on Nigeria is a history of contemporary art in Lagos, “A Glimpse into Our Visual Culture” in Glendora, vol. 3 No. 2, p. 61-79, 2000.
7 The yellow buses of Lagos, molue or danfo, were introduced in the 1970’s and are the same colour as taxis. D. Jegede, “This is Lagos”, catalogue of an exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute, Lagos, October 1991, p. 6.
8 Interview with the artist at home, Ikeja, April 23rd 2002.
9 D. Jegede, Eko Ree (This is Lagos), Italian Cultural Institute, Lagos, p. 13.
10 Information on transport in Lagos taken from the article by X. Godard and L. Fourchard, “L comme Lagos ou les séquelles de la rente pétrolière” in X. Godard (eds.), Les Transports et la ville en Afrique au sud du Sahara, Karthala-INRETS, Paris, 2002, p. 181-190
11 P. Belanger, C. J. Chung, “Lagos (Harvard Project on the city)” R. Koolhaas in Mutations, ACTAR, Bordeaux/Barcelone, 2000, p. 652.
12 Century City, Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, TATE, London, 2001, p. 45.
13 As a result of persistent strikes (sometimes lasting more than 5 months) the Nigerian student loses on the average one year compared with a student taking the same course abroad. Interview with Dr. Kunle Filani, Deputy Provost, Federeal College of Education, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, March 23rd 2002.
14 Here we are considering Nigeria as a whole since these Lagos school – children are wearing the colours of the flag.
15 Godwin exhibited at the Muson Centre in Lagos, for the exhibition titled Lagos, past and present, April 2002.
16 Interview with the artist, Ikeja, May 5th 2002.
17 Interview with the artist at home, Lagos, March 21st 2002.
18 Ikoyi is the area of Lagos for Embassies and members of the affluent Lagos bourgeoisie.
19 Interview with Nkechi, op. cit.
20 The word uli in Igbo, the language spoken by the majority of people in eastern Nigeria, means ink. It is obtained from several plants.
21 Uche Okeke became the spokesman of ulism. Kenneth Murray, an English art teacher, had previously worked on an exhaustive catalogue of different uli motifs between 1931 and 1935. See E. A. Willis, Uli Painting and Identity: 20th century in art in the Igbo-speaking region, 1997, Soas, University of London, p. 99.
22 Interview with Nkechi, op. cit.
23 C. Okeke “Criticism and Nigerian Art”, in The Guardian, January 19, 2001, p. 19.
24 Uche Okeke (b. 1933), who with others in 1958 started a revolution against the conventional teaching of fine art. He took up his own traditions and became one of the pioneers of contemporary Nigerian art. His theory of “Natural Synthesis” influenced a whole generation of Nigerian artists. See Ulli Beier, “A moment of Hope: Cultural Developments in Nigeria before the First Military Coup” in The short Century, Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994, Prestel Munich, p. 48. U. Okeke, Art in Development, a Nigerian Perspective, Asele Institute, 1982, p. 5.
25 For example, Aina Onabolu, the first naturalistic Nigerian painter. See Dike, PC. and Oyelola, P. (eds.), Aina Onabolu: Symbol of the National Studios of Art, National Gallery of Contemporary Art, 1999, p. 63
26 The exhibition “Urban Ugliness” was reported by different national newspapers: October, 2001, p. 36, This Day, vol. 7, No 2369, p. 55, National Interest, vol. 2, No. 397, October 26"’ 2001.
27 Yaba College or Yabatech is the oldest centre for art teaching in Lagos. Fine Art courses began there in 1956; a department of Fine Art opened in 1962. M. A. Bello O. Owoso, Yaba Polytechnic at 40, Lagos, 1992, p. 26.
28 0lu Amoda was given a place as artist-in-residence at the villa d’Arson in Nice, France, from December 2001 to February 2002.
29 But times are changing: the NIMBUS gallery gave him their entire gallery space in March 2003.
30 1nterview with the artist in his studio, October 23rd 2001.
31 Interview with the artist, October 7th 2001, Lagos.
32 1nterview with D. Aradeon, Professor of Architecture at the University of Lagos, (UNILAG), February 11th 2002, Lagos.
33 In the past few years there has been a recrudescence of these militia organizations throughout Nigeria. R. T. Akinyele, “Ethnic militancy and national stability in Nigeria: a case study of the Oodua People’s Congress”, in African Affairs, No. 100, 2001, p. 623-640.
34 Interview with the artist, op. cit.
35 According to R. T. Akinyele, these militia organizations are always striving for recognition from the government by denouncing the ineffectiveness of the police force.
36 Interview with the artist, op. cit.
37 Olu Amoda is a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists.
38 “The lagoon landscapes of the painter Abiodun Olaku reveal a completely different aspect of the city. They invite contemplation rather than questioning....
39 Lagos has more than 35 art galleries in addition to official (government) galleries and exhibition facilities in Foreign Cultural Centres.
40 Conversation between 2 expatriates over a business-lunch, March 1st 2003.
Auteurs
Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Paris I
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