‘A

palette

unlike

anything

in

the

west’:

Ben

Okri,

Yinka

Shonibare

and

more

on

how

Nigerian

art

revived

Britain’s

cultural

landscape

Some primal energy was unleashed among Nigerian artists in the years leading up to independence. The century-long reign of colonialism was nearing its end and the people of Nigeria, with its over 300 tribes, its ebullient energy, were poised for a new future in which they would determine the shape and context of their lives.

And the people who most articulated that double position, that paradox of modernity and tradition, were artists in all their stripes. Artists across the country, in constant dialogue with one another, created works that evoked their traditions but in a contemporary context. Artists such as Yusuf Grillo in the north, Bruce Onobrakpeya from the midwest, Ben Enwonwu from the east and Twins Seven Seven from the west were remaking the dream of art in a rigorously Nigerian context. The effect of the works created by the Zaria Art Society, the generation that congregated in Lagos and exhibited all over the world, was profound. Their work helped the nation to reconnect with its ancient ways, but adapted to modern times. It was a new art, brooding and celebratory. Often it was an art that hinted at the many dimensions of Nigerian mythology; often it drew upon daily realities. Spirits, ancestral presences, rituals, masquerades featured prominently, alongside popular subjects of dancing figures, portraits and landscapes, but rendered in a unique light, with a palette that was utterly unlike anything in the western tradition.