Monday 24 February 2014

Bulawayo escapes humiliation, wins Etisalat Prize


NoViolet Bulawayo receiving her prize in Lagos, Nigeria.


Expectation met as Zimbabwean author, NoViolet Bulawayo’s Man Booker Prize-rejected work We Need New Names has been declared winner of the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature.


When the winner was announced in Lagos, yesterday Bulawayo beat Yewande Omotoso author of Bom Boy and Karen Jennings author of Finding Soutbek.


For the prize, Bulawayo gets £1000 cash, Smart Tablet Device

And published E-book promoted online and via SMS.


Bulawayo’s book was on the shortlist of the last Man Booker Prize, which included the eventual winner, The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton; Harvest by Jim Crace; The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri;  A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; and The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin. 

Having come from the height of being the first African shortlist for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and put in the same entry for the Etisalat Prize, a loss was unthinkable.

For this great escape from humiliation, congratulation Bulawayo! 

Sunday 23 February 2014

Return of artefacts: Greece, Nigeria may bring new methods


By Tajudeen Sowole
In Nigeria and Greece, there are indications that the separate issue of returning each country's cultural objects held in foreign museums will take new dimension.

A group sympathetic to the plight of Greece, known as International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS), late last year sent a letter to the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, requesting for the return of the controversial ancient frieze of Athens origin from the holder, the British Museum.  IARPS members are in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S.

Coincidentally, Nigeria's House of Representatives has commenced what could be an intervention of the parliamentarians in the protracted restitution stalemates between the country and foreign holders of its artefacts.

  Idia mask, Ivory in the British Museum Edo peoples, probably 16th century AD.
Some days ago, a member of the House Committee on Tourism and Culture, who did not want his name mentioned, has disclosed that the lower legislative members in Abuja may commence a process of meeting the parliaments of some of the foreign museums that are in possession of looted Nigerian cultural objects. The thinking of the initiators of the inter-parliament negotiation, it was gathered, premises on the fact that the powers to return the artefacts may be beyond the jurisdiction of most of the foreign museums' authorities. With inter-parliaments meetings between two countries in a dispute, restitution could be achieved easily, the House of Reps member added.

He hinted that a motion urging the House Committee on Tourism and Culture to intervene was already on its way to Rules and Business Committee. "The motion is before the Culture Committee and they will send it to rules and business."  He assured that the motion "will be before the house by month end."

Nigeria is facing a herculean task of recovering her cultural properties of ertefacrs status incarcerated in museums across Europe and the U.S. Top among these cultural objects are the Queen Idia mask in the British Museum, Nok Terracotta in Louvre, Paris, France, and several other Benin bronzes and ivories said to have been looted during the 1897 invasion of the old Benin Kingdom by the British soldiers, but currently housed in Vienna, Austria and German museums. In fact, latest of such artefacts are several dozens of works in Benin bronzes and ivories recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Art (MFA), Boston, U.S.

As part of effort towards the return of the works, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) hosted a meeting with the authorities of the  foreign museum in Benin, last year.  In attendance were Dr. Michael Barrett and Dr. Lotten Gustafsson-Reinius representatives of the National Museum of Ethnography of the Museums of World Culture Stockholm, Sweden Dipl. Ethn; Silvia Dolz of Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden, Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany; Dr. Peter Junge represented Ethnologisches Museum-Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany; Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner represented Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, Austria; and Dr. Annette Schmidt of the National Museum of Ethnology of the Netherlands.

Also in attendance were Rosemary Bodam, Peter Odeh, Babatunde Adebiyi (NCMM delegation); consultant of legal-related cultural object matter, Prof. Folarin Shyllon; and representatives of the Benin monarch, Prince Edun Egharese Akenzua (Enogie of Obazuwa) and Chief Stanley Obamwonyi (Esere of Benin). 
  During the meeting, the Director-General of NCMM, Mallam Usman Abdaldalla Yusuf stated that the collective sharing idea of the holders has not found much understanding with the original owners “whose moving tales have become strident finding listeners all over the world in support of the call for the repatriation of these artefacts.”

The meeting produced what was tagged as Benin Plans of Action. It included a projection that could facilitate the return of the. Artefacts. 

The Elgin Marbles, Athens origin, but in the British Museum, U.K.

However, experts and observers were skeptical about the strength of such a gathering getting the controversial artefacts returned. The Benin Plan of Action did not excite Prince Edun Akenxua. He advised a legal optionn. "My personal suggestion to government is to take the case to the international court,” Akenzua said. “If we lose in court, there is nothing more to lose.”  

 Also, a  prominent commentator on restitution, Dr Kwame Opoku faulted the Benin Plan of Action. Opoku, noted that the document lacked "time frame-work or concrete restitution proposals." He argued that the document "is not in the interest of Benin, nor of Nigeria nor of Africa."

 But shortly before the meeting an official statement from the Oba of Benin, OmoN'oba Erediuwa appeared to have predicted the current process of the House of Representatives. Akenzua in the monarch's speech stated "“Our Legislative Houses should show more interest in the recovery of these cultural properties. Our law pundits should examine various aspects of the matter."

Greece's Parthenon Marbles - named Elgin marbles by the British Museum - share similar protracted issue of ownership with the Nigeria's Benin bronzes and the Nok Terracotta in foreign museum. It’s been a long journey of several failed attempts to unite the marbles in the British Museum with those in the new Acropolis Museum in Greece. The sculptural marbles of representational figures were thrown into pieces during the Ottoman era invasion. Out of an estimated 160 metres original of these marble sculptures, 75 are known to be in the British Museum while the rest are in Greece and Italy.

 Towards the the completion of the Acropolis museum, there were signs that the British Museum's argument that "Greece lacks the right condition to receive the marbles" would be dead when the museum opens.


During the opening ceremony of the museum, Greek President, Karolos Papoulias said the museum offers the opportunity "to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it." But the Britons were not moved, even by the £110m ($182m; 130m euros) cost of the new Acropolis Museum. 

In 1817, during the Ottoman Empire, British Ambassador Lord Elgin was said to have negotiated the removal of the Parthenon sculptures with the Turks authority. On return to Britain and after a public debate in Parliament, Elgin’s action was exonerated and the marbles purchased by the British government in 1816.  The deputy head of the board of trustees of the British Museum, Bonnie Greer told the Greek authority that the marbles should remain in London. She argued in favor of “an international cultural context,” and suggested a loan of the sculptures, only "if Greece acknowledges British ownership of the marbles."

Currently the row is back in the news courtesy of the letter by IARPS and fueled by a statement credited to George Clooney, an American actor-director of a movie of related subject, The Monuments Man.

In the letter, dated December 2, 2013, the Chairman of the IARPS, David Hill, urges Britain to accept the recent offer of UNESCO to mediate the issue. He states that there “are now volunteers in 16 countries” committed to supporting the Greek claim for the sculptures to be returned. 

Hill reminds Cameron about the Director-General of UNESCO, Irini Bokova’s letter to the British Government over a proposal “to participate in a process of mediation to settle the dispute over the Parthenon Sculptures.”

Referencing a 2010 UNESCO advisory on mediation procedures, Hill urges Cameron “to accept the UNESCO invitation for Britain to participate in the proposed mediation process.”

Meanwhile, the filmmaker's advice, last week, which also urged the U.K to return the controversial marble has pitted him against the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The mayor described the actor’s statement as "advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London's cultural treasures." But Clooney told The Guardian of London: "When it comes to real facts, not imagined history, you need only to look at the UNESCO rulings that have been agreed to by all parties. An occupying nation can't sell off the national heritage of the country it occupies…” 

Perhaps based on the 2010 UNESCO intervention about mediation procedures as related to illicitly acquired cultural property, Nigerians who are passionate about the return of the country’s artefacts may join Hill’s IARPS or set up a similar group.

Saturday 22 February 2014

Five artists take Nigerian art ‘R-evolution’ to U.K global fair


By Tajudeen Sowole
Sokari Douglas-Camp, Victor Ekpuk, Kainebi Osahenye, George Osodi and Victoria Udondian become the face of Nigerian art as Lagos-based Arthouse Contemporary join a global gathering in the U.K.


A photograph Gas Flare  by Geore Osodi
Significantly tagged R-evolution, the Arthouse stands at the  global art fair, Art14, holding from Friday, February 28 to Sunday March 2, 2014 at Olympia Grand, London offers the world an opportunity to see more of Nigerian art that have been surging of recent.

After lifting the status of Nigerian art at home,  Arthouse will be maximising the opportunity of showing with  over 170 galleries from 39 countries at the fair sponsored by Citi Private Bank.

Works across diverse medium such as painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, video and digital art are expected to feature in the 2014 Fair.

For example, Stand G8 of Arthouse's  R-evolution brings to the fair Ekpuk’s blend of drawing with painterly flavour, soft metal sculptural skill of Douglas Camp, abstractive impression of Osahenye, exotic captures from lens of Osodi and deep contemporary contents of Udondian. These artists represent the diversity of the Nigerian art.

The organisers noted  how  R-evolution of contemporary Nigerian art" of recent "has triggered a revolutionary group of artists." The artists, they argue, have been "producing works which are dynamic, conceptual and reactive; constantly pushing the boundaries." The show has been tasked with a creating an outlet for the "transition of art in Nigeria in the 21st Century.”

The organisers  recalled the debut edition as a success. When the fair started last year, an estimated 25,000 visitors was said to have been recorded and the gathering "was a success with critics, galleries, collectors and art lovers alike."

Stephanie Dieckvoss, Art14 London Fair Director said "Wallpaper praised the fair's 'impressive scope', while the Financial Times reported on Art13 London's 'refreshingly different' approach."

                                   A mixed media Adire Hybrid by Victoria Udondian


Artists, collectors, curators, buyers and visitors are expected from regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Africa.  The fair “also presents two specially selected sections - 'London First' and 'Emerge' - giving you the chance to discover new artists and new work.”

For ArtHouse Contemporary, which has been in the forefront of secondary art market in Nigeria, the Fair offfers a window to consolidate its relationship with Nigerian artists, home and the Diaspora. And that two of the artists,  Ekpuk and Douglas-Camp are based abroad confirms the spread and vision of Arthouse.

Dieckvoss stated:  "We are delighted to increase the geographical spread of countries represented. The fair is growing organically, so visitors and collectors will have a more comprehensive experience in discovering exciting works from around the globe. We continue to have a strong presence from Asia with leading and new galleries from across the continent. We are also excited to welcome newcomers from all four corners of the world, including Lagos, Berlin, Beijing, Dubai, Buenos Aires, Osaka, Mumbai, and São Paulo."

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Ejiofor is BAFTA Best actor


Nigerian-born British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor who won Best actor for his role as Solomon Northup in 12 Years A Slave at British Academy of Film and Television Arts BAFTA and other winners. 

 "From playing shoe-mad drag queen Lola, to his emotional and searing performance as Solomon Northrup, Chiwetel has proved his pedigree as a great British actor. London born Ejiofor has had a string of successes in film, TV and theatre, with his interpretation of Othello earning him critical acclaim and an Olivier award. He was made an OBE in 2008." - Mirror


Sunday 16 February 2014

in portraiture, Nigerian-born Wiley keeps rating high across the world


By Tajudeen Sowole
After impacting on the art landscape of U.S. with his unique portraiture, Nigerian-born American artist, Kehinde Wiley’s popularity keeps spreading.

Few weeks after his work was shown in the ongoing global exhibition in prepaparation for the Brasil 2014 World Cup, Wiley has just been listed among the honourees of the Brooklyn Museum, U.S as part of the museum’s annual fundraising gala, which celebrate the community’s creativity.


One of Kehinde Wiley's works featured in the World Cup exhibition
The section otherwise known as the Brooklyn Artists Ball, according to the organizers, will also honour art patrons Jane and David Walentas as well as artists Jenny Holzer and Ai Weiwei.

Scheduled to hold in April 16, 2014, the honour adds to the recent visibility of Wiley whose art, in recent times have been making impressive outings outside the U.S.

Some of Wiley’s works included that of hip-hop starts such as LL Cool J, Ice T, and Biggie.   

Recently, Wiley was among over 30 artists whose works opened as Fútbol: The Beautiful Game at Lacma, Los Angeles as part of the preparation for Brasil 2014 World Cup.

The exhibition, according to the organisers, examines football and its significance in societies around the world, noting that “as a subject, football touches on issues of nationalism and identity, globalism and mass spectacle, as well as the common human experience shared by spectators from many cultures.” Still on till July, the exhibition features artists, both living and departed, Andy - Warhol inclusive - from around the world “who work in video, photography, painting and sculpture.”

For Wiley, his work at the show continues the artist’s portraiture identity as a No 10 footballer is placed against a patterned background.
Some of the other works viewed online include two room-sized video installations—Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon; Volta by Stephen Dean—anchor the exhibition; Miguel Calderon’s 2004 video of Mexico v. Brasil representing a 17-0 victory for Mexico.

Late last year, Wiley had his first U.K solo exhibition titled: The World Stage, at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. The show was the seventh in the artist’s series of focusing Black communities in Israel, Sri Lanka, Senegal, Nigeria, China and Brazil.

Wiley visited Nigeria in 1997, at the age of 20, after mother insisted he must meet his father.

Based in New York, Wiley is known in the US, Europe and the Middle East as a portraitist whose works are blends of African and western themes.
His work started with focus on the hip-hop scene of Los Angeles, painting youths with ‘sagging’ pants. In fact, his concept, he declared was to cast the hip-hop image in a classicist form.

And since he moved to New York, Wiley’s work has been linked to what observers describe as positive change towards Black youth.

Searching for models for his recent solo show titled, The World Stage, held at Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, earlier in the year, Wiley had to travel across the world. He recalls that the subjects painted in oil and enamel on canvas are models from cosmopolitans cities such as Lagos, Mumbai, Dakar, Rio de Janeiro and Delhi. 

Some of his solo shows are: Economy of Grace
, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY 2011; The World Stage: Israel, Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA; and Selected Works, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA 2010.

Saturday 15 February 2014

Mobile phone signals crisis picture wins World Press Photo 2014



American photojournalist John Stanmeyer has won first prize in the 2014 World Press Photo awards for his image of African migrants near Djibouti city.
Stanmeyer’s work is a moonlit image, which shows some men trying to get a phone signal from nearby Somalia.
Other winning works include:
SPOT NEWS SINGLES:
1. Phillipe Lopez, France, Agence France-Presse, Typhoon survivors, Tolosa, the Philippines, Nov. 18.
2. John Tlumacki, USA, The Boston Globe, Boston Marathon bombing, April 15.
3. Taslima Akhter, Bangladesh, Victims of garment factory collapse, Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 25.
Read MORE.

At art auction lecture, critic, ‘gamblers’ take divergent views


By Tajudeen Sowole
As a fledging secondary art market that is barely six years old, art auctions in Nigeria have been evolving but there are some grey areas to be smoothened out. However, the teething challenges are not enough to discredit the role of auctioneers in this short period of phenomenal growth in the sector, so argued participants at a Lagos forum.


 And that the gathering’s theme of Art Auctions in Nigeria: Ladders of Progress or Shots in the Artists’ Feet? delivered by Ozioma Onuzulike was the second on art auction-related subjects organised by Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) Lecture Series within a period of five months interval confirmed the unprecedented interest in Nigerian art market, courtesy of art auctions in Lagos.

 Onuzulike is of Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsukka, Enugu State.

His over six thousand words length lecture pierced through the audience like a palette knife struggling to reconcile conflicting shades and strokes on canvas. But a chunk of the audience hardly found any knock for the Lagos-based auction houses, though few areas were noted as needing improvement.

Whatever the criticism Onuzuike reeled out, the two major art auction houses in Nigeria, Arthouse Contemporary Limited and Terra Kulture-Mydrim got more than enough doses. Though he started with few commendations, for example, noting that "Generally, the art auctions have given artworks more value, particularly those of younger generation of artists". On the other side of the lecture's daring blade, Onozulika questioned the expertise of the auction houses in the selection of works, and harshly described the buyers and sellers at Nigerian art auctions as "gamblers."

But the art auctions in Nigeria must have been good gambling, so suggested Onuzulike's confirmation of the progression that started breezing into the Nigerian art space after the Arthouse Contemporary's debut sales of N74, 845, 000. 00 in 2008 when Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya's Greater Nigeria, a panel of foils led the sales for N9.2 million naira hammer price.

  Still on the positivity of the secondary market, the art auction houses, he argued have added more than economic value. "In a country without viable art historical and critical publishing, the auction catalogues, in spite of their lack of careful documentation, have also doubtlessly provided invaluable records of modern and contemporary Nigerian works of art. " He added that the catalogues "are of important archival value."


Some of the participants, shortly after the conference.

  Also focused in the lecture was comparative market value for artists, which is one of the contentions areas of Nigeria's art market
On the issue, Onozulike appeared to have continued from where  the last lecture, Jacob Jari's  The Price of Art and its implication on Art Practice in Nigeria left, some months ago. He referenced Jari's argument that art sales at Nigerian auctions defy "logic" in comparative market values of artists' works.

    For Onuzulike, Arthouse and Terra Kulture-Mydrim have not done enough in their search for rare works. "It is apparent that both auction houses do not devote time and resources to scouting for rare works by living artists who are still in active production and, especially, those by emerging talents."

 His further diagnosing of the auction scene's expertise threw in what looked like a false alarm when he said "the identities of those who select works for their auctions are a closely guarded secret." But it’s a well-known fact that Arthouse, for example, always published the identity of the auction house's specialists inside the catalogues.

 .Supporting his argument about the lack of expertise in the personalities that select and value art for auctions in Nigeria, Onuzulike drew comparison with what obtains abroad in auction houses that are over a hundred years old such as Bonhams, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and other well established auctioneers. He stressed; "My research, however, shows that Nigerian auction houses do not have in-house specialists in the professional sense of “specialists”. He also stated that the auction houses are not capable of detecting forgeries.

 Onuzulike therefore stated that “operators of our art auction houses are gamblers.” He warned that “artists who submit” to the auction houses “may be lucky to find the auctions becoming ladders of career progress; others may be unlucky to find the auctions becoming veiled weapons with which they unwittingly shoot themselves in the foot.”

 Artists, art collectors, dealers and connoisseurs present at the forum, generally agreed that the auction houses have not done badly given the short history of the secondary market in Nigeria.
Art teacher, Dr Ademola Azeez noted that more energy should be expended on documentation of art, "and not just on production of art works."

  In her response to the issue of transparency and expertise, the CEO of Arhouse Contemporary, Mrs Kavita Chellaram who came in midway into the presentation disagreed with Onuzulike. She clarified that the identity of  “our specialists are well known to people because we publish their names and photographs in every auction catalogue." She also noted that the challenge of combating forgery in the art market is not peculiar to Nigerian art. "Forgeries exist all over the world, and we are trying our best to discourage such practice."

 Omooba Sehinde Odimayo, a specialist of nearly three decades experience and one of the experts in the Nigerian art auction market noted that some of Onuzulike's arguments were not fair to the evolving secondary art market in the country.

  Artist and art educationist, Dr Kunle Filani, art patron Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, President of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Oliver Enwonwu and others who contributed to the debate agreed that challenges are part of any evolving market such as Nigeria’s secondary art market. But Filani warned that "both the primary and secondary art markets must not commoditise art."
 Specifically, the convener of the forum, Prince Yemisi Shyllon cautioned that "we should applaud the starters of auctions in Nigeria." He argued that it’s unfair to compare over a hundred years of art business in Europe with 10 years of art auction in Nigeria. He added that  "Art business is never done in a hurry."

The OYASAF lecture series started in 2012 with a Wotaside Studio collaboration of Prof  Francis Ugiomoh's. On African Art And Identity Blogging: A Historical Perspective.

Sunday 9 February 2014

A Hollywood intervention for 'African Oscar'


If the news about Nollywood & African Film Critics’ Awards (NAFCA) otherwise known as the African Oscars engaging a Hollywood-based consultant is a reality, some improvement may be on the way.

But engaging a foreign service for a sector that emerged basically on home efforts confirm that Africans have not learnt to seek local contents in empowering the continent and shun new colonialism.

Recipients of NAFCA 
After four years, NAFCA, according to the organisers, are engaging over 20 years expertise to serve as Head of African Oscars Business Development & Strategic Initiatives.

The reports adds that the consulting firm will be responsible for contracting several key sponsorships for the African Oscars-NAFCA, which will allow the awards to develop new revenue streams via sponsorship sales and marketing programs.