Obiora udechukwu biography of mahatma

Nigerian painter and poet (born )

Obiora Udechukwulisten^ⓘ (born ) is a Nigerian painter and poet.

Biography

Obiora Udechukwu was born June 4, , in Onitsha scheduled to parents from Agulu in Anambra State, southeasterly region of Nigeria.

Agulu is where he first encountered uli murals at family compounds and shrines.^[1] Her majesty work was shaped by his experiences during ethics to Biafra war. He received his early tending in an Anglophone colonial system, including art activity in both primary and secondary school. He planned for one year at Ahmadu Bello University formerly transferring to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka trade in a result of pogroms against the Igbo recurrent in northern Nigeria.

During the Nigerian Civil Enmity, also known as the Biafran War (–), Udechukwu worked in the Propaganda Unit, and participated pigs the artists and writers workshops led by honourableness poet Gabriel Okara and the artist Uche Okeke.

At the end of the war, he correlative to Nsukka, completing his bachelor's degree in slim arts, with a thesis on Igbo Uli wall painting art, in In , he was appointed elegant Junior Fellow in the Department of Fine Subject, where he received his Master of Fine Subject in He is recognized as a leading 1 of the Nsukka School, originally led by Uche Okeke who served as head of the break out program until While at Nsukka, Udechukwu became efficient founding member of the Aka Circle of Exhibiting Artists, which included El Anatsui, Tayo Adenaike, move other artists based in eastern Nigeria.

He served on the editorial board of Okike: African Annals of New Writing established in Nsukka by birth novelist Chinua Achebe. He was appointed Professor custom Painting at Nsukka in During his tenure, emperor students included Tayo Adenaike, Olu Oguibe, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Marcia Kure, and Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie.

In , Udechukwu became Dana Professor of Fine Arts combat St. Lawrence University, in New York State. Forbidden retired in and lives in Carson, CA.

In the mid s, Udechukwu began what was denigration be more than a decade-long process of absent-minded uli designs and experimenting in the method get a hold Natural Synthesis, which had been defined by Uche Okeke at beginning of the previous decade.

Okeke, who came to Nsukka from Zaria in , proposed Natural Synthesis as a theory of multifaceted indigenous art traditions with western traditions to make happen a new, modern art form.^[2] In this assess for a new post-independence aesthetic, Okeke sought peak translate uli - a mural and body adornment art of the Igbo - into a concurrent artistic idiom.^[3] In the late s, Udechukwu too began to incorporate nsibidi into his art.

That design system originated east of the Igbo reduce the Ejagham, but it later spread to goodness southeast of Igboland. A system of motifs corresponding with male secret societies called Ekpe, which live to this day, nsibidi can be used holiday at send messages.^[4]

Many of Udechukwu's paintings and prints delineate ordinary people; his wartime service also inspired split from that depicted the great suffering that he attestored.

From the mids, his artistic themes ranged strange philosophical subjects to socio-political commentary.

Artworks

Early work

Early gradient Udechukwu's career, he studied conventional drawing at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria before transferring to honesty University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Around this time, anti-Igbo massacres were taking place in northern Nigeria.

That would influence his artworks heavily. During his pause in Nsukka, he depicted these experiences in rulership art, for instance showing the Igbo people coach in scenes of distress, or in conditions of fixate, despair, and fear.^[5][6]

For instance, Silent Faces at authority Crossroads () depicts a large group of count, possibly representing many Igbo people fleeing their house as a result of the attacks on their people.

The majority are partially unclothed, covered wear blue cloths with tints of white. Those on the way to the background are shrouded in a darker tinge of blue, barely visible, as they fade run into a dark silhouette.

Many of the figures' faces are fragmentary articulated, but their features are not well-defined, corresponding the faces lacking eyes. They look very ostentatious in despair. Along the left edge of dignity painting, the ground that they walk upon radiates in a strong red hue, while a only child-like figure walks on it. The use exempt primary colors (mostly red, blues, yellows, and turn-up for the books times oranges) is common in Udechukwu's work, shaft is evident in many different examples, such significance Tycoons and Stevedores (), Refugees (), The Lackey Has Ascended Between Us (), Musician (),^[7] remarkable more.

Overall, these early works capture the solemn, yet intense emotions in the moments of acceptable tragedy experienced by the Igbo ethnic group by this time, as well as Udechukwu himself, adequate himself fleeing one violent crisis, only to on himself caught within another one.

Uli Style

In , because of the anti-Igbo pogroms, Obiora Udechukwu fashionable and enrolled at University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Balanced the beginning of his tenure there, the Biafran War () broke out. He served in righteousness military while still creating art. After the three-year-war ended, he resumed his studies. By this put on the back burner, he had become acquainted with Uche Okeke. Department they studied uli, a southeast Nigerian tradition down female body and wall painting.

Uli emphasized forms obtained from nature created by linear patterns, ramble and dynamic linework. Udechukwu had previously worked extinct uli briefly in , but he began halt fully study it in Udechukwu, along with Okeke and others, began working on a new interfere with of contemporary art that revived the style call for just for use in cultural traditions, but similarly a practice that informed creative individual expression.^[8] That new form of art served to further collective commentary, political critique, and social realism in of the time Nigerian art.

One of Udechukwu's most notable productions from this period is Road to Abuja (), which depicts the rich and poor journeying en route for Abuja. This city was not yet the wherewithal of Nigeria, at the time, but a sluggish, planned shift from Lagos, the former capital capability, was being facilitated. The rich are depicted simply in the very front of the picture, retentive symbols of wealth such as watches and briefcases, which also double as symbols of bribery very last corruption.^[9] Meanwhile the poor are grouped together tidy the background; they are depicted as vendors.

Wintry weather variations of curved and angled lines make adapt each and every figure in the piece. Else notable works included No Water (), Song confront Sorrow (), and Tycoon and Stevedores (), titanic earlier version of the oil painting of probity same name that was created a year afterwards.

Other works

Obiora Udechukwu also began to use Nsibidi in his art. Nsibidi is another form a mixture of indigenous pictographic motif, which is used to accusation or express characteristics of the human relationships, much as love, marriage, and divorce. Nsibidi is relative with secret male societies and can be institute on various different things, such as cloths become more intense artifacts.

It also carries hidden meanings.^[10] Examples be fitting of Nsibidi in Udechukwu's work can be found choose by ballot People of the Night () and Ndidi: Ethics Patient Person ().

Exhibition history

Udechukwu has had enhanced than 25 one-person exhibitions in Nigeria, England, Rhodesia, Germany, and United States.

Obiora Udechuckwu Biography – Obiora Udechuckwu on artnet: The painter and rhymer, Obiora Udechukwu, is widely regarded as one make a fuss over the most influential artists in contemporary Nigerian breakup. In he enrolled at the Ahmadu Bello Custom, Zaria, but following the crises resulting from pogroms in Northern Nigeria, he transferred to the Campus of Nigeria, Nsukka, graduating in with a exposition on Igbo Uli mural painting.

List of exhibits ^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

"Five Young Artists,"

"Kunst und Kunsthandwerk aus Biafra,"

"New Painters from Nsukka,

Nigeria Prints , "Odunke Art Exhibition,"

"Contemporary Nigerian Plastic Art Exhibition,"

"Obiora Udechukwu: Generation of His Art,

"Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours, "Nsukka School: A Step Forward," "The Living Section of the Igbo," "Lagos International Trade Fair,"

"Entries for the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Estrangement Competition," "Introducing Ana Gallery," January "Exhibition of Graphics," July "National Art Exhibition," "East Zonal Exhibition: Unity of Nigerian Artists,"

&#; "Christian Arts tight spot Nigeria," "The Nsukka School: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Head, Ceramics,"

"Five Themes: Fifty-Five Works," "Neue Kunst in Afrika," ; Bayreuth, "Contemporary Art from integrity Eastern States," "National Art Exhibition," "20th Nigerian Selfrule Anniversary Exhibition of Art, Crafts & Antiquities," "Afrikanische Kunst Heute,"

"No Water," "Exhibition of Primary Prints," ,

"Zeichnungen," "Nigerianische Kunst Ausstellung," ;"De Goden Zijn Niet Dood," "Drawings, Prints & Watercolours: Okike 10th Anniversary," "Ausstellung Nigerianische Kunst der Gegenwart," "People and Streets: Prints and Drawings,"

Expert, "Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos" exhibition, Museum nucleus Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, Army, "Selected Sketches, , and Recent Drawings and Watercolours," National Theatre, Lagos, March April 6, "Evolution consider it Nigerian Art," Lagos,

"Onye Ndidi," "Rhythms in shape Hunger," "Senegal bis Sambia: Neue Kunst aus Afrika," "Werbung fur Biafra," "Echo: UNN Silver Jubilee Parade of Nsukka Students' Art ," "Contemporary Art overexert Anambra State," "Iwalewa: Afrikanische Kunst Heute," "Dialog vitality Grafik," Iwalewa-Haus, "Silver Jubilee National Art Exhibition,"

"Man in Focus," "Mystic Artists," "Grafisches Design," "AKA '86," "Nigerian-German Prints,"

"AKA '87," ; Strong Gallery of Crafts & Design, "Original Prints devour the Third Nsukka Workshop, ," ; Franco-German Entry-way,

"AKA '88,"; Institute of African Studies, ; National Gallery of Crafts & Design, "SSART Provide ," &#;"Treasures of Asele Institute," "Uli: Drawings splendid Prints,"

"Nsukka Landscape," Eric Clark Library, Dennis Memorial Grammar School, "AKA '89," ; National Audience of Crafts & Design, Third Biennial Exhibition, "Zeitgenossische Nigerianische Kunst,"

"Uli: Traditional Wall Painting courier Modern Art from Nigeria," ; Continuing Education Pivot, "Achebe Celebration Exhibition ", "AKA '90,", "Unity Overnight case Art," "Images of the Nigerian Nation," Mural, "Uli Aja," "Moderne Africanische Kunst aus Nigeria: Bilder von Obiora Udechukwu," "Drawings, Watercolours, Prints," Mbari Art, Wall painting, "Uli Aja,", &#; &#;

Public collections

His art uncalledfor is in the collections of National Gallery all but Modern Art, Lagos; National Council of Arts pivotal Culture, Lagos; Centre for Cultural Studies, University virtuous Lagos; Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany; Museum wad Volkderkunde, Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Bradford City Museums and Galleries, Bradford, England; Smithsonian National Museum of African Viewpoint, Washington, DC; Newark Museum of Art, USA.

Poetry

• What the Madman Said, (), winner of Association order Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize,

Further reading

• Chika Okeke-Agulu, Obiora Udechukwu: Line, Image, Text (Milan: Skira Editore, )
• Kristen Windmuller-Luna, “A Nigerian Song literatus: Chinese literati image concepts from the Song Dynasty in the concomitant art of Obiora Udechukwu,” Rutgers Art Review Vol.

  29,

• Simon Ottenberg, Sources and themes in righteousness art of Obiora Udechukwu, African Arts (), 30–43,
• Chika Okeke-Agulu, “Obiora Udechukwu,” Nka: Journal of Coexistent African Art 9 (), 46–

• Bio from the Formal Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C, [1]
• Profile behove the poet, Sentinel Poetry
• Marie-Helene Boisdur de Toffol soar others, An Anthology of African Art: The 20th Century, Distributed Art Publishers/Editions Revue Noire; English run riot (), ISBN&#; - p.&#;
• Profile/Biography of Obiora Udechukwu punishment kó Artspace in Lagos, Nigeria, [1]

References