ART PROFESSIONALISM SHIFTING IDENTITIES AND CREATIVE CORRESPONDENCES IN THE WORKS OF OBIORA UDECHUKWU

ABSTRACT

Obiora Udechukwu’s name is synonymous with the Nsukka Art School. He is also known   nationally   and   internationally.   His   art  career   has   been   eventful   and aesthetically rewarding.  He works in diverse media such as oil, acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, lithographs, linocut, aquatint, graphite and pastel, and he is best known for his highly linear style which draws extensively from the traditional uli art and other linear art forms like nsibidi and Chinese Li art. In 1995, he left for the United States of America, where his  professionalization  in art has continued to make him produce enduring visual statements. Numerous scholarly works have been written on Udechukwu, but a comprehensive research, which articulates his art career in Nigeria and in the  United States of America, is yet to be carried out. This study, therefore, attempts to fill this vacuum. Employing historical and analytical processes, it provides an update on Udechukwu’s  art career, using art professionalism,  shifting identities and creative correspondences as critical frameworks.  Obiora Udechukwu’s art career in Nigeria  and  in the  United  States  of America  is  marked  with  experimentation. Noticeable changes seen in his works in the Diaspora are the development of more organic and multi-linear compositions, as well as the increased use of text in pictorial configuration. The Nigerian civil war, his Igbo roots, indigenous art forms, as well as socio-political  issues  are  dominant  themes  in  his  art.  He  has  contributed  to  the development  of  modern Nigerian  art through  numerous  national  and  international exhibitions,  workshops  and  conferences.  His  art  career  has  brought  international attention to the Nsukka Art School, and he has trained, as well as influenced many modern Nigerian artists.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Art,  as  a  means  of  self  expression,  generally  espouses  creativity,  fertile imagination,  ingenuity,  as well as perceptive and conceptual abilities. A  successful and enduring art practice according to Ola Oloidi is necessarily usually built around a well sustained culture of professionalism which embodies the love of, or interest in,

achieving   or   attaining   standard   or   professional   proficiency.1     Meaningful   art

production  also  requires  the acquisition  of specific  skills,  knowledge  and  a  clear understanding of what constitutes good art. These fundamental requirements are often acquired  through genuine  interest,  training and the willingness  to  experiment  with ideas and materials.

The appraisal of world art history shows that many artists, have, at different art epochs,  distinguished  themselves  in various creative  endeavours.  These artists, often acclaimed as ‘masters’, performed tremendous feats in the different aspects of the visual arts.  The artists of the I5th, 16th and 17th centuries like Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,  Leon Battista Alberti, Titian,  El Greco, Diego Velasquez, Peter  Paul  Rubens,   Caravaggio   and  Rembrandt   van  Rijn,  among  others,  had distinguished  art careers that have continued  to  attract  admiration  till date. In his

analysis of the Renaissance  period, Fred Kleiner  notes that “the High  Renaissance produced  a cluster  of  extraordinary  geniuses  and  found  in  divine  inspiration  the rationale  for the exaltation  of the artist-genuis.”2   Some  examples  of masterpieces

produced  during this era  include  the enigmatic  Monalisa  painted  by Leonardo  da

Vinci,   Last  Judgement,   painted   on  the  altar   wall  of  the  Sistine   Chapel   by Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Sanzio’s School of Athens, among numerous others.

Other  art  movements   in  Europe   such  as  Impressionism,   Romanticism, Realism, Expressionism,  Abstract Expressionism,  Fauvism,  Cubism  and Surrealism just to mention a few, also highlight the artistic ingenuity of the artists associated with these art periods.  Artists  like Claude Monet,  Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco  Goya, William Blake, Eugene  Delacroix,  Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse,  Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henry Moore, Paul Klee, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier,  just to mention  a  few,  are worthy examples.  To attain the  status of a master,  an artist must  have attained  a certain  degree  of professionality  in his art practice. The attainment of this status initiates a different kind of critical assessment and also  confers on the work of the artist, value and didactic posturing. Ola Oloidi notes:

A master is a professional whose art is already liberated from, or no more professionally affected by, certain forms of conventional criticism or whose art can no more be made  captive of negative criticism.  The  professional  strength  of  a  master  does  not  lie anymore in critics’ convictions but in the  artist’s innate abilities and pure sensibilities.3

Also, the attainment of such status arises from what Oloidi describes as “a supreme attribute   that  comes  naturally  through   great   effervescent   experimentation   and professionalization.”4

In the discourse on modern Nigerian art, artists like Aina Onabolu,  Akinola

Lasekan,   Ben  Enwonwu,   Uche   Okeke,   Demas   Nwoko,   Yusuf  Grillo,   Bruce Onorbrakpeya and El Anatsui have attained this status. The artist, Obiora Udechukwu, also belongs to this category.  A competent  painter, draughtsman,  writer and poet, Udechukwu’s art career has impacted significantly on the growth and development of Nigeria’s art modernism.   The artist has attained a well  deserved recognition,  both

nationally and internationally and he stands on the pedestal of the artist-genius.   As

Simon Ottenberg observes:

Udechukwu is a highly regarded Nigerian artist who creates in a range  of  two-dimensional   media,  with  a  rich  background   of experience in drawing. Highly productive, he frequently exhibits in solo and group exhibitions,  writes critique and  commentaries  on contemporary Nigerian art, has substantial gift as a poet, and is a person of wide scholarly interest.5

Krydz Ikwuemesi also remarks that each time he contemplates Obiora Udechukwu’s works, his mind recalls the humble words of Heinrich Heine, the German Romantic poet, who declared; “Aus meinem grossen Schmerzen mach’ ich die kleinen Lieder”

(Through my great labour, I create little songs).6   Ikwuemesi explains that Heine was

only exhibiting extreme humility as his songs were actually not little, but provided the platform through which he was able to criticized the social problems of his  time.7

Applying this analogy to Udechukwu, Ikwuemesi further remarks:

In the same manner,  a cursory look may mislead  the viewer  to dismiss    Udechukwu’s    works,    especially    his   drawings,    as simplistic. There is also a seeming simplicity that equally marks the fire behind his exemplary personality. Like Heine, Udechukwu knows the problems of his time the way he knows the back of his hand.  At  58,  he  certainly  understands  the  contradictions  and conflicts  in  the  Nigerian  question,   especially  in  its  post-war characteristics.  It is these conflicts  and contradictions  that are at the centre of Udechukwu’s  imagination,  as he concerns  himself with the pursuit of truth and excellence, which are the gem of great art.8

Obiora   Udechukwu’s   art,   to   a  marked   degree,   is   shaped   by   certain circumstances  that  were  instrumental  to  his  formative  years.  The  trauma  of  the Nigerian civil war and his encounter with uli art, the traditional art of body and wall painting  practised  by  Igbo  women  of  south-eastern  Nigeria,  were  of  immense importance to his development as an artist, both thematically and stylistically. These factors proved to be vital catalysts that ignited his creative sensibility. As reported by Simon Ottenberg, Udechukwu’s  comment on the trauma of the Nigerian civil  war, serves as a pointer to the artist’s thematic preoccupation:

I as a person had to move from one town to other with virtually no property, just a coat and a bag, occasionally sleeping in the open. So I know firsthand what it is to suffer. I have known hunger. I have also seen people suffering. I have seen air raids where human beings are dismembered in under two seconds.  So this has left a big mark on my psyche and over the years, I find that images of pathos that one associates with Biafra,  keeps surfacing from time

to time.9In acknowledging the influence of indigenous art forms on his art, Udechukwu also states: At one level, my work has benefitted immensely from, and owes a lot to, the forms and aesthetic strategies of Igbo uli drawing and painting,  and to a lesser  extent  nsibidi writing.  What  these two systems have done is to provide me with a reliable vocabulary for articulating    and    presenting    my   responses    to    life-various environments,  events and phenomena.  In the  same way that my grounding in Igbo and English informs my  creative writing, my encountering the arts of various parts of the world has broadened my outlook and practice.10

Through the years, the creative pathways which Udechukwu’s art has taken reflect a culture of experimentation. These experiences are continually reinvented and consolidated by the artist into a personal creative language. It is of vital importance to the  visual  artist,  to  be  consciously  and  critically  aware   of  his  environment, understanding its dynamism and potentiality for creative revival and sustenance. This exhortation is also not lost on Udechukwu, who says:

The Igbo saying that “If you do not know where the rain started to beat you, you will not know where it ceased to beat you” posits a historical imperative for the understanding of the  present and for the survival of a person or a society at a given time. This idea is elaborated  in the memorable  speech  by the  old man in Chinua Achebe’s Novel, Anthills of the Savannah  (1987), and resonates with  the  project,  spearheaded  by Uche  Okeke  in  the  1970s  at Nsukka, to deeply research traditional Nigerian art as a foundation

for the realization of a vital contemporary art.11

xvii For a career that has been sustained for over five decades, Obiora Udechukwu’s art has consistently drawn from indigenous sources as a potent creative resource for the realization of contemporary artistic demands. The artistic proceeds of Udechukwu’s resolution of this creative dialogue, between tradition and modern,  have gained him respect and recognition. This finds endorsement in Ola Oloidi’s assertion that “Obiora Udechukwu,   more  than  all  the  new  artists  in  Nigeria,   has  won  international attention.”12   As  of  1992,  the  artist  has  had  sixteen  solo  exhibitions,  four  joint

exhibitions  and over  sixty-four  group  exhibitions.13   Udechukwu  has also  received numerous awards and grants. His creative and scholarly writings  equally factor in projecting the wholesomeness of his artistic personality.

For twenty-two years, Obiora Udechukwu taught art in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In 1995, as a result of irreconcilable differences  between the artist and the administration  of the  University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he relocated  to the United States of America  and  is presently Charles A. Dana Professor of Fine Arts at St Lawrence  University. Numerous scholarly works have been written on Obiora Udechukwu. The most outstanding literary work on the artist is, perhaps, the book, New Traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka School, written by the eminent anthropologist, Simon Ottenberg. The book, published in 1997, provides insightful information on the artist. Udechukwu’s biography, artistic development and professional art career are critically appraised within the framework of the Nsukka Art School, of which the artist strongly represents.  Obiora Udechukwu is  the quintessential  artist whose  love for art and commitment  to professionalism, continue to sustain a prolific and vibrant art career. The artist’s creative antecedents remain integral to the discourse on the Nsukka Art School in particular, and Nigeria’s art modernism in general.

Art professionalism, shifting identities and creative correspondences, the three key frameworks which form the basis of this study, provide effective handles for the understanding and appreciation of Udechukwu’s art. The first examines Udechukwu’s commitment to professionalism in art. This involves assessing how his love for, and interest  in,  achieving  standard,  has  translated  to  issues  of professionalization  and professionality.   Shifting identities, the second  framework, examines the artist’s art career in Nigeria, and the creative implication of his migration to the United States of America. The third framework, creative correspondences, considers the multifarious layering of Udechukwu’s art, especially, as it relates to his dynamic responses to life experiences, within the rubrics of style, media and subject matter.

Statement of the Problem

Given Udechukwu’s creative pedigree, there is compelling need to carry out a periodic appraisal of the dynamics at work in his professional art career; more so, now that his art practice bestrides two continents. Simon Ottenberg’s book represents the most  in-depth  documentation  on the  artist.  However,  it  is  time  constrained  as  it examines the artist’s career up to 1995. Udechukwu’s  art  practice in the Diaspora from 1995 upwards, and how this factor in the panoramic appraisal of his oeuvres, are yet to receive in-depth scholarly attention.    Specifically,  certain  factors  which  are likely to have impacted on Obiora Udechukwu’s art career in the diaspora are also yet to be addressed. For example,  in mapping the current creative trajectory of his art practice, to what extent has the past shaped his present artistic experiences? Has the artist’s relocation to a different continent induced any noticeable changes in his work as an artist? If  so,  at what  levels  have these  changes occurred  in terms of style, technique, media preference and subject matter? Also, given the artist’s track record

of adapting and appropriating  indigenous art forms to contemporary use, are  there evidences  of  assimilation  of  new  indigenous  art  vocabularies,  and  consequently, development  of new aesthetic  strategies? Furthermore,  bearing in  mind the artist’s strong attachment  to his traditional roots, to what extent has  his host environment benefitted from the expected cultural dialogue?  These questions constitute gaps that need to be filled. Updating Udechukwu’s professional art career becomes imperative.

Research Objectives

The objectives of this study were to:

i.     provide  an updated  and comprehensive  information  on the artist’s  creative journey so far

ii.      show the various influences that shaped his creative disposition

iii.      bring to limelight, changes that may have occurred  in his work as a  visual artist as a result of his relocation to a different creative clime.

iv.      highlight the artistic contributions made by Obiora Udechukwu  to both  his host community and modern Nigerian art.

Research Methodology

To  actualize  its  set  objectives,  the  study  utilized  primary  and  secondary sources   of   data   collection.    Primary   data   were   generated    from   electronic correspondences  between the artist and the researcher through  platforms like skype and e-mail exchanges. The visual, oral and textual information sourced through these channels were collected with the aid of a tape recorder and the computer. Secondary data  were  collected  from  published  materials  such  as  books,  journals,  exhibition catalogues, magazines, newspapers, online materials, as well as unpublished materials like students’ dissertations and theses.

Scope of the Study

The  study  focuses  primarily  on the  biography  and  art  of  Obiora  Udechukwu.  It examines the artist’s art career from two geographical  stand points. This comprises his art career in Nigeria, covering the period, 1964-1995, and his art practice in the Diaspora, from 1997-2013.

Limitation of the Study

The geographical  distance between the researcher and Obiora Udechukwu  made  it difficult to physically examine the works produced by Udechukwu in the Diaspora. Obiora Udechukwu’s work schedule, which is unknown to the researcher, as well as the barrier posed by distance, delayed data collection. Also, unreliable internet service and power supply in Nigeria brought frustration in data gathering.

Significance of the Study

The study will have an enriching influence on art historical culture in Nigeria by providing knowledge  on a distinguished  and vibrant Nigerian visual  artist. It is bound to stimulate interest in scholars to embark on parallel researches that will help update and document works of artists in Nigeria especially those with a well sustained track record of professional practice.

Organization

In  discussing  Udechukwu’s  professional  art  career,  this  study  has  been structured  in  such  a  manner  as  to  satisfy  the  research  objectives.  Chapter  One introduces the background to the study. The Statement to the problem, Objectives of the   Research,   Methodology,   Scope   of   Study,   Limitations   of   the   Study  and Significance of the Study, are also incorporated in this chapter. The review of related literature is carried out in Chapter Two.  This provides a general understanding  of literary and visual documentation by various scholars and writers, which directly or indirectly relate to the personality and professionality of Obiora Udechukwu. Chapter Three provides biographical  information on the artist and also discusses the artist’s professional  achievements  while Chapter  four analyzes  the artist’s art career  from 1964 to 1995, the period when he was still domiciled in Nigeria. Chapter Five features an in-depth analysis of Udechukwu’s art career in the Diaspora from 1997 to 2013 and Chapter Six summarizes the study.

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