Nigeria: From Zaria to Osogbo, the Making of Curatorial Marvel (I)

In 1959, Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria, awarded Diploma in Fine Arts to its first graduate. Sixty years after, GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR (Arts and Culture Editor) looks at the place of Zaria Art School in Modern Nigeria's Art history.

Art, in Nigeria, no doubt, is experiencing an explosion. Once restricted to 'underfunded departments' on university and polytechnic campuses and 'overly dedicated starving artists', it has gradually staked a claim for the country's millennial culture. The development of Modern Nigerian Art could be linked to colonial influence, especially techniques and forms taught by Western expatriates /missionaries. However, in his Modern Nigerian Art: A Discursive Sketch, Prof. C. Krydz Ikwuemesi insists that the West did not introduce art to Nigeria. His words: "Europe did not teach art to Africa... In pre-colonial Nigeria, there were many kinds of artistic expressions ranging from painting and carving to textile design."

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