Uche Okeke

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Christopher Uchefuna Okeke (born April 30, 1933 in Nimo ; † January 5, 2016 there ), better known by his stage name Uche Okeke , was a Nigerian artist.

Early years and artistic breakthrough

Uche Okeke grew up in Nimo, in the Njikoka district of Anambra state , Nigeria . From 1940 to 1953 he attended St. Peter Claver's School in Kafanchan , the Metropolitan College in Onitsha and the Bishop Shanahan College in Orlu . He then gained his first exhibition experience, including as assistant curator to Bernard Fagg in a 1956 presentation of Nigerian painting in Jos and Kaduna . He enrolled to study art at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST), today's Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria , where he founded the Zaria Art Society in 1958 . This art association became the nucleus of the Zaria Rebels , a group of up-and-coming independent artists that included Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya , Demas Nwoko , Yusuf Grillo , Simon Okeke , Jimoh Akolo , Oseloka Osadebe and Emmanuel Odit . The Zaria Rebels found models for their idea of ​​modern Nigerian painting in the traditional art of the Igbo , Yoruba and Haussa .

Academic career

With the establishment of a cultural center in Kafanchan , which later became the Asele Institute , Uche Okeke laid another important foundation stone for the development of an independent Nigerian modernity in 1958. The institute's collection today contains one of the most extensive documentations on the development of modern art in Nigeria.

From 1971 to 1985 Uche Okeke taught at the Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Nigeria , Nsukka (UNN). There he brought his experience of Nigerian modernity to teaching. In 1973 he taught at the Department of Fine Arts at the Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu .

In addition to these teaching activities, he was, among other things, director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, an honorary professor of fine arts at the University of Port Harcourt , and deputy general director of the International Biographical Center in Cambridge .

Okeke and the Uli aesthetic

A characteristic of Uche Okeke's art is the recourse to the specific sign language and aesthetics of the Igbo, the Uli . While this art form was traditionally related to wall painting and body art, Uche Okeke developed it further into a graphic and painterly means of expression in Nigerian modernism. Shortly before he left for a workshop in Munich in 1962 , he designed an artistic manifesto of Uli-Moderne in the "Oja Suite". For the following generations of the Nsukka School , for artists like Obiora Udechuckwu or Ndidi Dike , Uche Okeke's innovations are of fundamental importance.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 2006 Another Modernity: Works on Paper by Uche Okeke , Newark Museum , Newark, New Jersey, USA.
  • 2003 Retrospective solo exhibition, Pendulum Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
  • 1982 Contemporary Nigerian Prints, Drawings and Paintings: Uche Okeke . Katherine E. Nash Gallery , University of Minneapolis , Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA.
    • Homage to Asele, Exhibition of Prints, Drawings and Paintings: Uche Okeke , African American Cultural Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
  • 1979 Retrospective Exhibition of Drawings and Prints, German Cultural Center, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • 1978 graphic from Nigeria, Germany.
  • 1963 Exhibition of Mosaics and stained glass window, Franz Mayer and Company, Munich, Germany.
  • 1962 Exhibition of drawings, Rott am Inn, Germany.

Group exhibitions

  • 2010 Nigerian 50th Independence Exhibition, Abuja, Nigeria.
    • Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic , Tate Modern, Liverpool.
    • NIVATOUR, Group Exhibition by the National Gallery of Art, Abuja, Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt.
  • 2009 Society of Nigerian Artists Anniversary Exhibition, Omenka Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • 2008 ARESUVA, National Gallery of Art, Abuja, Nigeria.
  • 2006 Another Modernity: Works on paper by Uche Okeke , Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
  • 2002 Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group , National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
  • 1995 Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa , Whitechapel Art Gallery , London.
  • 1977 Exhibition of African Contemporary Art, Howard University , Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, Washington DC USA.
    • Exhibition of Nigerian Contemporary Art (FESTAC), National Council for Arts and Culture, Lagos.
  • 1976 Joint Exhibition of prints and textiles, Department of Human Environment and Design / African Studies Center, Kresge Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan USA.
  • 1974 African Prints, at Exhibition of Contemporary African Art , Kresge Art Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
  • 1972 Group Exhibition, Nasprstek Museum, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
  • 1969 Art from Biafra , Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Trier, Dortmund, Essen and Munich, Germany.
  • 1966 World Festival of Negro Arts Exhibition, Dakar, Senegal
  • 1967 Three Crossroads - Three Continents , with Hansen-Bahia (Germany) and Vivial Ellis (USA), Munich, Germany.
  • 1964 Group Exhibition, Harmon Foundation Inc. , New York, USA.
  • 1963/64 Three-man show with Ibrahim el-Salahi (Sudan) and Valente Malagantana (Mozambique), Committee for Cultural Freedom, India and Pakistan.
  • 1962 Group Exhibition, Rhodes National Gallery, Salisbury, Rhodesia.
    • Gallery Lambert, Paris, France.
    • Ugandan Independence Art Exhibition, Kampala.

Awards

  • 2009 Federal Government Award for distinguished service in the Arts and Culture Sector.
  • 2001 Presidential award of MFR by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
  • 1977 Prize for Terra Cotta Sculpture titled Dance of Unity, Murtala Mohammed International Sculpture competition, Lagos.
  • 1973 British Council Bursary Award
  • 1972 Illustrator of the Year 1972, for Tales of Land of Death, Igbo Folk Tales , published by Doubleday, New York, awarded by National UNESCO Commission's Book of the Year competition.
  • 1971 Drama award by the African Studies Center, University of California, USA.
  • 1962–63 Fellowship award to study mosaic and stained-glass window techniques awarded by the West German government.
  • 1960 Poetry prize in a national literary competition organized by the National Arts Council.
  • 1959 First place Esso Inc., Nigerian Independence calendar design competition, Lagos.
  • 1958–61 Nigerian Federal Government Scholarship
  • 1957 Out-of-doors painting award by the Head of Department of Fine Art, NCAST, Zaria.

Publications

  • 2010 Nigeria @ 50 , a publication by the Federal Government of Nigeria in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Nigeria's independence.
  • 2003 NKU DI NA MBA: Uche Okeke and Modern Nigerian Art , National Gallery of Art, Lagos.
    • The Triumph of a Vision: an Anthology on Uche Okeke and Modern Art in Nigeria , Pendulum Art Gallery.
  • 2001 Historical Sketch of the Growth of the Catholic Church in Nimo , publication for 50th Anniversary of Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Nimo, Anambra State.
  • 1998 The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness , National Gallery of Art, Lagos.
  • 1995 Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa , Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
  • 1991 Terms of Art: Contemporary Nigerian Art in the International Context , Ministry of Culture, Nordrhine-Westfalen / Kunstsammilung Nordrhine-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany.
  • 1990 Eze Institution in Igboland , by Hanny Hahn-Waanders, Asele Institute Documentation Center, Nimo, Anambra State.
  • 1982 Art in Development: A Nigerian Perspective , Asele Institute Documentation Center and the African American Cultural Center, Minneapolis, US.
  • 1976 "Search for the Theoretical Basis of Contemporary Art", paper presented at the International Symposium on Contemporary Art, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
    • Modern Nigerian Art, Documentation Center, Asele Institute, Nimo.
    • Igbo Art, Asele Institute, Nimo.
  • 1971 Tales of Land of Death: Igbo folktales by Uche Okeke, Doubleday, Zenith Books.
  • 1969 History of Ibo Art , Dortmund Lecture No. 97, Dortmund: Cultural Office of the City of Dortmund.
  • 1961 Drawings by Uche Okeke , intro. Ulli Beier , Ibadan. Mbari Productions.

Museums and collections

  • National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
  • National Gallery of Art, Abuja, Nigeria.
  • Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
  • Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth, Germany.
  • State Collection of Graphics, Munich, Germany.
  • Franz Mayer Hofkunstanstalt, Munich, Germany.
  • Tate Modern Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • OYASAF Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Broadcast House Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, Nigeria.
  • Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
  • University of Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Holy Trinity Cathedral, Nigeria.
  • National Council for Arts and Culture, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Murtala Mohammed international Airport Lagos.
  • Academy of Art, Berlin, Germany
  • State House, Enugu, Nigeria.
  • Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
  • Dolly Fitterman Art Gallery Inc, Minneapolis, USA.
  • Beke Memorial Hospital, Nimo, Nigeria.
  • Ministry of Education and Information, Cultural Division, Enugu, Nigeria.

literature

Nadine Siegert, Katharina Fink (Eds.): Uche Okeke, Art in Development - A Nigerian Perspective. Reissue of: Uche Okeke, Art in Development, 1982. Bayreuth 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, The Zaria Art Society, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, 2018th
  2. ↑ Uche Okeke, Treasures of Asele Institute, catalog of an exhibition ... held at the Italian Cultural Institute, Lagos 1988.
  3. ↑ Chika Okeke-Agulu, From the Editor: Matters Arising in Memory of Uche Okeke (1933-2016), In: Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 40 (2017): pp. 4–5.
  4. ^ [2] Perrin Lathrop, Uche Okeke, 2016.
  5. ↑ Uche Okeke, LeClair Grier Lambert: Art in development: a Nigerian perspective ( English ). Documentation Center, Asele Institute; African American Cultural Center, Nimo, Nigeria; Minneapolis, USA 1982, OCLC 11727973 .
  6. ↑ Uche Okeke: Tales of land of death: Igbo folktales ( English ). Zenith Books, Garden City, NY 1971.
  7. ↑ Uche Okeke: History of Ibo-Art: (the lecture was given in the spring of 1969 in the Afrika-Kreis d. Rhein.-Westfäl. Auslandsges.) ( German ). Cultural Office d. City of Dortmund, Dortmund 1969, OCLC 312706340 .
  8. ↑ Uche Okeke: Drawings. ( English ). Mbari Publications, Ibadan, Nigeria 1961, OCLC 542729 .
personal data
SURNAME Okeke, Uche
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Okeke, Christopher Uchefuna (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Nimo
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 2016
Place of death Nimo