Jill Rees: Welcome Press

Shopping is one thing, and let’s face it, shopping in Abuja is not all that varied, so I was relieved when the cool breeze of Hammatan drove me out of the midday sun into a craft shop to buy some souvenirs of Nigeria. The electricity had gone off, leaving an air of Africa-exotic in the dark dusty warehouse, and I had to feel the wooden sculptures to get an idea of them, before carrying them to the window to get a better look. In a second room at the back of the store, alongside those little drum-rattles and rather frightening masks that I was too scared to buy in case they carried some kind of ancient voodoo spell, I discovered a pile of old paintings which had been chopped away from their scaffolds.

Paintings are sad objects when they’re cut away from the wood, covered in dust, and left piled up in the corner like dirty washing, the dulled surfaces of the canvas cracked and flaking. Two eager shop assistants helped me view them by quickly flicking them over, stacking them nonchalantly beside the original pile, in reverse order. I managed to catch a dusky glance at each one for a brief second before it once again disappeared under the anonymous heap. It was impossible to compare them, and as I appeared indecisive, the assistants became impatient with me and starting taking them all out again and putting them one by one back into the original pile.

It is impossible to overstate the global importance of African art. Sculptures and paintings from West Africa were the lynchpin of the shift from forms of realism like the impressionists and expressionists, into the cubist and abstract art which defines the 20^th century. Innovative young men like Picasso and Matisse were deeply impressed by the works of art recently brought out of the French colonies to Paris. Called ‘naive art’ because of the strong definition in the lines of paintings and the forms of sculptures, they began to discard the conservative style based on the gradual shaping of objects, using subtle shades of colour blending to give objects perspective. Instead, they began to paint sweeping outlines of portraits, trying to find the same clarity of delineation as African artists.

They felt that they had begun to understand the true way to achieve abstract figuration, instead of the realism which artists had developed in Europe when they had diverted into recording events and performing flattering portraiture for their wealthy patrons. With the advent of photography, the role of artists changed utterly. Picasso and Matisse opened the world’s eyes to art other than the post-classical forms known hitherto, and altered the somewhat colonialist attitude to African culture. Among culture-lovers at least, the new exposure to the mysterious and misunderstood Continent’s art opened a deep respect and admiration, which continues in Europe to this day.

Patronage of the arts nowadays rests largely on the shoulders of the state, and there is good reason for this. A nation is defined by its art, as civilisation is defined by the citizen’s leisure time. One of the first things Europeans look up when they are deciding where to go for their holidays, is the art galleries. When a nation is going through a difficult economic patch and ‘tightens its belt’, funding of the arts is usually the first thing to go. So that you can measure the state of a nation by its support for the arts.

Economically, art is a money-maker. Tourists visit art galleries and choose destinations on the basis of its galleries, especially for shorter breaks. Visitors go to Paris to view the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, to Amsterdam for the Van Gogh museum and so on. Paris now has a new Musée des Arts d’Afrique et Océanie which has bought up fine collections of ancient and modern art mainly from former colonies. Individuals invest in paintings, which, if well chosen, can inflate dramatically and become worth millions. Fortunes may stand to be made in internationally uncovered African painters such as Ashiru Olawole Rufus and Victor Ekpuk. In the USA in particular, a modern art collection is seen as the prime cool for the nouveau rich, and no self-respecting movie star or business icon would be seen without one. It is often seen as a tax-benefit, since taxes in the north favour art collecting. Some countries, such as France, are always mentioned when anyone says a word about art. It has almost made its name as a world player based on its artists!

Abuja is almost shamefully poor at exhibiting its artists. I tramped round Abuja until I found the National Gallery of Modern Art in Garki. Even then, it is not always open for a permanent display. You have to travel out of the capital to Lagos to see Ben Enwonwu’s beautiful ocre tones. The Spanish Embassy in Abuja recently held a competition for young artists, which was very successful, and shows that there is a demand, at least among the visitors to Abuja, to see some local work. African art is very much sought after at the present time in Europe and the USA, and tourists are beginning to develop the confidence to visit areas of Africa other than the beach sites. It seems an ideal time to push Nigerian modern art into the foreground, especially with regard to funding, to develop Nigeria’s reputation abroad and attract visitors who wish to spend money on local attractions.

As with so many things, one feels that Nigeria could be a leader in African art. Joe Musa, director general of National Gallery of Modern Art Abuja, says:

“I have read the New York Times, I have read some of the major news prints in the world, and you find that the artist is a big newsmaker there. Be it the sale of a Picasso or a major art event hits the front page. But that does not happen here. I have a desire to see that such a thing happens here.”

It’s not just Picasso, African art is big news abroad. In Abuja and Nigeria as a whole, many artists are working in education or in local trades and firms. Nothing wrong with that to start, but there does need to be a chain of development for the artist to begin to exhibit and gradually to earn enough to paint or sculpt full time. With sound backing in the capital, politicians travelling abroad would be able to promote Abuja as a centre for arts and culture. The poor reputation and lack of proof of the ability to promote national events was one of the major doubts about Abuja’s Olympic bid. The promotion of the visual arts might be the beginning of establishing Abuja not only as the political but also the artistic and cultural capital of Nigeria and of Africa.

© Jill Rees

20 January 2008

1155 words

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