Bruce Onobrakpeya Portfolio of Art and Literature
Bruce Onobrakpeya Portfolio of Art and Literature
Bruce Onobrakpeya
Lagos, Nigeria: Ovuomaroro Studio & Gallery, 2003
Edition 19/75
Smithsonian Libraries
Bruce Onobrakpeya Portfolio of Art and Literature pairs literary excerpts by Nigerian and other African writers with twenty-seven original prints by Bruce Onobrakpeya.
Each portfolio has a leather case with gold lettering in which to store the prints. [1]
It is a prime example of an artist’s illustrated book. Most sheets are double-page spreads with a print on one side and the text on the other. With a few, Onobrakpeya lays the image across both pages and uses the calligraphy text to balance it.
The hand-lettering is created by studio assistant Charles Ohu.[2] The text is then reproduced through lithography by a commercial press. Finally Onobrakpeya’s prints are overlaid on each sheet. The prints in this work are plastographs, a technique invented by Onobrakpeya.[3]
Four are plastographs that were later etched onto zinc plates before printing. All are printed on Winsor & Newton and Cortina acid-free watercolor papers of varying weights, averaging 190 gsm.
The texts range from folk tales, to poetry, to prose, to memoirs.
For example, Ibadan (see Plate 16) illustrates a short poem by John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo.
* * * *
Ibadan,
running splash of rust and gold
flung and scattered
among seven hills
like broken china in the sun
* * * *
The Yoruba city of Ibadan is built on seven hills from which one can look out over the carpet of rusted tin roofs, “the splash of rust and gold.”
One of the most powerful prints in the set is Print 19, The Hawk Prays for Peace, which accompanies the poem of the same name by Tanure Ojaide. It speaks to the bloody history of military rule; it mocks the hypocrisy of killers praying for peace after they have created havoc and bloodshed and turned into megalomaniacs.
* * * *
The Hawk Prays for Peace
by Tanure Ojaide
After my feathers have turned red
with the blood of victims,
After I have converted the moon into a nest
and filled it with the spoils of undeclared war,
After I have seized the arms of the armed
and disabled the fighting spirit of the youth,
After I have become the only bird
and all titles and praise names mine,
the sole proprietor of the world,
After I have become immortal
Let there be peace.
* * * *
In addition to Onobrakpeya, the authors in Portfolio of Art and Literature are Chinua Achebe, John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, Michael Crowder, Cyprian Ekwensi,
Barbara Haeger, Nkem Nwankwo, Onuora Nzekwu, Tanure Ojaide, Anezi Okoro, Kola Onadipe, Wole Soyinka, and Amos Tutuola.
In some sense, the Portfolio of Art and Literature is the successor to Onobrakpeya’s earlier series of print portfolios, which he called Print Notes and Comments. The first of these was published in 1971; the ninth and last in 1989. Early in his career Onobrakpeya illustrated books by Achebe, Ekwensi, D. O. Fagunwa, and Onadipe, so he is quite at home in the realm of illustration and visual interpretation of literary texts. [4]
About the Artist
Bruce Onobrakpeya (born 1932) is the foremost printmaker of Nigeria, unparalleled in productivity, creativity, and experimental spirit. Although trained in painting at the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology in Zaria, Nigeria, Onobrakpeya soon found his true métier: printmaking. Over his long career, he has experimented with a variety of printmaking techniques and invented a few new ones, notably deep etchings and plastographs. Onobrakpeya’s work draws deeply on Nigerian oral tradition and folklore. His ecumenical embrace of many cultures, not just his own Urhobo heritage, reveals his belief in a common humanity. Although his themes are not usually overtly political, he acknowledges mankind’s foibles and the darker side of life. Injustice, political oppression, and environmental destruction provoke an artistic response.
Bibliography
Abalogu, Uchegbulam N., editor. Forty Years of Bruce Onobrakpeya in Contemporary Visual Art: The Portrait of a Visual Artist. Lagos, Nigeria: Talos Press, 1999.
Darah, G. G. and Safy Quel, editors. Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Spirit of Ascent. Lagos, Nigeria: Ovuomaroro Gallery, 1992.
Onobrakpeya, Bruce. Sabbatical Experiments 1978-1983: Exhibition of Prints and Paintings. Lagos, Nigeria: Bruce Onobrakpeya, 1983.
Onobrakpeya, Bruce. Sahalien Masquerades: Artistic Experiments, Nov. 1985-August 1988. Edited by Safi Quel. Lagos, Nigeria: Ovuomaroro Gallery, 1988.
Onobrakpeya, Bruce. Symbols of Ancestral Groves: Monograph of Prints and Paintings, 1978-1985. Lagos, Nigeria: Ovuomaroro Gallery, 1985.
Singletary, Richard. Onobrakpeya. Lagos, Nigeria: Ford Foundation, Institute of International Education, 2002.
Udechukwu, Obiora. “Folklore and Fantasy in Contemporary Nigeria Art: A Study of Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Twins Seven Twins.” M.F.A. thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1977.
[1] In some copies of this portfolio, the double pages are folded in the center, book-like; in others, they lie flat in a zippered case. Initially Onobrakpeya planned the portfolio as a book, but after folding the prints in a few portfolios, he decided it was better to leave them flat.
[2] Onobrakpeya did only one of the hand-lettered texts: Print 12, Uli that Never Faded.
[3] Onobrakpeya’s plastograph technique originated from accidental drops of metal-binding glue on to a zinc plate, which had been damaged by dipping it into hydrochloric acid instead of nitric acid. The excess glue left on the plate actually produced interesting textural and sculptural effects. This led to further experimentation.
[4] Obiora Udechukwu, “Bruce Onobrakpeya,” chapter 2, pages 24-36; appendix, pages 80-90. In the author’s Folklore and Fantasy in Contemporary Nigeria Art: A Study of Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Twins Seven Twins. MFA thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1977. [unpublished]. The appendix is a thoughtful interview with Onobrakpeya about his visual explorations of folk tales both as book illustration and as original art work.
