Learn from Bruce Onobrakpeya and dele jegede about Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross and Onobrakpeya’s sixty-year career. “The Mask and the Cross” describes Onobrakpeya’s creative phase from 1967 through 1978, during which he imbued Catholic motifs and stories from the Bible with African meaning and cultural aesthetics. The conversation will expand to include Nigerian art of the 1960s and 1970s more broadly and the early postcolonial contexts in which these works were created. Exhibition curator Lauren Tate Baeza, Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art, will share opening remarks.
Artist Talk: Bruce Onobrakpeya and dele jegede in Conversation
April 8, 2023 | 2–3 p.m.
Location: High Museum of Art
Registration Required
Bruce Onobrakpeya (Nigerian, born 1932), Station VII: Jesus falls the second time, 1969, linoleum block print on rice paper, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Mr. George A. Naifeh, 2006.228.7. © Bruce Onobrakpeya.
Bruce Onobrakpeya
Nigerian, born 1932
Bruce Onobrakpeya is one of Nigeria’s most recognized artists, especially renowned for his contributions to African modernism. He has had a commanding influence on generations, contributing illustrations to poetry volumes and novels of national significance and lecturing secondary and tertiary art students, many of whom have become notable artists. For his achievements, he has received some of the highest national honors in his native country as well as the UNESCO Living Human Treasures Award and recognition at the 44th Venice Biennale.
dele jegede
Nigerian American, born 1945
dele jegede is an artist and art historian who lives and works in Ohio. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award of the University of Texas at Austin. He has had work shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally and has contributed to leading publications on African visual arts and the arts of the Black diaspora. His most recent publications include the definitive work on Bruce Onobrakpeya and a volume on the life of pioneering Nigerian artist Akinola Lasekan
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