Exhibitions

A Concrete Vision: Oshogbo Art in the 1960s

January 23, 2000 – October 22, 2000

National Museum of African Art
950 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC

Sylvia H. Williams Gallery, Sublevel 1

See on Map Floor Plan

On view are works by 11 Nigerian artists of the Oshogbo Movement, including 4 concrete screens by artist Adebisi Akanji (b. 1930s), one of the movement's founders. His large openwork concrete screens feature lively figures from everyday life and fantasy. During the early 1960s, Oshogbo, a Yoruba town in western Nigeria and today the capital of Osun state, was the center of a major artistic renaissance that grew from the brilliance of local talent and cultures combined with modern artistic influences. Visual and theater artists, writers and poets all became part of what was known as the Oshogbo Movement.