Music Lesson

Object Details

Tunde Odunlade, born 1954, Nigeria

Series

Limited Edition Variable 1/20

Label Text

The first half of the twentieth century gave rise to widespread experimentation with new media by Africa’s artists. Many of Nigeria’s artists, for example, explored new techniques, including oil painting and printmaking. As elsewhere on the continent, some of these artists received training at local and international art schools, while others were taught in community workshops offered by expatriate artists.

Modern African artwork addressed a range of subject matter, from political concerns of the day to depictions of a rapidly transforming landscape due to social and environmental changes.

A major artistic transformation occurred in Oshogbo, a Yoruba town in western Nigeria, in the early 1960s. Expatriates Susanne Wenger, Ulli Beier and Georgina Beier introduced new techniques and materials to Yoruba artists and urged them to find their own forms of expression. The workshops focused on printmaking but were intended to help participants learn to support themselves as artists.

Tunde Odunlade is a second-generation artist of the Oshogbo school. Like many of his peers, he practices in a diverse set of mediums such as painting, batik, print-making, hand-made paper and fiber work. Though he is most known for his intricate and highly-textured batiks that reflect upon Yoruba traditional adire cloth dying, his print-making, as seen here, reflects similar multi-layered aesthetics of Yoruba art and culture, drawing on modern and traditional daily life in Nigeria.

This 1992 limited edition work, Music Lesson, was printed in 2012 and is from the Decades of Printmaking series, hand-picked by the artist--himself a musician--over a four decade span of creativity.

Description

One of seven (7) hand-colored prints of varying sizes from the artist’s Decades of Printmaking series, this print features a seated musician on a black and checkered, likely nighttime, background with many human faces inside of their head.

Provenance

Tunde Odunlade, 1992 to 2012

Michael Imbimbo, San Antonio, 2012

Published References

Odunlade, Tunde. 2012. Four Decades of Printmaking. Exhibition brochure. San Antonio: Stone Metal Press.

Content Statement

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High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Credit Line

Gift of Michael Imbimbo, Inc.

1992, printed 2012

Object number

2012-12-5

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© 1992 Tunde Odunlade

Type

Print

Medium

Linocut on paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 76.1 x 55.8 cm (29 15/16 x 21 15/16 in.)

Image: 61 x 45.9 cm (24 x 18 1/16 in.)

Geography

Nigeria

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

National Museum of African Art

Topic

Human

musical instrument

star

moon

Record ID

nmafa_2012-12-5

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys795041635-f88f-44e5-9622-edbe529575a9