Art, Design & Fashion
Landmark
Bruce Onobrakpeya
born 1932
Printmaker who invented his own techniques
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A printmaker, painter and sculptor who developed printing methods that did not previously exist, and has been working at it for seventy years.
Bruce Onobrakpeya was born at Agbarha-Otor in the Niger Delta and trained at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Zaria, where he was part of the Zaria Art Society — the students who in the late 1950s rejected the wholesale European curriculum they were being taught and argued for what they called natural synthesis: modern technique used on Urhobo, Yoruba, Benin and Igbo material, rather than in place of it.
He then spent sixty years extending what a print could be. Frustrated by the limits of the etching plate, he invented processes of his own — the deep etching he called plastocast, and bronzed lino relief, in which a plate is cast and worked so that the print stands off the surface as a low sculpture. The imagery draws on Urhobo folklore, proverbs and ritual, on Christian commission work, and on the ordinary life of the Delta.
His work is held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, the British Museum, the Vatican Museums and the Museum of Modern Art. He runs the Harmattan Workshop at Agbarha-Otor, which has for three decades brought African artists together each year to teach each other, and he received the Living Human Treasure award from UNESCO.
He then spent sixty years extending what a print could be. Frustrated by the limits of the etching plate, he invented processes of his own — the deep etching he called plastocast, and bronzed lino relief, in which a plate is cast and worked so that the print stands off the surface as a low sculpture. The imagery draws on Urhobo folklore, proverbs and ritual, on Christian commission work, and on the ordinary life of the Delta.
His work is held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, the British Museum, the Vatican Museums and the Museum of Modern Art. He runs the Harmattan Workshop at Agbarha-Otor, which has for three decades brought African artists together each year to teach each other, and he received the Living Human Treasure award from UNESCO.
- Smithsonian National Museum of African Art — Bruce Onobrakpeya
- British Museum — Bruce Onobrakpeya
- Wikipedia — Bruce Onobrakpeya
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