In the 1980’s, the painter and poet Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1946), a leading figure of the Nsukka School, was at the height of his powers, with drawings and paintings celebrated for their lyrical power and trenchant social commentary.
Slade Lecture Series 2023: Drawing the Line: Obiora Udechukwu and Nigeria’s Smiling General 1980s-1990s
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Nigeria witnessed its first military coup in 1966, a civil war (1967-70), oil boom in the 1970s. In the 1980s, General Ibrahim Babangida, the smiling, brutal dictator, enforced Structural Adjustment, raised corruption to statecraft and impoverished the citizenry. In that same decade, the painter and poet Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1946), a leading figure of the Nsukka School, was at the height of his powers, with drawings and paintings celebrated for their lyrical power and trenchant social commentary. Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu considers the fate of art and the broader critical culture during the long decade, in the shadow of the military regimes.
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The Slade Lectures, which were founded in pursuance of the will of Felix Slade in 1869, focused on art historical topics, as they continue to do so today. John Ruskin delivered his first lecture as the Slade Professor of Fine Art in 1870. The Slade Professorship in conjunction with the University's museums, libraries and college collections helped to foster a wider interest in the history of art. Find out more about past Slade Lectures on the History of Art Department homepage:...