Bidspirit auction | Uche Okeke ”The Bonsue Dancer”

Uche Okeke ”The Bonsue Dancer” Linocut - No visible signature.  Date: 1960   Image: 3 1/4” x 6 3/4”  Frame: 9” x 12 1/2”    Condition: Minor undulation to the paper. The area on the left side of the print has spots of missing ink, likely from the printing process. Marks and wear to the frame.    Artist Bio: Uche Okeke (1933–2016) was a founding member and second president of the Zaria Art Society — the ”Zaria Rebels” — and in 1960, the year of Nigerian independence, articulated Natural Synthesis: a fusion of indigenous Nigerian visual traditions with what was worth keeping from Western art, rather than imitation of either. His source was uli, the Igbo drawing tradition practiced by women on the body and on house walls, learned from his mother — sinuous springing line, asymmetry, and a sparse figure-ground where the empty interval carries as much weight as the mark. He internalized it as a linear process rather than a set of motifs, which is why he worked naturally in pen and ink, linocut and woodcut. He headed the art department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from 1971 to 1983, building what became known as the uli school. Linocut suited him for the same reason — it privileges line and stark black-and-white contrast — and it runs right through his output, including the graphic work he made during the Nigeria–Biafra war.