Creative reformation of African art traditions: the iconography of Abayomi Barber Art School

African Arts, Summer, 2009 by Freeborn O. Odiboh

It contrasts markedly with Twins Seven-Seven's Hunters and the Father of Beasts (1991; Magnin and Soulillou 1995:63) with its seemingly untutored realism amid a crowded picture plane, thus reinforcing the ghostly forms typical of the Osogbo group. The work features five caricatured hunters in the forest in pursuit of spirit beasts depicted by two horned animal forms. One actually looks like an elephant with a long trunk. The work appears busy and somewhat naive because of the distortion of forms and use of color applied in the form of geometrified pellets and patterns. This clearly contrasts with the Barber School's manner of rendering that entails command of color scheme and application as well as informed formal arrangements and composition.

Moreover, the Barber School adherents took their approach as an ideological position against Western stereotypes of African art that link African authenticity with the grotesque, weird, or crudely rendered. Barber has struggled against the West's pernicious appetite for "primitive" works for more than three decades. The result has been the emergence of a movement taking its name from the founder and featuring an artistic zeal for pictorial naturalism, magical symbolism, and ethereal conceptualization.

REFORMING/RECREATING TRADITIONAL AFRICAN ICONS: THE BARBER SCHOOL APPROACH

Although Abayomi Barber, the mentor of the school, trained himself rigidly within the highly orthodox style of the academy, he created, in a rather rebellious manner, a style that has come to be considered important. (2) In 1981, the National Art Exhibition brought to the fore some works of the school for the first time. Ben Enwonwu, one of Nigeria's foremost artists, described their efforts as commendable. However, it was not until their maiden art exhibition organized by the National Council for Arts and Culture at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, in 1984 that the Barber School emerged and became known on the Nigerian art scene.

Abayomi Adebayo Barber (Fig. 1) was born on October 23, 1928, in Ile-Ife (present Osun State, Nigeria). Abayomi is an artistic polymath who, apart from being a painter and sculptor, is also a stage designer, saxophonist, and illustrator. He is also acclaimed as one of Africa's great portraitists (Oloidi 2000). Although he considers himself self-thought, he did acquire some informal or direct art training in Nigeria and eventually in England, where he sojourned for eleven years (1960-1971).

Abayomi's early education began at St. Peter's Anglican School, Iremo, Ife, where his father was a church Lay Reader. His education throughout primary school years was very unstable; Abayomi explains that in those days, "I never liked to go to school" (Ajayi 1987:33). He attended several primary schools as a result of this. The schools included St. Peter and Paul Catholic School, Ejinrin, Abeokuta, and Wasimi African Church School, Ijebu Ode. (3) Other schools attended were Ebenezer African School, Ibadan, and St. Andrews Primary School, Oyo.