A  GALLERY  GUIDE

The Christian Element in Uche Okeke’s Art

Simon Ottenberg

            Commentaries on Uche Okeke’s art generally focus on his interest in Igbo tales, spiritual figures such as Ana, Asele and Badunka and his use of uli style, as does much of his own writing.^[i] But  another aspect of his art has links to Christianity. His mother was a staunch Catholic, and at Kafanchan, where Uche’s family lived when he was a young boy, she was a churchgoer and an active member of a Catholic women’s organization. As a boy Uche attended church there. His father was an early Christian convert at his family home at Nimo, a stronghold of Catholicism, where Uche has mostly lived since he left off teaching in 1986 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His father taught him how to serve at mass, and as a child he attended several Catholic schools. Both his father and mother had Catholic funerals.^[ii]

            As early as about 1953 he had made a sketch of Christ.^[iii] While training in art at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Zaria from 1957 to 1961, Uche created Christian themes, such as Madonna (charcoal, 1960), and Madonna and Child (oil, 1961). He also produced a large oil Funeral Procession, (1961), based on his father’s funeral, in which the boy Uche, wears black clothes as a sign of mourning, carries a cross, and is surrounded by his mother, family members and their friends. Perhaps some of his few Christian works when at college were influenced by his British teachers, to whom Christian images were surely known.

            Okeke’s art, while in Munich in 1962-1963 with the firm of Franz Mayer, involved creating mosaics and stained glass windows for the reconstruction of churches damaged during World War II. There he also developed fourteen mosaics for the Stations of the Cross, a large mosaic of Madonna and Child, and a stained glass window Christ’s Entry into Nimo,^[iv] which blended Uche’s interest in Christianity with his home town. In a letter from Munich to Evelyn S. Brown at the Harmon Foundation in New York City he wrote:^[v]  “Almost all commissions in our firm are religious. I have already completed a number of designs on biblical themes.” Much later Chika Okeke wrote^[vi] that this experience:

Had a lasting influence on him, but not in an obvious way. It is certain that he did not continue with the making of stained glass designs nor has he executed any mosaic commissions since his return three decades ago. But he was never able to distance himself from Christian religious subjects and themes which began from his encounter with stained glass and mosaic.

However, Uche did not go to Munich to study Christian art, but rather to learn mosaic and stained glass skills.

            Uche continued to produce Christian works into the 1980s, including Crucifixion (gouache, 1962), II Station of the Cross (gouache, 1963) and IX Station of the Cross (gouache, 1964), and a large oil The Conflict (After Achebe) in 1965. Two works which he sent to the Harmon Foundation, were Christ on the Cross and Head of Christ (both ink and brush, 1963 or before). In 1975 he created  fourteen wood relief panels for Stations of the Cross, for an Nsukka church, which were never mounted there, and in 1989 a gouache portrait,  Father Iwene Tabansi.

            There was also direct artistic involvement with the Catholic Church. In 1971-1974 he designed the Archbishops’s wood throne and five portals for the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Onitsha; the portals depicted scenes such as Baptism, Trinity and Confirmation. His 1974 linocut, Baptism and a 1972 pen and ink piece of the same title, grew out of a sketch for one of the portals. He was a member of the church door committee. In collaboration with the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he was teaching, he organized the Christian Arts in Nigeria exhibition in Onitsha in 1979. For its brochure, he wrote:^[vii]

The church-schools of the second half of the19th century caused important socio-economic changes that have, as it were, put Nigeria on a new path in the 20th century world. The visual artists at best, therefore, seek through their efforts to actualise the aspirations of the new Christian folk. This is how it should be.

 He was also involved in the Christian religious art fairs of 1987 and 1989 in Onitsha,^[viii] being a member of the planning committee and a speaker. In 1993 he made suggestions as to the design and layout of a Catholic Centre at Orlu.^[ix]

            In 1977 he wrote:^[x] “That the greatest works of art ever fashioned by men were for their religious beliefs go a long way to prove the case of functional art.” It is not surprising that he was involved with church artistic matters. His idea of function in art is linked to his concept of natural synthesis; it probably also derives from the functionalism of many traditional Igbo aesthetic forms.

            However, Uche has also been aware of conflicts between Christianity and Igbo tradition and the sometimes negative role of missionaries. In a speech in 1963^[xi] he stated that “the humanisation of the Supreme Spirit as pictured in Christian European art will always pose fundamental psychological and emotional problems to the new Nigerian artist, for his native conception of the High God and the hereafter still lives and will continue to live as long as he speaks his mother tongue.” Perhaps Uche was thinking of Aina Onabolu, who tended to put aside interest in his Nigerian cultural background. Yet in the same talk he said:^[xii]

The coming of Christian missionaries and the founding of many schools in southern Nigeria at the dawn of this century brought in their train new sources of artistic inspiration. School and bible story illustrations reproduced in black and white or colours were new and exciting ideas associated with the new Christian culture. There was also the appeal to converts of statues and statuettes in the new churches. These alien influences were, in places, used by the new Christians to express traditional themes. Such artistic expressions were profane.

            In the early 1960s Uche wrote his well-known poem “I Will Not Go to Kpaaza.”^[xiii] Kpaaza was a sacred spring near his home at Nimo which Christians threatened to destroy by fishing to “nourish and sustain Christian converts.” He ended the poem with:“I will not go/ to fish in her peaceful water / my fathers did not go,” a protest against overzealous Christian attacks on Igbo life. The poem links to Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart,^[xiv] where the overzealous Christian convert Enoch, tears off the mask of one of nine sacred egwugwu masqueraders. Then these masqueraders, with the help of Igbo townsmen, burn down the village church, which the strait-laced missionary and his Igbo interpreter try to defend. A pre-burning scene is depicted in Okeke’s 1965 large oil, The Conflict (After Achebe).

            After the Biafran war in 1970, with which he was much involved as were other Igbo artists, Uche altered his views. About 1994 he told me that the war had changed everything and that young people were no longer interested in traditional matters.^[xv] The sacred spring had suffered from erosion and deterioration as a fish spawning ground. And in a talk with Uche about 1995, he objected to Christian fundamentalist groups in his home area who would deny virtually every traditional Igbo custom and ritual. His Kpaaza poem was not so much a general critique of Christianity in Nigeria as it was the activities of overzealous Christian converts. In keeping with his ideas about natural synthesis he believes that changes in both Christianity and Igbo culture should evolve naturally, without force or strong social pressure.

            It is not surprising that artists in southern Nigeria have created Christian scenes; Christianity is a part of their everyday life.^[xvi] Uche’s artistic colleague Bruce Onobrakpeya has produced art with Christian themes, as have Ben Enwonwu, Yussuf Grillo, and Demas Nwoko.^[xvii] The production of Christian art does not necessarily involve a belief in Christianity. Marc Chagall, of Jewish background, created stained glass art with biblical scenes for European churches.^[xviii] Whatever Uche’s beliefs are in Igbo tradition, he has told me that he is a Catholic and that he sometimes goes to church. He has had a lifelong involvement with Catholicism, perhaps linked to his mother, as are his interests in uli motifs and other Igbo cultural features.

            The frequency of Christian images in Uche’s art is small compared to those taken from Igbo culture. And he has written little on the Christian aspect of his art, but much more on Igbo culture, tales and spiritual figures, his predominant sources of imagery.^[xix] Yet both Christian and Igbo themes consistently occur throughout his artistic career. Whatever the extent of his Christian religious beliefs vis-á-vis his Igbo ones, he is a deeply religious person, open to gradual change in and a synthesis of Igbo culture and Christianity. This was evident at his mother’s funeral, where in addition to the Catholic ritual, traditional Nimo rain preventing rites occurred before the event, and Uche observed the traditional Igbo 28-day mourning period. His life is a “natural synthesis,” which must bring him considerable satisfaction.

            Uche’s Christian art has varied stylistically, as has his Igbo-related work. Some Christian pieces draw on uli linear styles, such as his Madonna (1960), Cruifixion (1974), Baptism (1974), and Resurrection (1962). Other works, such as his mosaics of Stations of the Cross, is almost abstract, perhaps due to the nature of the medium. Christian art, such as Burial Procession (1961), The Conflict (After Achebe) (1965), and Portrait of Father Iwene Tansi (1989)[xx] are realistic, while still others, such as Madonna and Child (1961), exhibit a stylized realism. Except for The Conflict (After Achebe), Christian and  Igbo images rarely appear in the same piece.

            The Nigerian artist Jerry Buhari, in reviewing Okeke’s 60^th anniversary retrospective exhibition, suggested that:^[xxi]

The conflict between traditional religion and Christianity is shown in Conflict (After Achebe), and the Cross series versus the deities of the forest. Consider, for example, Crucifixion and the Station of the Cross series versus Lament of the Funerary Cult..., Ana, and Edge of the Primeval Forest.

            At any major exhibition of Uche’s art one is likely to sees images of Igbo tradition and of Christianity side by side, but I do not think that this represents conflict, rather the two parallel interests have grown out of Uche’s early life and his deep attachment to his parents.

            Uche’s involvement in Catholicism draws from a mainline church of missionary origin in southeastern Nigeria in the 19^th century. His attachment is to a well-established church, in the face of the current boom in the country in fundamentalist, charismatic and “born again” religions, which some younger southeastern Nigerian artists, such as Anthony Nwachukwu, the late Boniface Okafor and Nsikak Essien, have been interested in.^[xxii] These new religions have grown rapidly since the 1967-1970 Biafran War, nourished by the deterioration of Nigerian life.^[xxiii] Uche’s Christianity may be seen today by some younger individuals as conservative, even though Catholic practices have altered since early missionary times.

            Uche’s strong feeling for Igbo culture and religion and his involvement in Catholicism indicate the presence of deep spiritual feelings and beliefs. They are well expressed in his art.

Notes

^[i] Chika Okeke, ed. Uche Okeke: 60^th Birthday Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition, Lagos, 1993. Lagos: Association of University of Nigeria Art Graduates, Art and Artists Conference Forum, Committee for Relevant Art and Society of Nigerian Artists, 1993; Simon Ottenberg, New Traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997, 27-93.

NOTES

^[1] Chika Okeke, ed. Uche Okeke: 60^th Birthday Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition, Lagos, 1993. Lagos: Association of University of Nigeria Art Graduates, Art and Artists Conference Forum, Committee for Relevant Art and Society of Nigerian Artists, 1993; Simon Ottenberg, New Traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997, 27-93.

^[1] A Restropective Exhibition of Uche Okeke Drawings 1957-1978. Lagos: Goethe Institut, 1978, 2, 6; Programme for the Funeral Ceremonies of a Mother in a Million. Madam Monica Mboye Okeke (Akobuije) 1910-1994. Nimo, 1994.

^[1] Ngozi M. Nsubidi. Uche Okeke: Formative Years: (1956-1978). B.A. Thesis, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1991, 30-31, 39, 81, 101, fig. 6, plates 7, and 29.

^[1] Norbert Aas. “Uche Okeke - German Experience.” Paper presented at the 2^nd International Symposium on Contemporary Nigerian Art, Lagos, Nigeria, April 26-May 1, 1993.

^[1] Dated Dec. 5, 1962, in the Harmon Foundation Files, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

^[1] Chike Okeke, Uche Okeke: 60^th Birthday Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition, op. cit., 16-17.

^[1] Uche Okeke, “Organizer’s Note,” in Christian Arts in Nigeria. Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parish Hall, Onitsha, June 1979. Onitsha: Cathedral Doors Committee, Holy Trinity Onitsha, 1979, 7.

^[1] Uche Okeke. Uche Okeke: Biodata: Sixtieth Anniversary Edition. Nimo, Asele Institute, 1993, 18-19; Programme. Christian Religious Art Fair (Made in Nigeria), February 9-14, 1987. Onitsha, 1987. Onitsha: Centenary Stadium, Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1987; Programme. Christian Religious Art Fair (Made in Nigeria), February 6-11, 1989. Onitsha: Centenary Stadium, Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1989.

^[1] Uche Okeke, Uche Okeke: Biodata, op.cit., 21.

^[1] Uche Okeke. “The Search for a Theoretical Basis for Contemporary Nigerian Art.” Nigerian Journal of the Humanities 1:1, 1977, 63.

^[1] Uche Okeke. “Art in Nigeria.” Speech delivered Dec. 16, 1963 under the auspices of the British Council, Queens College, Enugu, 4-5. In Harmon Foundation Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., Uche Okeke file.

^[1] Ibid., 3.

^[1] Okeke, Uche Okeke: 60^th Birthday Anniversary, op. cit., 40.

^[1] Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.

^[1] Also see A Retrospective Exhibition of Uche Okeke’s Drawings, op. cit., 31.

^[1] See Ola Oloidi, “Christian Art in Nigeria.” In Christian Arts in Nigeria, op.cit., 9-23.

^[1] G.G. Darah, ed. Bruce Onobrakpeya: Spirit in Ascent. Lagos: Ovuomaroro Gallery, 1992; Uche Okeke, “Art and the Christian Religion in Nigeria: A Review.” Two-page unpublished paper in the Harmon Foundation Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

^[1] Irmgard Vogelsanger de Roche. Marc Chagalls’s Windows in the Zurich Fraumunster: Origin, Content and Significance. Zurich: Orell Fussl Verlag, 5^th ed., 1975; Le Message Biblique de Marc Chagall: Donation Marc and Valentia Chagall. Paris: Ministère des Affairs Culturelles, Reunion des Musées Nationaux, 1967.

^[1] For example, Uche Okeke, “Design Inspiration Through Uli.” Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1983, unpublished; Art Culture of Anambra State: the Eri Inheritance. Nimo: Asele Institute, 1985; Tales of Land of Death: Igbo Folk Tales. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday and Co., Zenith Books, 1971; “Uli and My Early Art Experience,” in Simon Ottenberg, ed., The Nuskka Artists and Nigerian Contemporary Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press and Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 91-99; “The Art Culture of the Nsukka Igbo.” In G.E.K.Ofomata, ed., The Nsukka Environment. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1978, 271-285; Uche Okeke and C.U.V. Okechukwu, “Igbodo Art and Culture,” in ibid., 307-314.

[1].  There are a number of publications on his life.For example, see Elizabeth Allo Isichei, Entirely for God: The Life of Michael Iwene Tansi. London: Cistercian Publications: Macmillan Education 1980.

^[1] Jerry Buhari, “Uli’s Inspiring Son.” The Eye, 2:1, 1993, 7.

^[1] Simon Ottenberg. “Christian and Indigenous Religious Issues in the Work of Four Contemporary Eastern Nigerian Artists,” c. 1995. Unpublished.

^[1] Rosalind I.J. Hackett, “Introduction: Variations on a Theme.” In Rosalind I.J. Hackett, New Religious Movements in Nigeria. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1987, 6-17.

Figures

1, Uche Okeke. Head off Christ,  brush and ink, date unknown (before 1968). U.S. National Archives, Harmon Foundation Records.

2. Uche Okeke. Christ on the Cross, brush and ink, date unknown (before 1968). U.S. National  Archives,Harmon Foundation Records.

3. Uche Okeke. Baptism, linocut, 1974. Photo Simon Ottenberg

4. Uche Okeke, Stations of the Cross, nos. 3 and 4, mosaic tile, 1962, Munich.  52.3 x 35 cm., each.

Photo Simon Ottenberg

5. Uche Okeke.  Madonna and Child, mosaic tile, 1962, Munich. 111.5 x 58cm. Photo Simon Ottenberg

Top

A  GALLERY  GUIDE