Foreword
The
signifance of the Uche Okeke 70th anniversary is quite obvious.
There are one and a million artists living in Nigeria today. We can also
boast of a good number outside. But it is not every single one of those
artists that have the opportunity of having his/her birthday marked like
this. The proposed activities for Uche Okeke’s 70th are an
earnest of his artistic prowess and excellence; they complement his 60th
birthday celebrations championed by Obiora Udechukwu, Chika Okeke and others
in 1993 under the auspices of the Art and Artists Conference Forum.
The
present effort is borne out of concert between Pendulum Art Gallery and
Art-in-Africa Project. The activities have been mediated by an Organising
Committee in full consultation with Asele Institute in Nimo and Professor
Uche Okeke himself. The celebration is multilayered in the sense that it
comprises a colloquium, an exhibition of works of Uche Okeke, and another
exhibition by some selected artists to be held in his honour.
This
Gallery Guide (for The Triumph of Asele: The works of Uche Okeke)
complements the book The Triumph of Asele: An Anthology on Uche Okeke and
Modern Art in Nigeria which also serves as a catalogue to the exhibit of
Okeke’s works. The Guide contains almost all the works presented in the
show. Most of the works have been released by Prof. Uche Okeke for the
present celebration; others have been borrowed from some private collections
in Nigeria. In presenting the collection, the curators have attempted to
categorise the works and periodise the categories.
On
our part, Pendulum Gallery will also try to document this event as
professionally as it can because of the historical significance. And I must
hasten to add that this is not another purely commercial venture for the
gallery, in spite of the obvious fact that art promotion in itself is a
noble and multipronged commerce. For us, this is another way of expressing
our commitment to humanism, that golden attitude that has produced great
peoples and civilisations elsewhere, but which is critically lacking in
Nigeria.
We at
Pendulum are convinced that this event goes beyond the personality and work
of Uche Okeke. The implications and import well transcend the hundrum of
modern art in Nigeria. For here is an artist whose work influenced the
course of history in these parts, one who is among the precious ornaments of
his generation.
Peter Areh
Director Pendulum Art Gallery
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