Aina Onabolu

Infobox Artist
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name = Aina Onabolu


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birthdate = 1882
location = Ijebu-Ode
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nationality = Nigerian
field = Portraiture
training =
movement = Modern African Art
works = Portrait of Lady Spencer Savage
patrons = Mr Randle, Lagos Town Council,
influenced by =
influenced = Ben Enwonwu Eyo Ita
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Aina Onabolu (1882-1963) was a pioneering Nigerian modern arts teacher and painter who was an important figure in the introduction of arts into the curriculum of secondary schools in the country. He was also the major figure in Nigeria that promoted the drawing of environmental forms in a verisimilitudinous style and was known for his early modern work in portraiture.

Early life and education

Aina Onabolu was born in the Ijebu city of Ijebu-Ode. He started painting at the early age of 12, inspired by the cheap re-produced illustrations of Western arts which were prominent in many Nigerian magazines and religious books. By the age of 32, he was able to exhibit his own works and was quite popular as a knowledgeable and skilled artist. He later traveled abroad to study art at Julien Academie in Paris and at a school in London; before his sojourn abroad, he was already a competent and self taught drawer. He completed his studies with a diploma in Fine Arts and a teachers certificate from St John Woods College, London in 1922.

Career

Art Instruction

In 1909, the colonial government in Nigeria took control of formal education, then the curriculum in the schools was geared towards the provision of suitable education to train clerks for the colonial administration. Little was thought of arts education in secondary education until a report recommended the teaching of native indigenous hand craft. Prior to the report, Onabolu had formally presented requests for the introduction of modern arts education in secondary schools but his option was rejected by the colonial education officers. During the time, there were implicit suggestions by the colonial officers that the natural limits of Africans was in pottery and craft. [Olu Oguibe. The Culture Game, University of Minnesota Press, 2004. p 52-53. ISBN 0816641307]

Onabolu's return from St John Woods, London, in 1922 and his acquired knowledge of the European technique of painting, anatomy and the characteristics of European art education [ Onuchukwu p 56. ] coincided with a new perspective on introducing indigenous art education in the country. Onabolu, who had taught informally to enthusiastic students began teaching in a few top schools in Lagos such as King's College, Lagos and CMS Grammar School. His themes dealt primarily with the science of perspective, drawing and human proportions and watercolor painting. Though, there were little teachers on western techniques in art, Onabolu's period started the separation of art and life. [ Onuchukwu p 57. ] Onabolu also encouraged the adoption of European teachers in art instruction in the country. His effort led to the hiring of a foreign art teacher in the name of Kenneth Murray. Murray led a gradual re-awakening of traditional handicraft and arts, the new approach of promoting indigenous African arts and staying within the native repository of knowledge in traditional African arts was introduced into the curriculum of various secondary schools in the country. The efforts of the new instructor yielded early dividends, as the number of Nigerian art instructors increased and knowledge of traditional works such as the Uli body and wall became more pronounced. However, Murray's effort meant little in the long run as the country was in the midst of a colonial and Western government which introduced its own way or life, leading to a gradual shift in the society from traditional to a Western culture. Chidum Onuchukwu. 'Art Education in Nigeria', Art Education, Vol. 47, No. 1, Art International Jan., 1994.]

Works

Onabolu's major art works were pictorial art and portraits. His portrait of Mrs Spencer Savage in 1906 is sometimes credited as one of the earliest outstanding work of art that used a western and modern style and technique. [Nigeria, 'Painting and graphic arts', Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press.] Another major work of his was the portrait of Mr Randle. The latter was his mentor who got his attention on the deleterious characteristics of colonialism which was accentuated with a segregationist governor in the person of Walter Egerton. [ Mazrui, Davies and Okpewho P 414. ]

The major figures in his work were Lagos elites who were successful professionals in their field of work; while his work usually depicted a countenance of respect, achievement and status of his clients.

However, his work was not limited to portraiture. In the 1930s, he worked with the Church of Christ in designing the pews of a new cathedral to be built in Lagos. He later produced pastel compositions and studies in the 1940s. Ali Al'Amin. Mazrui, Carole Boyce Davies, Isidore Okpewho. The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities. Indiana University Press, 2001. p 421. ISBN 0253214947]

References