DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN NIGERIAN ART By Gloria ikibah

Women right issues takes its root from the Aba Women’s riot of 1929, when the women in the south-eastern town of Aba resisted the colonial governments attempt to impose tax on womenfolk. It is only recently that women in Nigeria started receiving academic attention. The appearance of women in the Nigeria art scene would better be discussed against a background of commencement of modern art period in Nigeria which started in the days of Aina Onabolu in the early 1920’s.0

It is relevant that against these backgrounds of under representation, under publicity and under projection of the contribution of women and women artist to modern Nigerian art owing to the issues mentioned above, it is evident that not much has been written on the contribution of women artist. There are women who have actually contributed to modern Nigerian art and these women must be understood and appreciated instead of been neglected as most scholars in the past have done. The lack of an in-depth study and proper documentation of these contributions has left art observers and laymen with the impression that women artist do not exist in Nigeria but I tell you, the only places we have not found women artist are where we have not yet looked.

Since the earliest times women have made pottery and clay sculptures and they have cooked, carried water, store and served food in pottery. They have used ceramics in domestic rituals and decorative displays. The late Ladi Kwali is one of the women who contributed immensely to the development of contemporary Nigerian art. She trained and practiced in the 20^th century and is know for her contribution to the development of modern art practice in Nigeria.

Pottery in Nigeria has for centuries been the exclusive preserve of the womenfolk. Pottery, in all Nigerian traditional cultures is used for utilitarian purposes such as cooking and especially for water storage. Some tribes and cultures also use pots as religious symbols, hence the intricate ornamentation that is typical of such items.

Ladi Kwali was born in 1925 to Gbagyi parents in Kwali in the present Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria. She grew up in a family in which the womenfolk made pots for a living and was apprenticed to an aunt who taught her the traditional pottery techniques of the Gbagyi people, in which pots were made by the coil and pinch techniques and then given an open firing. The three basic shapes were the randa , a large water storage pot, the kasko , a household storage pot, and the tulu , an elaborately decorated storage pot often used in religious festivals. These shapes remained in her repertory throughout her life. In 1954, she joined the Abuja pottery which is currently named after her; she also conducted workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions in London, Germany, Italy, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Switzerland and major cities in the United States of America between 1958 – 1963. Back here at home she lectured and gave demonstrations on part-time basis at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Ladi Kwali was the best artist not the best technician. She was awarded the MBE in 1963 and at first she was best known outside Nigeria, but at the end of her life she was an important figure in Nigerian culture – a figure that helped to piblicise Nigeria in the west. She was awarded Honourary Degree by Ahmadu Bello University by 1977 and Abuja pottery was renamed after her death in 1984. She also received other honours in her lifetime which include: Officer of the order of the Niger in 1981, Silver Award for Excellence, Tenth International Exhibition for ceramic Art, Smithsonian Institute Washington DC.

Ladi Kwali moved from being a village potter to a star and an artist potter in the western tradition. Her works was bought by collectors and museums in the Europe and America. Her pots are a hybrid cultural form, but their process of construction. The coiling technique was “primitive” and “African” which would appeal ironically to a sophisticated taste educated in modernism where “primitivism” has been such an important element. At the same time its glazed stoneware body aligned it to the western studio pottery. A major factor to the promotion of her work was her personal appearance as a demonstrator.

By the time she died in 1983, Dr Ladi Kwali was Nigeria’s best known potter. She left a rich legacy of her work and a school of ‘students’ who picked up from where she left at the Abuja Pottery Training Centre amongst are student is Dr. Abbas Ahuwan a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello university, Zaria who later introduced the “Udu” drum in the United States of America. Dr Ladi Kwali remained associated with the Abuja pottery works till she died. She gave lectures and demonstrations at home and abroad on her craft throughout her career. Speaking to She World, Abbas Ahuwan says "Ladi Kwali was an international figure that earned respect in the field of pottery. Many international communities had shown interest to invest in her works,''

Ladi Kwali would also be remembered for being to post-colonial traditional Nigerian Pottery what Lamidi Fakeye was to post-colonial wood carving.

The art history of modern Nigeria has been told and is still been told in various forms and styles. The development of modern Nigerian art and has been the duty of artist and non-artist but there appears to be a bias against the documentation of the contribution of women artist which make it appear as though there are no great women artists or that women artists have not been contributing to the development of modern Nigerian art.