An artist must be prepared to turn failure into victory – Oshinowo
Kolade Oshinowo is one of Nigeria’s most celebrated artists. In this interviewing he speaks about turning 70 and what it means to have made a difference in Nigeria’s visual arts sector and grooming others to love the industry.
What does it celebrating 70?
feel like
Quite honestly, there is very little difference from the way I feel now and the way I felt when I was 60. I may have slowed down a little bit but for me it is nothing noticeable. I’m still producing works the way I normally do. You might say the shell is what is getting a little weaker but the mind is the same. Although once in a way, I have “senior moments.” I am looking for my glasses, I’m holding it or it is hanging on my head, but I’m turning the whole place upside down, looking for it.
In the last five years what has changed about your work especially when you reflect society?
Art is a reflection of the society itself. Around 1988, I started painting ‘Divine Intervention.’ I think ’86 was when Dele Giwa was killed through the parcel bomb. That shocked the society and I did that painting. As time went on, I had thought that there wouldn’t be need for me again to do such a painting. But I have done so many now. Our case has moved on from bad to worse. Our case has deteriorated and that has caused me to continue to seek divine intervention. I would say that one is insecurity. I would say another is that people are poorer now. I’m talking about the masses. In those days people earned salaries that would adequately take care of them. But that is not the situation now. Things like sex trafficking, child molestation, that back then, we would not look at twice have become prevalent.
A lot of lives have passed through hands. Looking at the events to celebrate you, how do these make you feel?
You have to look back at my story. My father didn’t want me to study arts. He went so far as not supporting me financially. I worked hard, first to graduate and then after that I wanted to let him know that art is a noble profession. I moved from teaching in King’s College to Yabatech because I wanted to start graduating students who would take art as a profession. That has been worth my while. The Head of Department sent a message that as part of the celebration, they are asking all my students from the department to come for a photo and video shoot. My first reaction was where on earth are you going to use? If they all decide to honour the invitation, I don’t know how they will cope. My joy is that so many of them are doing very well, and this is a humbling feeling to see some of them acknowledge the role I have played in their lives. When I visit London, I only need to let one person know and it is a full house by the time I arrive. We sometimes have to draw up a timetable of activities and people to visit. I exhibit with some of them.
What has been the most emotional part of this celebration?
This is one aspect I really don’t want to touch. I wish my late wife were around because she was part of the story. When I look at that side, even some of my people, we remember it but just don’t talk about it and move on to something else. Apart from that, even people that you don’t believe would respond to you have been doing extra ordinary things and I am just dumbfounded. I am like, “is this all for me?” I thank God for spearing my life to be a part of it all. People are giving up their time and resources to ensure it is all successful. I’m overwhelmed by it all.
Let’s talk about your work. What’s the most interesting or challenging part of being a mixed media artist and sourcing materials for your work?
It all comes with experience. An artist must be prepared to improvise, to explore dig deep and research, outdo himself, accept failure and defeat and turn them into victory. I tell my students that there is no glory without a story. Don’t cut corners and don’t take the line of least resistance. I continue to preach this message because some of them short-change themselves in the process by overusing modern technology. Students who should do outdoor drawing take the photo of the scenery and then go into their studio to “download” it as they say. Artists like that graduate and they can’t generate ideas. It’s all about generating ideas and knowing which direction you want to go. If it is material exploration, you want to decide what and what will go together and will withstand the test of time. If you’re using a figure and getting to a dead end, do you get somebody to pose for you so that you can resolve the problem? That’s why I tell the artists to keep working and to work from the heart. I tell them until you have done a painting that you don’t feel like selling, you haven’t started.
Do you have any such work?
That is how all my works are to me. That’s why they tell me I am notorious with my care for my works and I say, “I have no apologies.” I know what it takes me to produce them. So if you say you are taking it for an exhibition, let it come back the way you took it. If I know that what you are going to do with it is unsatisfactory, you won’t take it. I think this is how it should be with every artist. A work is like giving birth to a baby - from conception through nine months of gestation and then delivery. There
are some ideas that I have had for a period of three years that I haven’t painted. It’s like that. You agonise to crystallise the idea in your head. Then when you begin to execute, it’s another period of agony until you are through with the work and you sign it. Sometimes you may not even have ideas. Studio practice demands a lot in terms of maturity, experience and turning your name to a brand. These require a great deal of art work.
I notice how organised and tidy your work space is. How do you achieve that?
Organised and tidy? That’s the first time I’m hearing this. I think because if my training and experience, I arrange my works in a very methodical way. I start with sketches and then load it up. I place emphasis on composition and design. I have the overall picture in my head before I start. When I start the work, I am looking at balance for colour and composition, the elements of design. Sometimes decorative elements and things like that. But the important thing is the visual impact. I want you to look at my work because every acre of the canvas is saying something. So I try as much as possible to let the painting hold the viewer, as it were. It doesn’t come as easy as I am saying it. I allow my paintings to talk to me. There is some kind of communication. Sometimes I want to go one way, but the work is trying to make me go another way. If the work doesn’t want to talk to me, then it is a stalemate and I punish by letting it face the wall. I have some of them facing the wall. Much, much later, I could bring the same painting out and say, “are you ready to talk now?” Sometimes something clicks and you just go on. Sometimes I turn the painting upside down and it results in something else. It is all part of the drama.
Which artists have motivated you?
I must say I was inspired by the Impressionists’ works in terms of their use of colours. I was captivated by the Renaissance artists because of their emphasis on drawings. It is not just one person. There is a wide spread in terms of the narratives. Each work that has been there for ages and is still the same work, you look at it and you’re still marvelled at how the person achieved it. Over time you discover there are artists who have been doing spectacular things - some of them relatively unknown. But when you see what they have achieved you marvel. You see that everybody is occupying his own space. Nobody knows it all. This is how individual artists have been able to tell the story and it is those qualities that you are putting into it that will make the work endure. A lot of people lack passion. They just work. They are so detached because they have to pay bills. I tell my students to be careful that the artist, who pays to sell, will not sell.