INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN, NIGERIA

PROPOSED TITLE:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE STYLISTIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE ART

FORMS OF FIDELIS EZE ODOGWU BETWEEN 2005 AND 2015

NAME:

OJO TEMITOPE (188011)

UNIT:

AFRICAN VISUAL ARTS/ART HISTORY

SUPERVISOR:

DR O. I POGOSON

INTRODUCTION

• Identity is one thing that establishes and reinforces the uniqueness of

every individual and art and artists immaculately demonstrate this. The art

of Africans is therefore, brought to the fore.

• Africanness (as an identity) is one of the key subjects this study would

interrogate. This identity would be traced in the works of Fidelis Eze

Odogwu.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

• African art–being mainly sculptures and architecture–as in their numbers

and functions, before the more historically recent paintings, ceramics,

textile, graphics and other applied art –made by Africans for Africans with

African sensibilities and philosophies, could not be separated in any sense

from their respective producer-cultures.

• They have, with time, outgrown the walls of utilitarianism into commercial

articles due largely to the monetary value in high respect placed on

traditional African art, by Western patrons.

• Eyo (1977); Enwonwu (1977); Willett (1971) all agree on the remark that:

African art are primarily meant for religious purposes amongst other

functions.

• Fidelis Eze Odogwu is first an artist, specialized in sculpture and plies his

trade in welded metal sculpture.

• He received a formal training at the Auchi polytechnic and an informal

training under Ben Osawe.

• His welded metal sculptures vary in style and functions and this change-culture continues as has been evident since he began practice.

• Versatile, he started his full-time studio practice in 1992 and has displayed

his art in Nigeria and abroad in both group and solo exhibition shows.

• Fidelis Eze Odogwu has participated in more than 30 group exhibitions

locally and internationally in the last ten years (the focus of this research),

and he has held only one solo exhibition (2012).

• He has executed several commissioned utilitarian projects–installed as

private collections and in public spaces–and has a great number of his

works with some of the best galleries, museums and art collectors around

the world.

• This research would focus on the stylistic trends in the art forms of Fidelis

Eze Odogwu in the space of the last ten years and probe the causative

factors of this change-culture.

• Also, this work would adjudge appropriately how more African the works

of Fidelis Eze Odogwu are, based on standards the researcher would

establish about Africanness –from existing bodies of knowledge.

• The selected works would be analysed based on content, styles, art forms

and the relevance of Odogwu’s work to the histories of art and metal

sculpture in Nigeria.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

This study has adopted certain terms out of their regular contextual

existence and they are as follows:

• Africanness: As Akatakpo (1994:7) posits, this constitutes the African

qualities in a work in the areas of themes, forms and motifs. Africanness in

this work would be the yardstick for appraising the artist’s works as either

purely African or hybrid.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

• There are few artistic analyses of Fidelis Eze Odogwu’s works. The few

written works about him have focused on a paraphrastic appreciation of

just a few of his works and these have been through the newspapers and

an unpublished thesis. No particular work has noticed his change in style

and whatever in the style-change retains an identity for Fidelis Eze

Odogwu.

• This study would create a shift from the usual aesthetical analysis of his

works and attempt formal, stylistic and content analyses of his works to

probe into the cause of his stylistic change every so often as noticed.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES

Amongst other things, this research would seek to:

• investigate the stylistic trends of the works of Fidelis Eze Odogwu in the

space of ten years

• verify the impact of patronage on the artist’s styles of art making

• determine other factors that influence the styles of the artist and how

often the styles change

• to compare and contrast the pedagogical impact of academics and

informal training on the change of styles, if any, in the works of Fidelis Eze

Odogwu

• to analyse the Africanness of his works in the contemporary perspective

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Some of the questions this work intends to answer are as follows:

• What factors induce the stylistic changes in Fidelis Eze Odogwu’s works?

• How has his ‘shifts’ influenced the practice of his peers and other emerging

artists?

• What influence, if any, does patronage have on an artist’s work?

• Do academic or training backgrounds have any effect on Fidelis Eze Odogwu’s

style?

• How African are his works and how does he employ Africanist ideas in them?

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

• This study would focus on analysing the content of selected works of

Fidelis Eze Odogwu between 2005 and 2015.

• This study would identify what trends his works have followed in this

space of time and what activities and circumstances influenced his trends

in style.

• The works to be examined are eclectic of his utilitarian works, his installed

works in public and private spaces, some from art collectors personal

stashes and other sources.

• Thirty works would be examined.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

• The stylistic examination of Fidelis Eze Odogwu’s works are historic and

significant to the History of welded metal sculpture in Nigeria and the

History of art in Nigeria.

• The study of the styles in his art forms represented in his works creates a

different angle in analysing the content of his work on the art scene.

• Art historians, research students and scholars would benefit from this

work.

METHODOLOGY

Data for this research would be gathered from primary and secondary

sources.

• PRIMARY SOURCES

o In-depth interviews with the artist, selected apprentices and art collectors.

o Visits to the artist’s studio would also provide the privilege of observing

the artist work.

• SECONDARY SOURCES

o Exhibition catalogues, photographs, journals and other print media.

• METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

o The researcher would be adopting formal, stylistic and content analyses in

the examination of the selected works.

CONCLUSION

• This research work would examine the changes in the styles of the artistic

forms as well as analyse the content of the selected works by Fidelis Eze

Odogwu. The work would also make crucial investigations into as many

relevant factors responsible for his style change as possible.

REFERENCES and Sample Literatures:

• Adepegba, Cornelius (1989). Nigerian Art: The Death of Traditions and Birth of New Forms, Kurio Africana.

• Adepegba, Cornelius (1995). Nigerian Art: Its Tradition and Modern Tendencies, Nigeria: Jodad Publisher.

• Anne, D. (2006). Look! The Fundamental of Art History. London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd.

• Chukueggu, Chinedu (2010). Modern Artistic Tendency in Nigeria: Its Influence on the Creative

Development, Nigeria: Kamla-Raj.

• Kalilu, Rom (1994). African Art: Definition of Forms and Styles, Nigeria: LAUTECH Press Ogbomoso.

• Robert, Farris (1976). Black Gods and Kings, Canada: Indiana University Press.

• Adesanya, A. A (1999). The Fakeye Family and Contemporary Yoruba Wood Carving Tradition.

• Akatakpo, D.M (1994). Africanness in Contemporary Nigerian Art: A Study of Expectation, Intentions and

Reality of Forms. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. Nigeria: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

• Ayodele, Otonye (2010). A Critical Study of the Utilitarian Arts of Three Contemporary Nigerian Artists,

unpublished PhD thesis. Nigeria: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

• Nwanze, O.K.B (1999). The Ifejioku Sculptural Terracottas of Ossissa Igbo of Nigeria. Unpublished PhD

thesis. Nigeria: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

• Oyelola, Patricia (1993). Internationalism and Ethnicity in modern African Art: Four Yoruba artists as a case

study.

TENTATIVE SLIDES

THANK YOU…