El Anatsui and the Genesis of New Nsukka School

Chikaogwu Kanu

There is a stylistic shift in the use of “uli” as a creative ideology in the Nsukka art school of the University of Nigeria. A shift that has been christened the New Nsukka School. And the force behind this change is unarguably El Anatsui, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Nigeria, a world-renowned sculptor who recently turned 80 on February 4. The change is basically from the hitherto Uche Okeke’s modernistic approach to uli appropriation to the current postmodern style espoused by Anatsui. This essay explores the genesis of this shift which I argue to be the New Energies, 2001 exhibition curated by Anatsui himself and showcased in two Lagos galleries – Mydrim gallery and Nimbus art centre, Lagos. The show received shocking wide critical attention among Lagos art enthusiasts because of its unconventionality. 

The transformation arguably dates back to the 1999 set of the sculpture students, through to the New Energies 2001, and blossomed in 2021 as evidenced in the Ko gallery 2021 exhibition of the three Nsukka artists: Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, Eva Obodo, and Ozioma Onuzulike. The New Nsukka School is encapsulated in the concept of Igwe bu Ike (majority/multiplicity is strength) – “the Igbo philosophical thought that extols the strength of the collective.” It is the multiple use of commonplace materials in the production of a monumental work of art, a “design principle of repetition” intrinsic in the crown cork works of El Anatsui. 

The change process actually began with the Anatsui’s pedagogy when he joined the department in 1975, as a faculty member, and the course, “Exploration of indigenous materials and ideas” acted as a major catalyst to the entire change process. The course is basically about the use of unconventional indigenous materials in the production of artwork. Although this is a sectional course, the experimental spirit of the uli creative idiom provided El the ideological basis to fully exploit the course, pushing it to its logical limits more than any other sections of the department. I use my experience as one of his sculpture students of the 1999 set to illustrate how Anatsui’s pedagogy facilitated the transformation of the Nsukka School. 

In teaching the exploration of indigenous materials and ideas, El challenged us to rethink the idea of sculpture and its process as the course basically required us (the 1999 sculpture set) to use non-traditional sculpture materials in our immediate environment to do our assignments. Consequently, we gathered unthinkable materials such as polythene, empty cartons, rope, old zinc (corrugated iron sheet), cane, grass, among others, for our assignments. Furthermore, El’s teachings made us confident and assertive in our conceptual convictions, which enabled us to produce works that were hitherto unseen in the annals of the Nsukka art school. 

Some of the works I produced under El’s tutelage are Hiroshima, 1945, made with corrugated iron sheet; Ecstacy, created with cane, rope, and dried grass, Worshipper I (Christian), and Worshipper II (Muslim), made with cane, rope and iron, among many others. 

El’s tutelage and its impact on the sculpture students of my generation was so much that it started influencing students from other sections who started applying in their works what El was teaching us. From this humble beginning, this influence, like a mustard seed, has grown into a monumental tree in the form of the New Nsukka School that is currently being celebrated all over the school and beyond. 

This was the class process with El during our third and final years in 1998 and 1999 respectively. At the end of the session, we mounted the final year departmental exhibition. The experimental works shown by the sculpture section in this show attracted unprecedented critical attention from the fellow students, external examiners, and entire university community. The great success of the exhibition prompted El to organise the New Energies, 2001 exhibition, where some of these works and a few others from the students of other sections were selected and shown at Mydrim gallery and Nimbus art centre, Lagos.

The New Energies curated by El, is an exhibition of concepts, media processes and gestures of ten young artists [from the Nsukka school], mostly fresh graduates (with a couple of them still, in art school) (Anatsui, 2001). The artists are: Joseph Eze, Chika Aneke, Chiamaka Ezeani, Chikaogwu Kanu (the author of this essay), Martin Iorliam, Chidi Nnadi, Erasmus Onyishi, Nnenna Okore, Ozioma Onuzulike, and Uchechukwu Onyishi. Apart from Ozioma Onuzulike who is a ceramist lecturer; Joseph Eze, Nnenna Okore, and Chiamaka Ezeani who are painters, others are sculptors of the 1999 set except Erasmus Onyishi who was in his second year by then. My three works were shown in the exhibition. They are Hiroshima 1945, The Worshipper I (Christian), and The Worshipper II (Muslim).

The curatorial statement reads in part:

The artists on show share a common attitude: a quest for freedom from so many factors but most prominently, media, process, gesture and presentation formats. Drawing largely from the immediate environment, they attempt free imaginations locked up in the long conventions of (for painting) oil and acrylic colours and (for sculpture) wood, cement and recently fiberglass in processes so encrusted by the patina of and overuse that they can hardly now expand the artists vocabulary or offer him any fresh insights. (Ibid, 2001)

The tone of the curatorial statement indeed heralded a taste of what was to come. This is because from this moment, the pedagogical spirit of El began to spread to other sections until it overwhelmed the teaching style of the entire department and metamorphosed into the New Nsukka School. An eloquent testimony of the monumental contribution of El Anatsui to the annals of the Nsukka school. A worthy cause, a noble achievement.   

• Kanu is a doctoral student at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.