Osogbo

Bringing together key works that span the 1960s-2000s, this exhibition situates Osogbo at the dawn of independence, when a new cultural confidence fused indigenous traditions with contemporary forms. This exhibition features Jacob Afolabi, Asiru Olatunde, Georgina Beier, Jimoh Buraimoh, Adebisi Fabunmi, Rufus Ogundele, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Muraina Oyelami, Twins Seven-Seven, and Susanne Wenger.

The Osogbo Art School, as it came to be known, developed informally from the restless creative energy of the post-independence era. The Osogbo Art School emerged from a series of experimental art workshops held between 1962–1966 at the Mbari Mbayo Club in Osogbo. The workshops provided local participants with materials, studio space, and mentorship that encouraged individual expression over academic instruction. Largely outside formal art-school training, the artists forged highly original approaches to painting, printmaking, textile, and mixed media, drawing on Yoruba mythology, performance, and modern life. From this setting arose a generation of artists who developed distinct personal styles while retaining a cohesive visual language rooted in Yoruba culture.

The story of the Osogbo Art School begins with the intellectual and creative activity of German professor, writer, and scholar Ulli Beier (1922–2011), and his first wife, Austrian artist Susanne Wenger (1915-2009), who moved to Nigeria in 1950 for Beier to accept a post at the University of Ibadan. Beier and Wenger quickly grew weary of the rigidity of the academic environment, which often kept Western professors at a distance from the rest of the student body. They moved away from the university to settle in nearby towns, including Ede and Ibolu, before finally settling in Osogbo in 1958. Beier became an early catalyst for young writers, artists, and intellectuals coming of age at Nigeria’s independence. After attending the First Congress of Black African Writers in Paris in 1956, he founded Black Orpheus, the first African literary journal in English. In 1961, he established the Mbari Club at the University of Ibadan, which became a creative hub for Nigerian writers and artists In Osogbo, Beier sought to extend the spirit of Mbari into a more informal, community-based setting outside of the university system. Born in Graz, Austria, Susanne Wenger studied art in Vienna, becoming an early founder of the Vienna Art Club. After settling in Osogbo, Wenger remained there for the rest of her life, spending decades developing an artistic cooperative that created monumental sculptures and shrines within the Sacred Grove, the ancient site of worship dedicated to Osun, the Yoruba Goddess of the River. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, this collaborative practice became known as the New Sacred Art Movement.

In Osogbo, the cultural extension of the Mbari Club an Ibadan expanded to encompass both Yoruba theatre and the visual arts. Mbari Mbayo, coined from a Yoruba phrase meaning “when we see it, we shall be happy”, revolved around Duro Ladipo’s Popular Bar. Duro Ladipo (1926–1978) was a playwright, actor, and theatre director whose works drew on Yoruba history and mythology to create modern stage dramas. Ladipo co-founded Mbari Mbayo with Ulli Beier in 1961, staging performances with his theatre troupe while the Beiers encouraged visual artists. Many of the artists who later defined the Osogbo Art School were active members of Ladipo’s troupe.

Georgina Betts Beier (1938–2021) emerged as a key figure who would facilitate the 1964 workshop and mentor the artists. Born in a working-class suburb of London, Georgina attended Kingston Art School. In 1958, while browsing in a small London library, she discovered the novels of Amos Tutuola, whose books captivated her imagination with their surreal depictions of African life. Inspired by Tutuola’s writing, she decided to travel to Nigeria the following year, at age twenty-one. After a brief period in Zaria, Georgina journeyed to Osogbo in 1963 in search of Ulli Beier, whom she had been told could advise her on Nigerian literature. She quickly developed a relationship with Beier, whom she later married. The responsibility for nurturing the budding artists in Osogbo gradually shifted to Georgina. In August 1964, the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at the University of Ibadan, in collaboration with Mbari Mbayo Osogbo, organized the Third Experimental Art School, facilitated by Georgina. It required no prior qualifications or experience and charged only a nominal registration fee of five shillings. The workshop attracted many participants, many of who would become the pioneering figures of the Osogbo Art School. 

After the five-day workshop, Georgina selected a smaller group of participants to continue as full-time studio artists. Supported with modest stipends, materials, and daily guidance, they developed their own techniques and styles over the next two years, from 1964 until December 1966, when the Beiers left Nigeria. During this period, the artists worked in studios at the Osogbo Museum and at the Beier-Wenger residence, in an environment that encouraged experimentation and collaboration. Their collective efforts culminated in their first major public presentation: the Oshogbo Artists exhibition at the Goethe-Institut in Lagos, which opened on December 14, 1966. From this point onward, the Osogbo artists exhibited regularly across Nigeria, establishing the Osogbo Art School as a vital new voice in Nigerian modernism.

Soon, the artists’ works began to circulate internationally. Early exhibitions abroad included presentations at the Neue Münchener Galerie, Munich (1965); the Náprstek Museum, Prague (1965); the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1967); University of Sussex (1967); Camden Arts Centre, London (1969); and the Commonwealth Institute, London (1970). In the United States, the exhibition Contemporary African Art (Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, 1969) toured extensively between 1969 and 1973. They also participated in artist residencies at Merced College, California (1972) and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine (1974). Throughout the 1970s, the Osogbo artists were consistently presented by leading museums worldwide, establishing them among the most widely exhibited Nigerian artists of their generation. 

Although Nike Davies-Okundaye (b. 1951) was not a formal participant in the Mbari Mbayo Art Workshops, she has become one of the most celebrated figures associated with the Osogbo Art School and a pioneering force in preserving and elevating Nigeria’s textile traditions. At a time when the Osogbo movement was largely a “man’s club,” Nike emerged as its central female voice, deeply intertwined with Osogbo’s creative community. Married to Twins Seven-Seven for over fifteen years, Nike also maintained lifelong friendships with Susanne Wenger, Ulli Beier, and Georgina Beier. She opened her first gallery in Osogbo from her own bedroom in the mid 1960s, eventually expanding her vision to establish galleries in Lagos, Abuja, and Ogidi. 

Today, the Osogbo Art School is remembered as forging a distinct thread of Nigerian modernism that celebrated Yoruba cultural identity while engaging with the rapid social transformations. 

Asiru Olatunde (1918-1993) was the first among the first artists that Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger met after they moved to Osogbo when they came across a small copper plate, incised in the shape of a lion, lying outside their home in sogbo. Intrigued, they sought out its maker. Born into a family of blacksmiths in Osogbo, Asiru had been forced to abandon his trade due to a heart illness. Beier described him as a "sad, gentle man" among the blacksmiths across the street from their house.Recognizing his talent, Beier encouraged him to create jewelry to sell at the university, and then supplied sheets of aluminum from a saucepan manufacturer to work in a larger scale. Asiru soon developed a unique style of repoussé metalwork, shaping copper and aluminum to depict biblical and Yoruba scenes. He began by incising outlines with a hammer and iron point, then added texture with a punch, using a large stone anvil. His compositions often incorporated motifs found on traditional shrine figures and reflected the natural environment of the Osun River. His work gained wide acclaim in Nigeria, leading to commissions for hotels, banks, churches, and palaces. He exhibited at the Mbari Club (badan, 1963) and Mbari Mbayo (Osogbo, 1964). During his first solo exhibition, Beier noted that an illiterate woman purchased one of his panels, her first-ever art purchase. His work soon reached international audiences, including the 1967 exhibition Contemporary African Art at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, alongside Twins Seven-Seven, Jimo Akolo, Ibrahim El-Salahi, and Malangatana. 

Jacob Afolabi (1940-2015) was the first artist to emerge from the Osogbo Art School, participating in the inaugural Mbari Mbayo workshop in 1962 and continuing through the subsequent sessions in 1963 and 1964. Born in Ikirun, Afolabi worked as the bartender at Duro Ladipo's Popular Bar, the social and creative hub where Mbari Mbayo was based. He also performed as an actor in Ladipo's theatre troupe. Afolabi's role expanded to include the supervision of the art gallery attached to the club. Jacob Afolabi's exceptional promise was, in part, the motivation to continue organizing further workshops in Osogbo. By the 1964 workshop, he was already considered the veteran artist. Working across painting, printmaking, and mural design, Afolabi developed a style that drew from both Yoruba life and Christian iconography. His compositions, characterized by linear structures and gestural figures, balance rhythm and density, where clusters of forms coalesce. Afolabi later held a position at the Institute of African Studies Museum at Obafemi Awolowo University, Osogbo.

Rufus Ogundele (1946-1996) was the second artist of the Osogbo Art School, joining his classmate Jacob Afolabi for Mbari Mbayo's second art workshop in 1963 led by Denis Williams and Jacob Lawrence, and later participating in Georgina Beier's 1964 workshop. Born in Osogbo, Ogundele grew up in a family of carpenters. Ogundele left secondary school when Duro Ladipo came to recruit performers for his Easter cantata, and he joined his theatre troupe. He later moved into Mbari Mbayo, living with fellow actors. He toured internationally with the troupe, performing in Berlin (1964) and at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in London (1965). Ogundele's compositions are defined by strong black outlines and rhythmic, compartmentalized structures. His imagery merges fantasy and figuration, drawing from Yoruba mythology and oral traditions. Though raised in a Christian household affiliated with the Anglican Church Mission Society, Ogundele maintained a personal devotion to Ogun, the Yoruba orisha of iron. His family name itself means "Ogun has returned." His palette of deep reds, rich blacks, and earth tones has been said to evoke fired metal and the red glow of molten iron.

Jimoh Buraimoh (b. 1943) is best known for his innovative adaptation of traditional Yoruba beadwork techniques into vibrant, semi-abstract compositions, establishing him as the first modern African artist to use beads as a primary medium. Born in Osogbo, Buraimoh grew up in a Muslim branch of the town's royal family, custodians of the Egungun masquerade tradition. After training as an apprentice electrician, he joined Duro Ladipo's theatre troupe in 1962 as a lighting technician and actor, where he became involved in the 1964 workshop at Mbari Mbayo. With Ladipo's troupe, he toured internationally to Berlin (1964) and the Commonwealth Arts Festival in London (1965), and rose to the position of stage manager by 1966. In 1967, Buraimoh received a commission to create a mosaic for the Ikoyi Hotel in Lagos, which launched his career in large-scale public art. Disenchanted with painting in a manner similar to the other artists, Buraimoh took a six-month break before returning with the groundbreaking idea of incorporating beads into his compositions, a technique that would come to define his career. He began by gluing plastic beads onto wood panels, and, encouraged by Georgina, started crafting small tables topped with bead designs. These quickly became popular among university staff and visitors, inspiring him to create larger-scale bead paintings. Buraimoh's bead paintings draw from the ceremonial and spiritual traditions of Yoruba art, particularly the ornate beadwork of royal crowns, cloaks, and regalia. His compositions feature symbolic faces, masks, and mythic forms that evoke Yoruba cosmology. 

Muraina Oyelami (b. 1940) first worked as a drummer and actor in Duro Ladipo's theatre before participating at Mbari Mbayo's 1964 workshop. Born in Iragbiji, Oyelami trained in dundún under Oba Laoye, the Timi of Ede, and in batá drumming under Ayanleke, the royal drummer of Iragbiji. His family history was marked by migration: his great-grandfather fled from the Yoruba kingdom of Iresa after the town's destruction and found refuge in Iragbiji, while his mother's family relocated from Offa following attacks by the Fulani. After finishing school, Oyelami worked in Iragbiji as a seller of patent medicines before moving to Osogbo, where he held a succession of odd jobs, landing as a petrol station attendant at the Esso Petrol Station opposite Mbari Mbayo. Drawn by the energy of the theatre, he soon joined the company, accepting a lower salary than he earned at the petrol station. As a member of Duro Ladipo's theatre troupe, he performed internationally at the Berlin Festival of Art (1964) and the Commonwealth Arts Festival in London (1965). He later participated in Mbari Mbayo's 1966 and 1972 printmaking workshops led by Ru van Rossem in Osogbo and lle-lfe. Shortly after the workshop, Oyelami began using oil paints and developed a distinctive technique employing paint rollers. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he avoided folkloric or mythological themes, instead focusing on landscapes, cityscapes, and expressive portraits. Ulli Beier described Oyelami as "in many ways the most sophisticated artist to have emerged from Osogbo.”

Adebisi Fabunmi (1948-2023) was only sixteen years old when he joined the Mbari Mbayo workshop in 1964. Originally from Takoradi, Ghana, Fabunmi moved to Osogbo as a young man and initially worked as a sailor and porter before joining Duro Ladipo's theatre troupe in 1962, where he performed as an actor and painted stage backdrops. In Osogbo, his sister worked at the petrol station near Mbari Mbayo and was dating Duro Ladipo. Ladipo, then managing the Ajax Cinema, enlisted Fabunmi to paint the cinema's signboards advertising current films. Fabunmi later joined Jacob Afolabi as a bartender at the Popular Bar, before becoming an actor in Ladipo's theatre troupe. Fabunmi's early works were dominated by linocuts. Fabunmi's signature works, especially his "city prints", are characterized by dense, puzzle-like compositions filled with houses, animals, symbols, and scenes of urban life, interwoven in intricate black-and-white linocut patterns. Seeking new expressive possibilities, he later experimented with embroidery and yarn painting. Inspired by the embroidered garments of Fulani milk sellers, and facing shortages of oil paints and printmaking supplies during the Nigerian Civil War, he developed a distinctive technique of gluing colorful wool threads onto black fabric or muslin. Fabunmi served as curator of the Museum of Popular Art and later the Museum of Antiquities in Osogbo from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s.

Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) became a breakout start of the Osogbo Art School after his first participation with the Mbari Mbayo workshop in 1964. He was the only surviving child of seven sets of twins, all of whom died in infancy. Among the Yoruba, who have the highest rate of twin births in the world, his survival marked him as an abiku child,  a child "born to die". His unusual lineage gave rise to the name “Twins Seven-Seven," or "Ibeji Meje-Meje" in Yoruba. As a teenager, Twins first joined a traveling theatre troupe and then danced with a medicine show that toured villages selling a so-called "Superman Tonic". It was while traveling with this group that he first arrived in Osogbo in 1962. Twins Seven-Seven first encountered Ulli and Georgina Beier in 1963 when he gatecrashed a party at the Mbari Mbayo Club in Osogbo. At the party, Twins Seven-Seven made an immediate impression with his flamboyant dress and dancing. So struck was Ulli Beier by his charisma that he offered to top the wages Twins Seven-Seven had been earning, assuring him that a place could be found for his talents in Osogbo. Twins Seven-Seven created his first painting at the 1964 workshop at Mbari Mbayo, and by the late 1960s was exhibiting extensively across the United Kingdom, United States, and Europe. Twins Seven-Seven produced densely detailed images populated with ghosts and hybrid forms, resonant with Yoruba folklore but with a wholly contemporary, psychedelic tone. By the late 1960s, he developed a technique he referred to as "sculpture painting", in which he raised the foreground of a painting to create a low relief, giving his images a three-dimensional presence.

Nike Davies-Okundaye (b. 1951) began weaving at the age of six, following in the footsteps of her great-grandmother, a fifth-generation adire (indigo resist-dyeing) artist and weaver. Without formal art-school training, she mastered multiple techniques including adire, weaving, embroidery, and appliqué, becoming one of the foremost custodians of Yoruba textile heritage. Early in her career, she became an apprentice to Susanne Wenger, focusing on adire, and expanded her artistic practice as an apprentice with her husband, Twins Seven-Seven. Nike’s first solo exhibition was held at the Goethe-Institut, Lagos, in 1968. By 1974, she was among ten African artists selected for a cultural tour of the United States, conducting workshops and lectures across all fifty states. She has continued to serve as a guest lecturer in traditional textile techniques at universities worldwide, including Harvard University. Affectionally known as “Mama Nike”, she is a seminal figure of the Nigerian art community, with four art centres throughout the country. Nike is inspired by the cultural significance of textile practices as a form of “women’s art” passed through generations. Her work frequently explores Adire, a Yoruba resist-dye technique using indigo on hand-painted cloth. Using vivid colors and bold geometric patterns, her work explores narratives of family, daily life, womanhood, and Yoruba mythology, drawing from both cultural memory and personal experience.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), Osogbo, Nigeria, and Nike Davies-Okundaye, for their support in research and development of this presentation.

Curated by Joseph Gergel

This exhibition is supported by Le Connaisseur.