Opening Reception for “OSOGBO: Art and Heritage Exhibition”

“OSOGBO: Art & Heritage” is a retrospective of Nigerian contemporary art from the world-renowned Osogbo School of Art.

The Osogbo School of Art was spearheaded by two European artists, Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger, in the early 1960s as a cultural response to the colonialism and appropriation so blatantly apparent in the European modernism of the 20th century. Many of Modernism’s most recognizable artists created works directly based on African art ideas with no citation or credit given to their influencers. In an effort to highlight the strength, beauty, and originality of African art, Beier and Wenger, along with renowned Nigerian playwright, Duro Ladipo, started the Mbari Mbayo Art Club, which directly led to the founding of the Osogbo School of Art.