Understanding The ISMS of Nigerian Post-Colonial Art Movements: An Ideological Path for Emerging Contemporary Art

Abstract

Scholars of African art have advocated various methodologies for the study of African contemporary arts. These methodologies serve their purposes, however there is no particular most embracing and consensus approach so far. Since the millennium, the outcomes of African contemporary art actually defy any static approach. This paper proposes the ideologies and aesthetics of some post-colonial art movements in Nigeria and their impact on Nigerian contemporary art, as a methodological path to understanding the emerging contemporary arts of Nigeria. The art movements considered in this paper are Zarianism, Osogbo Art, Ulism, Onaism and Araism which are the most outstanding of Nigerian post-colonial art movements since independence in 1960. These art movements, through their ideologies, have largely shaped what is today considered as Nigerian Contemporary Art. This paper is a contribution to the ongoing dialogues on the identity of post-colonial Africa and the processes of de-colonization of African culture. Contemporary Nigerian art in this paper is the art from the 1990s till date. The paper is based on qualitative research and bibliographic surveys. The findings show that many contemporary Nigerian arts and artists are affiliated or linked with early post-colonial art movements. In conclusion, a successful inquiry and understanding of the formation and practice of the art movements hopefully will create a pathway in the prediction, identity, and understanding of recent works of art in Nigeria and Africa.