Slade Lecture Series 2023: African Artists in the Age of the Big Man

Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu argues that the extravagant hypermodernity of Isek Bodys Kingelez’s architectural sculptures, as with segments of popular arts, constitute a distinctive form of imaginative resistance to official culture under Mobutu. In this lecture, Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu discusses Mobutu Sese-Seko who, as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (1965-1996), exemplified the theatrical Big Man ruler in postcolonial Africa. By deploying anti-Communist rhetoric, he secured Western Bloc support of his spectacularly kleptocratic regime and, through his anti-Western Authenticité program, created a national culture in his own image. Against Mobutu’s repressive political practice and ideology, Okeke-Agulu reads the architectural sculptures of Isek Bodys Kingelez (1948-2015). He argues that their extravagant hypermodernity, as with segments of popular arts, constitute a distinctive form of imaginative resistance to official culture under Mobutu.

In the 1980’s, the painter and poet Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1946), a leading figure of the Nsukka School, was at the height of his powers, with drawings and paintings celebrated for their lyrical power and trenchant social commentary. Nigeria witnessed its first military coup in 1966, a civil war (1967-70), oil boom in the 1970s. In the 1980s, General Ibrahim Babangida, the smiling, brutal dictator, enforced Structural Adjustment, raised corruption to statecraft and impoverished the citizenry. In that same decade, the painter and poet Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1946), a leading figure of the Nsukka School, was at the height of his powers, with drawings and paintings celebrated for their lyrical power and trenchant social commentary. Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu considers the fate of art and the broader critical culture during the long decade, in the shadow of the military regimes.

In this lecture, Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu focuses on the calligraphic figuration of Ibrahim El Salahi (b. 1930), the country’s leading modernist and onetime political prisoner. Two years after its political independence from Egypt and Britain in 1956, Sudan witnessed the first of many military coups that have been a recurring feature of the country’s postcolonial history. In this lecture, Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu focuses on the calligraphic figuration of Ibrahim El Salahi (b. 1930), the country’s leading modernist and onetime political prisoner. Okeke-Agulu shows how the sophisticated formalism of Salahi’s drawings constituted a meditative critique of General Jaafar Al Nimeiry’s dictatorship (1969-1985), which survived multiple coups d’état, by stoking religious and ethnic crises, and systematic suppression of all political opposition.

Chika Okeke-Agulu examines art & politics in 1960s South Africa paying particular attention to Hendrik Verwoerd, the self-styled “Great Induna,” & architect of Apartheid, whose assassination in 1966 slowed the triumphant march of Afrikaner racist ideology In this lecture, Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu examines art and politics in the 1960s South Africa, paying particular attention to Hendrik Verwoerd, the self-styled “Great Induna,” and architect of Apartheid, whose assassination in 1966 slowed the triumphant march of Afrikaner racist ideology. Okeke-Agulu considers how Verwoerd’s total control of the political space and violent suppression of black resistance created the environment for the emergence of Dumile Feni (1942-1991) who was called “Goya of the Townships” because of his enigmatic, and disturbing and supposedly apolitical drawings.

Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu follows the formal and tonal shifts in Gazbia Sirry’s work as it responded to, and was shaped by Nasser’s and post-revolutionary Egypt’s political fortunes. Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu focuses on the work of Gazbia Sirry (1924-2019), to illustrate how leading modernist artists were, in the wake of the 1952 Free Officers Revolution, swayed by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s charisma, putting their art in the service of his brand of Egyptian nationalism and Pan-Arabist ideology. He considers how Sirry responded to Nasser’s increasingly strongman regime and the devastating outcome of 1967 War? Okeke-Agulu follows the formal and tonal shifts in Sirry’s work as it responded to, and was shaped by Nasser’s and post-revolutionary Egypt’s political fortunes.

Okeke-Agulu presents 5 artists whose work exemplify the difficult relationship of art & power as Africa’s decolonization gave way to the emergence of undemocratic polities ruled by charismatic & repressive strongmen in the second half of the 20th century. Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu presents five artists whose work exemplify the difficult relationship of art and power as Africa’s decolonization gave way to the emergence of undemocratic polities ruled by charismatic and repressive strongmen, in the second half of the twentieth century. In this lecture, Okeke-Agulu argues that these artists developed new artistic form through which they established themselves among the most articulate critical voices of their day. Moreover, by examining the relationship of art and strong-man politics, he reflects on power and critical culture, and juxtaposes art’s imaginative ambitions with its limits and possibilities as a platform for critique of and resistance to regimes of domination in late 20th -century Africa. Okeke-Agulu explores the concept of the “Big Man” as the pervasive figure of power in Africa decades after political independence. He also traces the diverse resonances and manifestations of the big man figure in the work of contemporary African artists and writers. Finally, he considers the shift among modern African artists during this same period from articulating positive national culture to analysis and critique of emergent forms of autocracy and illiberal governance.

Material Histories of Medieval Iberia, held on Wednesday 2 June 2021, part of the Slade Professor of Fine Art, Annual Lecture Series, 2021. Jerrilynn Dodds is Harlequin Adair Dammann Chair in the History of Art at Sarah Lawrence College. Prof. Dodds' scholarly work has centered on issues of transculturation, and how groups form identities through art and architecture. Among her publications are: Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, co-authored with Prof. Mara Menocal and Abigail Krasner Balbale; Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain; and New York Masjid, the Mosques of New York City. She was editor of the catalogue Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and served as curator of the exhibition of the same name, at the Alhambra in Granada and in New York; co-editor and curatorial consultant of The Arts of Medieval Spain (with Little, Moralejo and Williams, Metropolitan Museum of Art); co-editor and consulting curator for Convivencia. The Arts of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia (ed., with Glick and Mann, 1992); and, with Edward Sullivan, co-editor and curator for Crowning Glory, Images of the Virgin in the Arts of Portugal( Newark Museum). She has written and directed films in conjunction with museum exhibitions (Journey to St. James (MMA); An Imaginary East (MMA); NY Masjid (Storefront) and for wider audiences (Hearts and Stones: The Bridge at Mostar). Professor Dodds was the recipient of the Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Civil (Cross of the Order of Civil Merit) from the Government of Spain (2018).

Material Histories of Medieval Iberia, held on Wednesday 26 May 2021, part of the Slade Professor of Fine Art, Annual Lecture Series, 2021. Jerrilynn Dodds is Harlequin Adair Dammann Chair in the History of Art at Sarah Lawrence College. Prof. Dodds' scholarly work has centered on issues of transculturation, and how groups form identities through art and architecture. Among her publications are: Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, co-authored with Prof. Mara Menocal and Abigail Krasner Balbale; Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain; and New York Masjid, the Mosques of New York City. She was editor of the catalogue Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and served as curator of the exhibition of the same name, at the Alhambra in Granada and in New York; co-editor and curatorial consultant of The Arts of Medieval Spain (with Little, Moralejo and Williams, Metropolitan Museum of Art); co-editor and consulting curator for Convivencia. The Arts of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia (ed., with Glick and Mann, 1992); and, with Edward Sullivan, co-editor and curator for Crowning Glory, Images of the Virgin in the Arts of Portugal( Newark Museum). She has written and directed films in conjunction with museum exhibitions (Journey to St. James (MMA); An Imaginary East (MMA); NY Masjid (Storefront) and for wider audiences (Hearts and Stones: The Bridge at Mostar). Professor Dodds was the recipient of the Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Civil (Cross of the Order of Civil Merit) from the Government of Spain (2018).

Material Histories of Medieval Iberia, held on Wednesday 19 May 2021, part of the Slade Professor of Fine Art, Annual Lecture Series, 2021. Jerrilynn Dodds is Harlequin Adair Dammann Chair in the History of Art at Sarah Lawrence College. Prof. Dodds' scholarly work has centered on issues of transculturation, and how groups form identities through art and architecture. Among her publications are: Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, co-authored with Prof. Mara Menocal and Abigail Krasner Balbale; Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain; and New York Masjid, the Mosques of New York City. She was editor of the catalogue Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and served as curator of the exhibition of the same name, at the Alhambra in Granada and in New York; co-editor and curatorial consultant of The Arts of Medieval Spain (with Little, Moralejo and Williams, Metropolitan Museum of Art); co-editor and consulting curator for Convivencia. The Arts of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia (ed., with Glick and Mann, 1992); and, with Edward Sullivan, co-editor and curator for Crowning Glory, Images of the Virgin in the Arts of Portugal( Newark Museum). She has written and directed films in conjunction with museum exhibitions (Journey to St. James (MMA); An Imaginary East (MMA); NY Masjid (Storefront) and for wider audiences (Hearts and Stones: The Bridge at Mostar). Professor Dodds was the recipient of the Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Civil (Cross of the Order of Civil Merit) from the Government of Spain (2018).

Material Histories of Medieval Iberia, held on Wednesday 12 May. Part of the Slade Professor of Fine Art, Annual Lecture Series, 2021. Jerrilynn Dodds is Harlequin Adair Dammann Chair in the History of Art at Sarah Lawrence College. Prof. Dodds' scholarly work has centered on issues of transculturation, and how groups form identities through art and architecture. Among her publications are: Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, co-authored with Prof. Mara Menocal and Abigail Krasner Balbale; Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain; and New York Masjid, the Mosques of New York City. She was editor of the catalogue Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and served as curator of the exhibition of the same name, at the Alhambra in Granada and in New York; co-editor and curatorial consultant of The Arts of Medieval Spain (with Little, Moralejo and Williams, Metropolitan Museum of Art); co-editor and consulting curator for Convivencia. The Arts of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia (ed., with Glick and Mann, 1992); and, with Edward Sullivan, co-editor and curator for Crowning Glory, Images of the Virgin in the Arts of Portugal( Newark Museum). She has written and directed films in conjunction with museum exhibitions (Journey to St. James (MMA); An Imaginary East (MMA); NY Masjid (Storefront) and for wider audiences (Hearts and Stones: The Bridge at Mostar). Professor Dodds was the recipient of the Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Civil (Cross of the Order of Civil Merit) from the Government of Spain (2018).