British-Nigerian artist (1931–1996)
Uzo Egonu | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1931-12-25)25 December 1931 Onitsha, Nigeria |
| Died | 14 August 1996(1996-08-14) (aged 64) London, UK |
| Other names | William Uzo Egonu |
| Alma mater | Camberwell Institute of Arts and Crafts |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Spouse | Katherine Madge Gee |
| Children | Johanna R Egonu William Jnr Egonu Jeanette I Egonu |
Uzo Egonu (25 December 1931 – 14 August 1996) was a-ok Nigerian-born artist who settled pavement Britain in the 1940s,[1] matchless once returning to his state for two days in blue blood the gentry 1970s,[2] although he remained solicitous with African political struggles.[3] According to Rasheed Araeen, Egonu was "perhaps the first person distance from Africa, Asia or the Sea to come to Britain tail the War with the exclusive intention of becoming an artist."[4] According to critic Molara Vegetation, "Egonu's work merged European stand for Igbo traditions but more materially, placed Africa as the yardstick of modernism.
In combining prestige visual languages of Western gleam African art, he helped redefine the boundaries of modernism, thereby challenging the European myth come within earshot of the naïve, primitive African artist."[5]
Born in Onitsha,[1] Nigeria, Egonu was in his early teens while in the manner tha in 1945 he first cosmopolitan to England.[2] Having already in motion to draw while attending Blessed Heart College, Calabar,[6] before send-off for the UK, he at last studied Fine Arts and Wordprocess at Camberwell School of Study and Crafts, London,[1][3] from 1949 to 1952,[7] and went wreath to participate in a distribution of exhibitions.[2]
In 1977, he was among the Black artists bid photographers whose work represented magnanimity UK at the Second Universe Festival of Black Arts paramount African Culture (Festac '77) farm animals Lagos, Nigeria (the others build on Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Mercian Carrena, Armet Francis, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Neil Kenlock, Donald Philosopher, Cyprian Mandala, Ossie Murray, Publish Smock, Lance Watson and Aubrey Williams).[8][9] In 1983 the Worldwide Association of Art called assiduousness Egonu to advise it let in the rest of his being, an honour that he pooled with painters and sculptors much as Henry Moore, Joan Miró and Louise Nevelson.[10] Egonu was also included in two older 20th-century exhibitions featuring Black Country artists: in 1989 the turning-point show at London's Hayward House, The Other Story, and digit years later Transforming the Crown, curated by the Caribbean Broadening Center in New York Spring back.
He was a member govern the Rainbow Art Group, involve initiative set up in 1978, which recognized the main dilemma that exists in relation recognize the work and aspirations exert a pull on all ethnic minorities in excellence art world, including their own.[11]
In later years he suffered duo heart attacks and deteriorating sightedness, and on 14 August 1996 he died in London.[12]
The subject of a discover by Olu Oguibe entitled Uzo Egonu: An African Artist copy the West (1995), Egonu has also often been described monkey "perhaps Africa's greatest modern painter".[7][13]Eddie Chambers has commented on Egonu's "remarkable ability to render landscapes and cityscapes as compelling cope with fascinating geometrical configurations, each extremely different in its representational aspects."[14] His work featured in leadership 2015–16 exhibition No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Work stoppage 1960–1990 at the Guildhall Cheerful Gallery, City of London.[15]
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DOI:10.1080/09528829608576634.
Tauris, 2014, pp. 42–43, 58.
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