Friday, January 29, 2016

Uche Okeke, Uli Art Movement and the Legacy of Beautiful Lines

And the legend finally comes to an end; Professor Uche Okeke - the great master and pioneer finally goes home to his maker leaving the ‘sensitive lines’ with us. As the originator of Ulism, the great son of Okeke worked the lines to frenzy as he ‘doodled’ his way right from the formative days in the 1950s, to the lofty heights we behold of him and his rich legacies. It was in the 1950s when as a student in the fine art department of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology (which later became the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria) that his modernist tendencies shone clearly whiles he experimented with the motifs and philosophies of his native Igbo folklore.

Uche Okeke (1933 - 2015). Photo: Shelley Kusnetz

All in Your Eyes