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| Abayomi Barber. |
Chinezim Moghalu
Born 1928 in Ile Ife, Abayomi Adebayo Barber is a modern Nigerian artist and mentor of the Abayomi Barber School of Thought, an informal school of art founded in Lagos, in 1973. Barber happens to be one of Nigeria's most influential modern artists. The master artist is adept in naturalist painting, yet renown about realist, life-like, remarkably outstanding, detailed, and proportional sculpture. Abayomi is notorious for meticulous execution of sculpture. He does so with an underlying motive, zest and quest to achieve a perfectly rudimentarily proportional sculpture. His artistic practice is summed in keen attention to detail. Report has it that Barber could abandon a sculptural piece that is being undertaking by him, if such is not tilting to the artist's artistic sensibility of usually impeccable visualization. He could spend a great deal of time on a piece, in a bid to achieve the desire.
Abayomi Barber's artistic and formal education was a conglomeration of 'traditional' and Western pedagogy. During his formative years, he was attracted to the Ife traditional sculptures evident in the palace of his uncle, the then Oni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi. He equally would become an avid music experimentalist and, also, a dedicated draughtsman and an active experimenter of musical instruments.
The master sculptor, Barber, upon recommendation by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was recruited by the Yoruba Historical Research Scheme as a creative artist, on a research project tracing the origin of the Yoruba people.The society would eventually send him to the UK on a scholarship that could be said to be doucely and complementary to his restless artistic desire.
While Abayomi was in the UK, in the 1960's, London precisely, he remarkably took art classes at the Central School of Arts and Craft, London, joined the studio of Mancini and Tozer, and would work with Oscar Nemon on a handful of Winston Churchill busts. Nemon, at the time, was sort of the identifiable sculptor to the art of Churchill.
Barber returned to Nigeria from his international artistic exposure in 1971. He began to teach art in Lagos, especially at the University of Lagos. He had a significant following and he garnered teeming followers which culminated in the prominent Abayomi Barber School of Thought; sometimes referred to as the Abayomi Barber School of Naturalism.
Abayomi Barber is not the author of the Barber School, but the mentor. In his words, he indicates thus: "that part belongs to a great man, Mr. Frank Aig-Imoukhuede. He was the person who created the School for us. So, it came to me as a surprise that am the founder; and I laughed when I first read about it in a newspaper. People started talking about Barber School of Art. And then I started making my own contribution by telling them that it is a school of thought, not a school in specific reality of blackboard and chalk and classroom; it is only a school of thought".
Below is a snippet from a conversation between me and the nonagenerian master artist who is a native of Osun state and, who started out as a very fine draghtsman. The conversation was largely a recollective and reflective one for Barber, whose 92nd birthday was coming some weeks ahead. Excerpt:
Chinezim Moghalu: Does the Abayomi Barber School of Thought have a mission? Any achievement(s) so far? Has there been challenges with the School of Thought?
Abayomi Barber: Well, there are challenges, but we have attracted quite a large following. Many boys came to join us, and they became members of the school. The school has to do with the way of thinking; because I thought about what artwork should be really. It depends on how much work one puts into it. When one starts a project, they should follow it up by doing the correct thing. So, when we copy other people's works, we try to make do with the way we think about what we do. And what do we do? What I tell the boys to do was to keep thinking about originating their style and to keep working as hard as they can. And to do art as something significant. Significant in the sense that there is art in most things that people do- there is art behind the production of it.
If you are a singer, you have to find the best way of singing; the best way to produce your voice, and so on; so that whoever is listening will know that you are not just babbling, and making noise- that there is a thought behind the voice that you produce. That you don't just open your mouth like an ass. That you are doing your best about your voice production and your lyrics and so on.
So, when we say we draw, when we learn how to draw, that is by stating the A,B,C of it. That is to say, using a form, knowing about forms, before putting forms together to make a configuration that we present to the world. Just like a singer in an opera, who works on the voice production before coming to the front of an audience.
CM: Please tell me about your artistic experience and relationship with the British sculptor Paul Mount, at the Yaba College of Technology.
AB: I knew him in the '50s. Paul Mount came, and he was one of the lecturers who took me. He came and started the art section of Yaba College of Technology. He started it by getting the first set of guys that enrolled, and I was one of the boys. What he did was to set up things for us to draw, and that was life drawing. People would sit round, the model will be there, and we copy the model. One does one's best to make a replica of the sitter. Paul Mount attracted a following from other schools. That was all.
We did life drawings. At times we did still life. And we did our very best. Paul Mount saw my works and flattered me by saying that am the best in the class. I was still a little boy in those days. I saw that as something for me to build upon. If Paul Mount a white man could see my work as the best, what else do I want? I started thinking about withdrawing myself from the school. And I did not attend the school for too long.
Paul Mount was very good as a teacher, and was always showing us what to look for in our works.
CM: There is a surrealist element in a handful of your works. What led you into the foray? Was it an intended motive, finding or discovery, or a research on a western perspective of art?
AB: Well, I saw art as something that should be fashionable. You want to place art in a new perspective?, one should draw well a lot in realism and practice again and again before one is satisfied in what he/she is doing. And even then, there is a belief that it can be better; because even in art schools, whenever anybody produces an art piece, he/she is told that it can be better. And I believe that no matter the way you do something, you can always be better. And that is where surrealism comes in, because to be able to go into a successful surrealism or whatever ism, one must first of all master the original ism that everybody understands.
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| Abayomi Barber, Dr. Sugomu, Bronze, 1971. Photo credit: Hourglass Gallery. |
CM: Can you remember your experience with individuals such as William Fagg and Frank Willet?
AB: Well, my working with them was on another angle. They were art historians and art practitioners. I worked with them in the university. I was an assistant to them. Whatever they lay their hands upon, I made sure it was well prepared. When they want to pick an antiquity, I help them. When they wash it, I watch them do it, I then help them do it. And then we'd study the antiquities. We would then preserve them.
CM: Along your career, you once had a musical stint as a saxophonist. Can you say something in that regard?
AB: As a little boy, I had all sort of dreams that I would make sound. So, when I grew up, I started with a flute. From the flute, I developed to a saxist. Because I got so involved with things like flute and jazz that I moved closer to people who play them, I tried to learn with them. I was able to do a bit of it too by myself. So, I have been a saxophonist too. When I grew up, I had people like Bobby Benson and his band and so on. And as a growing boy, I liked the sound and the mix of the sound too. So, I had to join myself to musicians. That was how I became involved with a man called Willie Payne. I had a band; he was a tad dancer. It must be in England that he became a tad dancer. That fetched him a livelihood and he became a star.
And when he came to Nigeria, he came with a lady that was his dance partner. And they danced together and got money from it. They were rivals to Bobby Benson. Bobby too started his own band having a lady partner called Cassandra.
Willie Payne later found a band after his dance partner had gone back to England. He brought a man that I used to know from Bobby Benson's band called Mr. Teju Bamgbose; a very very good musician. And so, I went to Teju Bamgbose who was very very good at the saxophone. And I told him that I was interested in his instrument and that, I would like to play like him. And then, he showed me the A,B,C of it, and so on. So, I became a saxsist too.
I joined Willie Payne's band and played for five years, after which Willie left us and went back to England. I then became the band leader. I still have my sax., which I play sometimes to amuse myself. I still keep to the tenor saxophone. Although I knew how to play other instruments, but the tenor sax. was my favourite.
CM: Did your musical experience had influence on your artistic practice or artistic inspiration?
AB: I have practiced the two arts simultaneously. It was a matter of attending to my art studio during the day, and in the evening and night I play my music and orchestra. I never played Bobby Benson's orchestra, because Bobby was just my friend; and he wanted me to play in his orchestra, but I refused; not wanting to disappoint Willie Payne, from whose band I started learning the saxophone. So, I never played for Bobby, but I played for Willie. And I became a leader of Willie Payne's band, after Willie Payne left the country.
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| Abayomi Barber, Ali Maigoro, Bronze 1971. Photo credit: Hourglass Gallery. |
CM: You are considered a master, do you consider yourself a master?
AB: I don't think so. I cannot be anything else. People think that I master my art; but I know that I should go for years, learning. There is never an end to learning.
CM: In concert with your 92nd birthday, how would you define the ninety-two years you have lived? How would you chat your artistic journey generally, your career and anything else? Do you as well think that you ought to be celebrated at 92?
AB: I do the best that I can, given any situation that I find myself. I try to do my very best, knowing that my best can be better. I am always conscious of that.
The ninety-two years that I've lived just went on like a child's play. It is like when they tell you that time is going; you never hear that time is flying. Whether one was working or not, time went on. I still believe that life can go on.
I see 92nd year as a year of giving thanks to the Almighty God, for letting me experience it. As I said, I do whatever I think would be best. I am just praying that time would go on, and that there would be things I'll still do.
CM: Do you have aspirations for the years ahead?
AB: Of becoming what (laughs)? I just do what comes my way and hope that it could be useful for people around and for myself too.CM: When you cease to exist, what will be your artistic legacy to the world?
AB: Like I said, I just want to do the best that I can. I try to find out the best way of doing things, so that it would be the best for me. I hope that posterity will find it useful when am no longer there
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