Bruce Onobrakpeya

Acquired from the artist

There is some surface dirt in the crevices of the etching. Some surface scratches and losses are visible throughout the work, which are consistent with the nature of the medium.
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Triptych is a three-part plastocast by Bruce Onobrakpeya, who is recognized for his contributions to modern Nigerian art and printmaking. This piece features Ibiebe, which a script of ideographic geometric and curvilinear glyphs developed by Onobrakpeya. The artist developed the Ibiebe scripts from 1978 to 1968, as part of an in depth study of his Urhobo cultural background.

While studying at the Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST), Onobrakpeya was one of the founding members who formed the Zaria Art Society. This society was created to set up an alternative to the prevailing Eurocentric art academy curriculum. In alignment with Zaria Art Society’s principles, Onobrakpeya often explored ‘the ideology of Natural Synthesis, which advocated a natural, unforced and unconscious synthesis of European media and techniques with forms, styles and contacts derived from indigenous Nigerian cultures’ (N'Gone Fall and Jean Loup Pivin, An Anthology of African Art The Twentieth Century, 2002, p.247).

Onobrakpeya has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Dak’Art 2006, and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, to name a few. His work has been collected by the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery in Nairobi, among others.