Obiora Udechukwu

Obiora Udechukwu (born 1946) is a Nigerian painter and poet.

Obiora Udechukwu was born June 4, 1946, in Onitsha in 1946 to parents from Agulu in Anambra State, Nigeria.

Angulu is where he first encountered uli murals at family compounds and shrines.

In 1966, because of the anti-Igbo pogroms, Obiora Udechukwu fled and enrolled at University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

His work was shaped by his experiences during the 1967 to 1970 Biafra war.

He received his early education in an Anglophone colonial system, including art training in both primary and secondary school.

He studied for one year at Ahmadu Bello University before transferring to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a result of pogroms against the Igbo people in northern Nigeria.

During the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War (1967–1970), Udechukwu worked in the Propaganda Unit, and participated in the artists and writers workshops led by the poet Gabriel Okara and the artist Uche Okeke.

For instance, Silent Faces at the Crossroads (1967) depicts a large group of figures, possibly representing many Igbo people fleeing their home as a result of the attacks on their people.

The majority are partially unclothed, covered in blue cloths with tints of white.

Those towards the background are shrouded in a darker shade of blue, barely visible, as they fade into a dark silhouette.

Many of the figures' faces are partially articulated, but their features are not well-defined, with the faces lacking eyes.

They look very much in despair.

Along the left edge of the painting, the ground that they walk upon radiates in a strong red hue, while a lone child-like figure walks on it.

At the beginning of his tenure there, the Biafran War (1967-1970) broke out.

He served in the military while still creating art.

After the three-year-war ended, he resumed his studies.

In the mid 1970s, Udechukwu began what was to be more than a decade-long process of studying uli designs and experimenting in the method of Natural Synthesis, which had been defined by Uche Okeke at beginning of the previous decade.

Okeke, who came to Nsukka from Zaria in 1970, proposed Natural Synthesis as a theory of merging indigenous art traditions with western traditions to create a new, modern art form.

In this search for a new post-independence aesthetic, Okeke sought to translate uli - a mural and body decoration art of the Igbo - into a contemporary artistic idiom.

In the late 1970s, Udechukwu also began to incorporate nsibidi into his art.

This design system originated east of the Igbo with the Ejagham, but it later spread to the southeast of Igboland.

A system of motifs associated with male secret societies called Ekpe, which survive to this day, nsibidi can be used to send messages.

Many of Udechukwu's paintings and prints depict ordinary people; his wartime service also inspired pieces that depicted the great suffering that he witnessed.

From the mid-1970s, his artistic themes ranged from philosophical subjects to socio-political commentary.

Early in Udechukwu's career, he studied conventional drawing at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria before transferring to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Around this time, anti-Igbo massacres were taking place in northern Nigeria.

This would influence his artworks heavily.

During his time in Nsukka, he depicted these experiences in his art, for instance showing the Igbo people in scenes of distress, or in conditions of death, despair, and fear.

At the end of the war, he returned to Nsukka, completing his bachelor's degree in fine arts, with a thesis on Igbo Uli mural art, in 1972.

In 1973, he was appointed a Junior Fellow in the Department of Fine Arts, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 1977.

The use of primary colors (mostly red, blues, yellows, and at times oranges) is common in Udechukwu's work, and is evident in many different examples, such as Tycoons and Stevedores (1980), Refugees (1977), The Moon Has Ascended Between Us (1976), Musician (1975-76), and more.

Overall, these early works capture the somber, yet intense emotions in the moments of great tragedy experienced by the Igbo ethnic group during this time, as well as Udechukwu himself, with himself fleeing one violent crisis, only to find himself caught within another one.

He is recognized as a leading member of the Nsukka School, originally led by Uche Okeke who served as head of the art program until 1985.

While at Nsukka, Udechukwu became a founding member of the Aka Circle of Exhibiting Artists, which included El Anatsui, Tayo Adenaike, and other artists based in eastern Nigeria.

He served on the editorial board of Okike: African Journal of New Writing established in Nsukka by the novelist Chinua Achebe.

He was appointed Professor of Painting at Nsukka in 1986.

During his tenure, his students included Tayo Adenaike, Olu Oguibe, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Marcia Kure, and Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie.

In 1997, Udechukwu became Dana Professor of Fine Arts at St. Lawrence University, in New York State.

He retired in 2018 and lives in Carson, CA.