Celebrated Nigerian sculptor, founding member of the famed Zaria Art Society and printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya began creating works depicting Christian iconography in 1966, when Catholic priests petitioned the artist to interpret the Passion of Christ. The resulting body of work, titled Fourteen Stations of the Cross, was well received, and Onobrakpeya continued to produce relief, print, and mural commissions for Catholic priests and parishes through 1978. Originally presented by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross showcases the earliest of these commissions, from the late 1960s, with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s special presentation foregrounding the artist’s commissions in print.
Highlighting a specific creative era spread within three chapters, The Mask and the Cross’s prints blend references to West African tradition, folklore, and cosmology with Catholic motifs and stories from the Bible. Onobrakpeya viewed the Catholic Church’s investment in Nigerian artists and their unique interpretations as redemptive, poetically describing the resulting productions as new “masks” forged from the ashes of those burned by early missionaries.
This exhibition of Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross features a supplemental section on early post-independence Nigerian printmakers, specifically developed for the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art iteration.
Curated by Lauren Tate Baeza, Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and coordinated for the National Museum of African Art by curator Janine Gaëlle Dieudji.
Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art. The presentation at the National Museum of African Art is generously supported by Lilly Endowment Inc.
