Bruce Onobrakpeya – The Mask and the Cross

Celebrated Nigerian sculptor 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.

Onobrakpeya was a founding member of the famed Zaria Art Society—an art collective that developed the natural synthesis philosophy and art practice, which merged traditional Nigerian forms with European techniques, an exercise in cultural resiliency that reclaimed Nigerian aesthetic values without discarding outside influences in the early postcolonial period. Compounding this conceptual framework, 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 depicts Biblical characters as Nigerian and reimagines Biblical stories in Nigerian settings, presenting cultural and religious multiplicity in both subject matter and aesthetic approach.

Highlighting a specific creative period, this exhibition is grounded in extremely rare artist’s proofs for the children’s educational text May Your Kingdom Come, which Onobrakpeya illustrated in 1968, as well as a complete narrative series of prints titled Fourteen Stations of the Cross produced in 1969. These foundational bodies of work helped launch and secure the artist’s long and esteemed career. 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.

All works of art are by Bruce Onobrakpeya unless otherwise noted.

Bruce Paul Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya
b. 1932, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State, Nigeria

Bruce Onobrakpeya is one of Nigeria’s most recognized artists, especially renowned for his contributions to African modernism. Though trained as a painter at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, his postgraduate participation in Mbari Club printmaking workshops in Ibadan and Osogbo, in 1963 and 1964 respectively, proved decisive for his career. While he was instructed in block printing and serigraphy at Zaria, the Mbari Club workshops introduced him to copper engraving and etching, leading to experiments in relief printing such as plastographs, a technique that has become signature among his many inventions in printmaking.

Onobrakpeya has had a commanding influence on generations, contributing illustrations to poetry volumes and novels of national significance and lecturing secondary and tertiary art students, many who would also become notable artists. For his achievements, he has been awarded some of the highest national honors in his native country and is the recipient of the UNESCO Living Human Treasure Award, recognition at the 44th Venice Biennale, and the honoree artist at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s 50th anniversary gala.

Interview with Bruce Onobrakpeya

Timeline

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.

Exhibition curator: Lauren Tate Baeza, Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art, High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA). The National Museum of African Art presentation of Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross is coordinated by Janine Gaëlle Dieudji, curator. Exhibition design: Lisa Buck Vann