A PROMINENT NIGERIAN ARTIST DEPARTS TO JOIN THE ANCESTORS

MOYO OGUNDIPE 1948-2017

Moyo Ogundipe, was born in Nigeria and fled its military dictatorship in the 1980 s. Before leaving Nigeria, he was an art teacher, a graphic illustrator, an award-winning television producer/director and an independent filmmaker. In spite of all his creative pursuits, he has always considered himself first and foremost a visual artist.

Ogundipe has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from The Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.

One of Africa’s most celebrated and renowned artists, Ogundipe has exhibited extensively in Nigeria, Europe and the United States , including The Orlando Museum of Art, the Maryland Museum of African Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and recently, in “African Renaissance: Old Forms, New Images” at the Denver Art Museum.

Ogundipe’ s paintings have been described as hypnotic, colorful and densely patterned. He paints in the rich tradition of the Yoruba culture of Nigeria and attempts in his paintings to evolve a style that is a fusion or synthesis between his traditional heritage and his Western education.

In 1996, Ogundipe was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, a nd in 2005, he was invited to become a member of Africobra, an organization founded in the 1960s whose membership is comprised of distinguished African American artists.

Ogundipe says, “I want to listen to the sheer poetry of life and to see and touch and feel and amplify and magnify the mysterious beauty of this infinite universe. I want to tune inwards, into the very xylem of my being. I want to explore the most secret places of my heart. I want to reach the farthest nooks and corners and crannies and recesses of my feelings. I want to hear the songs of my soul.”