Nigerian Modernism 1900-1965: Anti-Europeanisation, Nationalism, and Avant-garde Art Paperback – April 30, 2019

Nigerian Modernism 1900–1965: Anti‑Europeanisation, Nationalism and Avant‑garde Art investigates the rise of modern art in Nigeria as a historically grounded, politically charged movement shaped by colonial contact, resistance to European cultural dominance, and nationalist aspirations. Challenging Eurocentric accounts that portray African modernism as derivative of Euro-American artistic inventions, the book argues that Nigerian artists forged an independent modernist tradition rooted in indigenous knowledge, local aesthetics, sociopolitical experience, and resistance.Spanning the early twentieth century through the years surrounding independence, the study examines the artists, institutions, and intellectual debates that defined Nigeria’s avant-garde. It situates artistic production within broader processes of decolonialization, decolonization, cultural reclamation, and nation-building, showing how modern art functioned as both creative experimentation and political and cultural resistance.By recovering overlooked histories and reinterpreting key figures and movements, the book advances an alternative narrative of modernism, one originating in Africa rather than derived from Europe. In doing so, it repositions Nigerian modernism as a powerful expression of artistic autonomy and intellectual agency within global art history. Read more