Tayo Quaye, (b. Nigeria, 1954) Signed and dated 1994, (lower right) Linocut print, 91.5 x 71cm (36 x

Tayo Quaye, (b. Nigeria, 1954) Signed and dated 1994, (lower right) Linocut print, 91.5 x 71cm (36 x 28in)

Edition 9 of 15

Framed and glazed

Tayo Quaye is an outstanding Nigerian artist and printmaker whose work has been collected by The Victoria and Albert Museum and other leading institutions. In this work Quaye takes the corruption of the traditional practice of the bestowing of honorary titles as his theme – reacting to the widespread misuse of this tradition particularly during Nigeria`s periods of military rule.

Tayo Quaye`s work reflects the history of art-school teaching in Nigeria, which has been very much influenced by European methods, yet his work retains a decorative quality that appears to rely very much on traditional techniques of pattern making.

Tayo Quaye`s work comes out of a complex tradition of Eurocentric art-school teaching established in Nigeria by the 1940s, and a reassertion of indigenous approaches to visual arts. This was called the `Natural synthesis` theory and was first propounded in the late 1950s by a group of artists at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Zaria. It was, in the words of Nigerian art historian Chika Okeke, `the merging of the best of the indigenous art traditions, forms and ideas with the useful Western ones`.

Source: The Victoria and Albert Museum, London Click here to view Catalogue