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Tradition, history, and mysticism are woven into the images.
Okediji is also an art historian and an artist. His view of life is framed by art. He teaches art history at the University of Colorado at Denver. He grew up in Nigeria in what he describes as a middle-class family. His father, Oladejo Okediji, is a renowned writer, and his mother a former schoolteacher. He received his first two college degrees in Nigeria, and then in 1992 he came to America and to the University of Wisconsin to get his Ph.D. He laughs as he recalls the first culture shock he felt when he arrived in the United States at JFK Airport in New York, unaware that he would have to take another plane to reach Wisconsin. �This place is so huge,� he remembers thinking. Today, of course, Okediji is an old hand at living in America, although he still misses Nigerian food. �It was a great shock. I couldn�t eat the food.� He noted the reverse had hap-pened to a friend from America who came to Nigeria and lost weight trying to adjust to an African diet. Okediji has learned to cook for himself, searching out international markets that carry the delicacies he craves. He hasn�t adapted to the Colorado habit of exercising, either, he says with a grin. �Fun for me is to paint and write; that�s when I�m most happy.� He stands in the depths of the museum where there�s a treasure trove of African art wait-ing to be displayed. Some of it must be culled to make room for new pieces. �The art we�re looking at now is from the 20th century,� he explains. He describes it as �iconic,� representing an image. But it�s also about form, he says. Tradition, history and mys-ticism are woven into the images. But there is more: the works are art in and of themselves. They have their own intrinsic artistic value. He wants African art to be understood as art; not as anthropology as it is defined in a natural hist ry museum, for example. Is it religious? Yes, he explains, in the sense that Michelangelo�s works are religious in subject matter, yet appreciated for their greatness beyond any ecclesiastical significance. Traditionally, African artists have been anonymous. Okediji would like to change that, too. He wants to recognize individual artists. It was the custom for men to be sculptors and for women to paint ceramics and weave textiles. But that is changing, too, he says. Contemporary artists are beginning to do innovative things. Nigeria is a country rich in natural resources and artistic tradition. Many Nigerian artists live outside of their native country now, he says, because of the conflicts and because of the economic situation in Nigeria. When the Denver Art Museum opens its new space in several years there will be a gallery for African art�African and Oceanic, modern and contemporary. Until then, Okediji is trav-eling to various museums around the country. He will go to Africa the summer of next year to acquire art. And he looks forward to drawing crowds to the museum to appreciate the vibrant art that is springing from the 20th and 21st centuries. PHOTO COURTESY OF DENVER ART MUSUEM (left) CULTURE EXCHANGE� Verandah Post, carved by Olowe of Ise (born c.1873, died 1938) Yoruba culture, Nigeria. Wood, pigment 65 inches high. PHOTO COURTESY OF DENVER ART MUSUEM |
When
Moyo Okediji, curator of African and Oceanic art at the Denver Art
Museum, first stepped outside Denver International Airport and saw
the landscape around him, his first thought was, �Wow, it�s like
a Salvador Dali landscape.� It was at that moment that he fell in
love with Denver. �It was like a secret place. Almost anyone would
fall in love with it,� he says.