Prof. Uche Okeke, (Nigerian, 1933-2016)
Blue Forest
Blue Forest
initialed 'UO' lower right
gouache
93 x 53cm (36 5/8 x 20 7/8in).
Provenance
The artist's estate.
Although undated, it is likely that the artist executed this gouache in the early 1960s. Okeke produced a series of forest scenes in these years. A similar painting titled Primeval Forest (1962) is illustrated in Okeke-Agulu's text Post-Colonial Modernism (fig.7.5).
The organic forms are communicated through sinuous, undulating lines. The leaves and branches appear to float above the picture plane, unanchored by perspective. The critic, Dennis Duerden, was struck by the scene's impalpable quality:
"(the forms) might be human figures or leaves blown in the wind, or birds, but they are dancing and floating, mysterious and compulsive and very distinctive" ('Mbari: Ibadan's Arts Club' West African Review 32, no. 408, December 1961, p.41).
Bibliography
C. Okeke-Agulu, Post-Colonial Modernism, (Durham, 2015), pp.185-6, 267.
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Blue Forest
Blue Forest
initialed 'UO' lower right
gouache
93 x 53cm (36 5/8 x 20 7/8in).
Provenance
The artist's estate.
Although undated, it is likely that the artist executed this gouache in the early 1960s. Okeke produced a series of forest scenes in these years. A similar painting titled Primeval Forest (1962) is illustrated in Okeke-Agulu's text Post-Colonial Modernism (fig.7.5).
The organic forms are communicated through sinuous, undulating lines. The leaves and branches appear to float above the picture plane, unanchored by perspective. The critic, Dennis Duerden, was struck by the scene's impalpable quality:
"(the forms) might be human figures or leaves blown in the wind, or birds, but they are dancing and floating, mysterious and compulsive and very distinctive" ('Mbari: Ibadan's Arts Club' West African Review 32, no. 408, December 1961, p.41).
Bibliography
C. Okeke-Agulu, Post-Colonial Modernism, (Durham, 2015), pp.185-6, 267.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
