Art, Parody and Politics

Book excerpt: This pioneer book focuses on the work of dele jegede, one of the leading Nigerian artists in the last three decades, to reflect on the connections between images and the nation state, the linkages between art and humanity, and the understanding of society through means different from oral and written texts. Various chapters written by prominent art historians, based on the analysis of jegede?s cartoons, drawings, and paintings, reflect extensively on how he has defined and imagined a postcolonial state, in its nakedness and hope, but gesturing towards change and a utopian moment. The book draws on the individual experiences of scholars and professional artists in Nigeria and the Diaspora to paint a complex, multi-dimensional portrait of jegede, one that puts in context his work as a scholar, painter, curator, critic, cartoonist, and administrator. In dreaming of the ideal, jegede?s creative cadence detours from the sheer pursuit of beauty and celebrates a conscious engagement with social realism and political visual expressions. In ways never clearly explained before now, jegede?s artistry, seen in slow motion as offered here, is inevitably tied to activism, a nationalistic credo, and the elevation of the spirits of humankind.