Lyrics of Joy
Title: Lyrics of Joy
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Where art you joy
that we all seek you
and find you not?
Joy is in eating less,
and eating carefully, simply.
Joy lives in giving more,
and consuming little.
Mungo Park Discovering River Niger
As the Chinese launches successfully the second wave of the colonization of Africa, after learning from the techniques of divide and conquer that Europe used for the first wave of conquering the continent, it became necessary for me to do this painting.
I also want to refer to the poem I wrote a couple of months ago, titled, “My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense.”
Another painting that I just extracted from my garage is this dark work.
Another painting that I just extracted from my garage is this dark work.
There is an interesting story behind it.
In the year 2000 or 2001, the British Museum invited me to give a lecture as part of the ceremonies held in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and also to mark the completion of the Great Court built as an extension of the main museum building. They wanted me to address the body as my topic.
Yesterday at age 79.
Yesterday at age 79,
Tony Allen, joined the ancestors.
Allen, born in Ghana,
was Fela’s lead drummer and bandleader
for many many years.
But the drummer is typically positioned
at the background of the stage,
and you hardly ever see them.
The singer is always in front.
Sold!
I’m pleased to inform my friends that this historic painting which I completed in 1992 is now going to a home that will care for it, love it and protect it from damage and misfortunes. As the single parent of this painting, I feel a sense of loss that she is leaving me.
The philosopher of sensiotics.
Henry Drewall, the philosopher of sensiotics, wrote a couple of days ago that, “Moyo mi owon — you have turned pain into paint…for us to see and feel….”
He should know. Sensiotics is the archeology of feelings within the human sensibility.
This painting shared here is about the pain and joy of departures and arrivals, as one of my Transatlantic Series: in 1992, I started it in Nigeria just as I was relocating to the to the United States, where I completed it.
Someone just purchased this work, The Middle Passage.
Someone just purchased this work, The Middle Passage.
Smart move, I think.
Art is the smartest investment you can make.
Unlike the stock market, when the market falls, your investment does not go poof into thin air–as billions of dollars are disappearing during this COVID-19 market
Another of the paintings I just discovered in my garage.
Another of the paintings I just discovered in my garage.This painting, however, has the distinction of being one the oldest canvases I have in my possession—painted in 1992. It was the painting in which I had a breakthrough. It was in this painting that I unlearned everything my teachers taught me.I realize that in life, we do not see things like a camera.
I found this 2001 painting in my garage.
I found this 2001 painting in my garage. At that time, my friend, Moyo Ogundipe was staying with me.As the curator for African and Oceanic Arts at the Denver Art Museum, I had invited Moyo Ogundipe for a solo exhibition at the museum. He had one year to prepare for the exhibition.
In a corrupt system
In a corrupt system
remain stubbornly and fiercely honest.
The single honest man
in a system that is corrupt
is like a tall palm tree
standing among perennial brambles,
blades and grasses. That single
palm tree will remain
OBITUARY
The death of
Abba Kyari is a major loss
for Nigeria.
Because he departed
so suddenly and unexpectedly,
eliminated by a killer so
vehemently and with matchless
dispatch, the victim most
I teach now by Zoom.
I teach now by Zoom.
It feels weird to sit in the studio, talking to a screen, wondering if you are not crazy.
The computer tells me the names of everybody logged into the class, listening and watching me.
But who else is with them, also watching and listening? How far will the recording of the session travel?