Akinola Lasekan

The collection of the artist

A private collection, UK

Lasekan was born Samuel Akinola Oladetimi at Ipele near Owo, Ondo State, to Chief Oyekanmi Oladetimi Lasekan, a descendent of the Ogwadogbon and Ojomo families of Owo, and his wife Madam Lydia Ayobolu (depicted here), a descendent of the Olubekon family of Ipele-Owo. This innately talented artist started his professional art practice as a textile designer with the Compagnie Française-Africaine Occidental before veering into book illustrations for publishing companies such as CMS Bookshop and Thomas Nelson Ltd. When he made a success of these, he established an art studio and became an art teacher in 1941, when he changed his name to Akinola Lasekan. All the while, he studied commercial art through correspondence studies with the Hammersmith school of Art in London. In 1962, he became a fellow of the royal society of Arts London, in the UK.

A student of Aina Onabolu, one of the most highly regarded figures of Nigerian Modern art, Lasekan began his career under the influence of his teacher’s naturalist style and preference for portraiture. Although Lasekan would continue to create mesmerising portraits, such as the present lot, the artist would come to develop his own distinct style which was heavily influenced by Yoruba culture. Lasekan is best-known for painting scenes of Yoruba legends and royal portraits, characterised by his keen attention to detail and elegant use of colour. The present lot is an elegant depiction of the artist’s his own noble mother, a descendant of the Olubekun family of Ipele. He refused to sell the work and it remained in his personal collection until after his death.

Along with his contemporaries Ben Enwonwu and Bruce Onobrakpeya, Lasekan has come to be recognised as a pioneer of Nigerian Modernism. Due to his tremendous impact on subsequent generations of Nigerian artists, he is widely considered to be one of Nigeria’s more influential modernist teachers. Dedicated to educating young Nigerians, Lasekan published countless instructional books and established his own correspondence school for the arts. In his bid to pass on knowledge to upcoming generations of Nigerians, he taught art in the later years of his life at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University).