Bruce Onobrakpeya

Estate of Robert Barley, UK

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Following his time in Zaria and having taken part in Ulli Beier’s print workshop in Ibadan in 1963, Onobrakpeya later led print masterclasses at the Mbari Club and in Osogbo. Over the next fifty years Onobrakpeya discovered, innovated and perfected several techniques both in printmaking and relief sculpture that are uniquely Nigerian, including bronzed lino relief, plastocast relief, plastograph, additive plastograph, metal foil deep etching, metal foil relief print and ivorex.

The title ‘Nomarere’ is taken from the words of a Benin dirge. It is an artwork about death and the journey to the next world. Though Onobrakpeya uses the Benin dirge, the artwork essentially deals with an Urhobo custom. The man being led at the head of the procession is the first son of a man who has just passed on. The funeral procession honours the son by carrying him in front of the procession. He is dressed in white to show his father had lived a good life.