Of the many Nigerian artists of the Oshogbo School (named after a town in southwest Nigeria), Prince Twins Seven-Seven was one of my favorites. Maybe it was the way his work reflected notions of African textiles that I continue to admire and love. Some of the other artists, and their children who are also artists, have by now spread the Oshogbo School style around the world. If you don’t know his work, you should.
A must hear interview with Prof. Henry Glassie: Interchange – Henry Glassie: The Art of Prince Twins Seven-Seven
Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Nigerian Artist, Dies at 67:
“A leading representative of the Oshogbo School, he had a consciously naïve style in which he depicted village scenes, animals and deities.
“Blessed Fisherman Family and Golden Fish,” Prince Twins Seven-Seven, 2006
The cause was complications of a stroke, Harriet B. Schiffer, his dealer, said.
Prince Twins Seven-Seven changed his birth name, Olaniyi Osuntoki, to signal his status as the sole surviving child of his parents’ seven sets of twins. “They believed that I was the reincarnation of twins they had lost,” he told The Baltimore Sun in 2001.
“Prince” was more than a flourish. His grandfather was king of Ibadan in the 1890s and, until the artist became seriously ill, he was about to be installed as chief of his clan, the Osuntoki.
A dancer and singer, Prince Twins Seven-Seven found his calling as an artist in the 1960s when he became part of an experimental school in the city of Oshogbo run by Ulli Beier, a German linguist who became a promoter of African culture, and his wife, Georgina.
(Via NYT > Art & Design.)