What Was Nigeria’s Osogbo School of Art, and Why Was It So Important?

In the 1960s, in Osogbo, a city in southwestern Nigeria, an unexpected art movement emerged. Born out of an experimental arts workshop at a local theater complex, it provides young creatives with a space away from the burdens of daily life to begin and explore their own artistic practices. While European cultural figures helped facilitate the establishment of what became known as the Osogbo School of Art, the artists themselves defined the creative vision in their own way, producing work that highlighted both their individuality and Yoruba heritage.

Despite having no formal training, artists of the Osso Polytechnic continue to exhibit at major institutions around the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, the Goethe-Institut in Lagos, the Neue Munich Gallery in Munich, the Otis Institute of Art in Los Angeles, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. They also appear in Tate Modern’s “Nigerian Modernism” exhibition, co-curated by Osei Bonsu and Bilal Akkouche, which opened last October and runs until May 10. However, the movement itself and how it took place remain relatively unknown outside of its home country.

In 2025, I traveled to Osogbo, about three hours’ drive from Lagos, to learn more about the school and its impact over its 60 years of existence. On a busy road, a gray building with relief decoration stands out among its neighbors. The wooden gate is engraved with the image of a richly dressed man holding a sand hammer in one hand and an ax in the other, breathing fire. The site, formerly known as the Mbari Mbayo Club, now serves as a memorial to Nigerian playwright, actor and theater director Duro Ladipo, who died in 1978 at the age of 46. It was here that Osogbo School was born.

Mbari Mbayo and the house next to it were the site of several of Ladibo’s theatrical productions. Over time, actors and other young locals began to dabble in the visual arts, attending workshops in painting, printmaking, textile design, and more. Many of the artists who emerged from these studios went on to become “global superstars,” according to Joseph Gergel, director of the Kó Gallery in Lagos, which last November exhibited key works from the Osogbo movement. “By the seventies, they were among the most well-known figures in the global Nigerian art scene,” he said.

On Monday afternoon, Tunde Omojola, a photographer and traditional ruler of a nearby town, took me to visit Ladipo’s former compound, some of which he rents as his home. He told me that as a child he lived nearby and often went to see plays performed by Ladibo. “There were theater events every morning and evening, and in the afternoon some workers would go to Mbarimbayo to create art and then come back,” Omoyola said, noting that while he was not involved in the movement, he admired what was happening there.

Ladipo founded Mbari Mbayo with the German scholar Ulli Beier, who came to Nigeria in 1950 to accept a position at the University of Ibadan. Bell originally moved to this country with his first wife, the Austrian artist Susanne Wenger. Together with the British artist Georgina Betts Beier, who became Uli’s second wife, the two became integral figures in creating a studio that encouraged a new generation of artists.

In 1962, Bell and the Guyanese painter Dennis Williams held the first workshops at the club with local young people; the following year, the American painter Jacob Lawrence led another project. By 1964, Georgina began holding workshops, which often lasted several days and were considered by many artists to be an integral part of the development of their practices.

Jimoh Buraimoh, one of the leading artists of the Osogbo school, explained that Georgina encouraged each artist to develop their own personal style. “You can see we are all different from each other and that’s the beauty of Osogbo,” he said. Brymer initially joined the Ladibo Theater Company as a lighting technician and actor; two years later, in 1964, he attended his first workshop with Georgina.

Brymer said he started out in more traditional forms of painting but later incorporated beads into his practice. “After the theater rehearsal in the morning, we would take a break at 12 o’clock and return at 5 o’clock, and during this time I would often go to the palace and see the king’s crown there,” he said. “The crown fascinated me, so I asked if I could do something with beads.” Today, Jimoh is world-famous for his large-scale bead murals.

Like Brymo, many artists from the Osogbo school are known for their unique forms of art making. Painter, sculptor, and musician Omoba Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki (professionally known as Twin Seven-Seven) stands out for his mixed media works on cloth and wood panels, often exploring Yoruba mythology and culture. Muraina Oyelami started out as a drummer and actress before developing a technique of using rollers to create landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. Asiru Olatunde, who trained as a blacksmith, uses copper and aluminum to create relief metal panels depicting scenes from the Bible and Yoruba culture.

Mulena Oyelami, A group of like-minded people (octopus)1975

One of Osogbo’s most famous figures is artist and gallerist Nike Davies-Okundaye. Since the 1960s, the textile designer has been known for using traditional dyeing techniques in his work. You can’t help but be influenced by her as you walk around Osogbo, from the Nike Arts and Culture Center, which offers free training in traditional Nigerian textile design, to the sculpture-filled guesthouse and two gallery spaces.

However, Davis-Okundaye did not consider himself part of the Osogbo school of thought, although it is often described as such today. She acknowledges the influence of the Osogbo movement on her practice, singling out Suzanne Winger and Georgina Bell as important figures. However, “I still want you to know that everything I do is my own effort,” she said. She explains that misogyny was prevalent in the 1960s, so she never attended workshops, and when some male artists in the movement heard about her practice, they stole her materials and work. “I just wanted to get back some of the embroidery that had been taken from me,” she said, describing how she worked by candlelight in the middle of the night to avoid being spotted creating the art.

Nike Davis-Okundaye, Gujie player1962

At the 2025 Lagos Art Fair, considered West Africa’s leading art fair, a presentation on the Osogbo Art School gave an international audience an insight into an integral part of Nigeria’s art history. “When one thinks about what they achieved, what their work produced in an era when artistic careers were not as flourishing or as common as they are today, their achievements are truly remarkable,” said fair founder Tokini Peterside-Schwebig.

For many, Osogbo is not just a school but an experiment in the power of collective creativity. “We did different [types of] artwork, but we were still together — we developed a friendship,” Brymer said, noting the relationship between the artists was Osogbo School. “This movement is about keeping the arts going, even if our teachers left in 1966.”

Rufus Ogundele, football god1994