Aṣọ-Òkè: The Cloth We Inherit

Akinola Lasekan's 1957 oil portrait of Chief Justus D. Akeredolu in a red striped aṣọ-òkè agbada, patterned fila cap and coral beads

I am standing before a portrait in Nigerian Modernism, the survey at Tate Modern. It is Akinola Lasekan’s 1957 oil of Justus D. Akeredolu. Lasekan and Akeredolu were both first-generation Nigerian modernists who once shared a studio in Lagos, and Akeredolu is remembered as the pioneer of Yoruba thorn carving, so the painter here is […]