Twins Seven Seven,
born Omoba Taiwo
Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki (3 May 1944 – 16 June 2011) in Ogidi, Kogi State, Nigeria, was a Nigerian painter, sculptor and musician.
Career
He was born as Omoba Taiwo
Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyekale Osuntoki to a father, Aitoyeje, who was a Muslim
from Ibadan, and a mother, Mary, who was a
Christian from Ogidi.The name by which he became known
alludes to the fact that he was the only surviving child of seven sets of twins
born to his mother.
Twins Seven-Seven was an itinerant singer and dancer before he
began his career as an artist, first attending in 1964 an Mbari Mbayo workshop conducted by Ulli Beier and Georgina Beier in Osogbo, a Yoruba town in southwestern Nigeria. He
went on to become one of the best known artists of the Osogbo School.
His work is influenced by traditional Yoruba mythology and
culture, and creates a fantastic universe of humans, animals, plants and Yoruba
gods. Visually, his work resembles Yoruba carvings in the segmentation,
division and repetition of his compositions; conceptually, it reflects this
influence in the emphasis on transformation and balance, as well as its
embodiment of dualities such as the earthly and the spiritual, past and
present, industry and agriculture.
Early works such as Dreams of the Abiku Child (1967)
make allusion to concepts or figures in Yoruba cosmology and mythology, such as
the abiku (devil child), and the orisha Osun.
However, Twins Seven Seven also described his work as "contemporary Yoruba
traditional art," not only paying homage to the influence of his cultural
background but also to noting his responsiveness to current events and the
postcolonial experience.
In 1972 Twins Seven Seven taught in the US at Merced College in California and at the Haystack Mountain
Crafts School, Deer Isle.
In July 1982, he survived a car crash — although a radio
announcement of his death was made after he was pulled unconscious from the
wrecked vehicle. The radio announced his death — and after being given an
artificial hip and confined to bed for 18 months.
In the 1990s his work appeared in major exhibitions in Spain, Finland, Mexico, the Netherlands, England, Germany, and the US.
Honours he received included Nigerian chieftaincy titles, such as when in
January 1996, he was named the Ekerin-Basorun and the Atunluto of
Ibadan. In December 1996, he was named the Obatolu of Ogidi.
He was designated UNESCO Artist for
Peace on 25 May 2005 "in recognition of his contribution
to the promotion of dialogue and understanding among peoples, particularly in
Africa and the African Diaspora".
Twins Seven Seven died aged 67 in Ibadan on 16 June 2011
following complications from a stroke.
Read More »
