Uzo Egonu

Uzo Egonu
Born(1931-12-25)25 December 1931
Onitsha, Nigeria
Died14 August 1996(1996-08-14) (aged 64)
London, UK
Other namesWilliam Uzo Egonu
Alma materCamberwell School of Arts and Crafts
OccupationArtist
SpouseKatherine Madge Gee
ChildrenJohanna R Egonu

William Jnr Egonu

Jeanette I Egonu

Uzo Egonu // ⓘ (25 December 1931 – 14 August 1996) was a Nigerian-born artist who settled in Britain in the 1940s,[1] only once returning to his homeland for two days in the 1970s,[2] although he remained concerned with African political struggles.[3] According to Rasheed Araeen, Egonu was "perhaps the first person from Africa, Asia or the Caribbean to come to Britain after the War with the sole intention of becoming an artist."[4] According to critic Molara Wood, "Egonu's work merged European and Igbo traditions but more significantly, placed Africa as the touchstone of modernism. In combining the visual languages of Western and African art, he helped redefine the boundaries of modernism, thereby challenging the European myth of the naïve, primitive African artist."[5]

  1. ^ "Uzo Egonu", Diaspora Artists.
  2. ^ Ulrich Clewing, "Three hues for Piccadilly Circus" Archived 16 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Culturebase.net, 22 June 2003.
  3. ^ "Uzo Egonu, Artist", InIVA.
  4. ^ Rasheed Araeen, "Recovering Cultural Metaphors", The Other Story catalog, 1989, p. 86.
  5. ^ Molara Wood, "Uzo Egonu's Vision of London", 30 September 2005. First published in The Guardian, Lagos, on 19 December 2004.