By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

Missing works, looted artworks, documentation, record keeping, the question of who should take custody of stolen works returned from foreign countries, and similar topics were some of the issues that dominated discussions during the 2023 Cartoonists Association of Nigeria (CARTAN)’s Cartoon, Animation, Comic and Art Festival (CACAFest) themed “Drawing Attention”.

The CARTAN’s CACAFest which ran from 14-19 November 2023 at Freedom Park, Lagos featured a plethora of renowned visual artists, collectors, gallerists, art students, arts journalists and writers.

Speakers during the Visual Arts Dialogue segment titled “Artists, where are your works?” which took place at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, included the keynote speaker, Dr. Kolade Oshinowo, painter, Ex-Deputy Provost, YABATECH.  The panelists included Duke Asidere (painter/art activist), Dr. Kunle Adeyemi (painter/academics) and Juliet Ezenwa Pearce (painter/curator).  The Chairman was Dr. Newton Jibunoh (art collector/founder, DIDI Museum, Lagos). 

The discourse centered around the relationship between the artist and patrons and collectors of his works. Issues such as trusts and dependability were raised, all aimed at sensitizing artists on the importance of documentation and record keeping.

Dr. Kolade Oshinowo said: “When you are in the studio and you are consumed, a lot goes on.” People, he said, are not interested in the process, but only in the product. “I am surprised when I see artists submit

their works for exhibition and they don’t go back to collect their works.” He said for artists to protect their works from theft and plagiarism, artists need to take the issue of documenting their works seriously.  

But Juliet Ezenwa Pearce said, “I do not agree or believe that it is the responsibility of the artist to do the job of documentation and all the paper works. As an artist myself, my challenge is getting all the “crazytivity” (creativity) out of my head onto canvas or some other expression. So, asking me to do a lot of paper work is going to be very hard. I cannot tell you that I know where all my works are. I have made special preparations to make sure that I am the one who has the largest collection; that I can say for myself. But apart from that, the artist doesn’t really have control over where and how the work is going to move or fare in this world. 

“And asking (that from) people who are creatives – if they are like me, I am going to assume that to some certain degrees they are like me – they will be too busy contemplating how to get this masquerade in my head out.”

Ezenwa said ordinarily, it is a huge challenge for artists being normal. “So, to ask me to document and chase after works that have gone out is difficult. Apart from that, the artwork produced, for people who hold these ideas like I do, we believe that arts that have come out as a product is a message that belongs to somebody else, and we don’t know who. So, the collector, patron or buyer gets in contact with these works and engages it and it speaks to them. It will not let them eat or sleep until they have acquired it.

“And so, it is more important that the collector publishes or documents or does the paper works like our collector here or patron has done. It is the responsibility of the gallery owner, the agent, the marketer, the promoter to do that. There are industries built for that purpose. Apart from that, being an African artist and being located here, we are always going to be confronted by all the oppressive systems that prevent us from taking our work directly to the New York art expo and selling it there, or selling it at the auction in New York. There will always be obstacles on our path – that, we don’t have control over.

“I am not a big artist like he (Kolade Oshinowo) is. So, in many ways he can afford to enforce his positions. Artists like me still have to beg our patrons to buy our works. We still have to soft-pedal with them, because we are going somewhere. For an artist still climbing the ropes, the ladder, trying to get there, we still have to be subservient before the buyer. Perhaps when we have become the big name that we expect to be, we can then begin to assert our positions,” Juliet Ezenwa Pearce said.

All the panelists agreed that works of artists need to be documented. The point of divergence, however, was who does the documentation – the artists who is over-encumbered with the problem of transferring what is in his or her head onto the canvas, or the art collector, agent or curator who are all parts of a whole industry created for that. 

Dr. Newton Jibunoh: “I have been collecting works for over 60 years, to be conservative. Today, I have over 2, 000 works of art, from virtually every known artist in this country. I have a serious connection with every work I collect. I am able to tell the date, why I collected the work, and what that work means to me. I’ve been having storage problem.”

Duke Asidere disagreed with Juliet. “I will first disagree with Juliet Ezenwa. I think that artists must take their works serious. I am doing a self-funded book of my works… I think that if your works mean anything to you, you don’t have to wait for the art historian to document the works for you… If you don’t document your stuff, who will do it for you?” Asidere said.

On the topic, “Artists, where are your works”, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi said artists need to know where their works are going – foreign museums and galleries, auction houses, etc. He agreed that some works do get lost in transit, and the artist is to be blamed, sometimes for his or her overzealousness. He agreed with Juliet that artists cannot do it all alone. “How I wish that our art schools will begin to have people trained for curatorial works. With that, they will be able to diversify this assignment (of documentation) so that they can approach the artist and say, “I want to manage your documentation. It will be good for everyone of us, both the artist and the curators,” Dr. Adeyemi said.