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‘Each married artist is a polygamist’
(The Sun)

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By MAURICE ARCHIBONG

Fondly called TS, Tunde Soyinka, is one of Nigeria’s more popular artists. Working in the media possibly inspires lots of previews and reviews of any exhibition of which TS is a part, but there’s plenty in this man’s art to trigger publicity generally. But let’s digress a little.

TS is one of a few artists married to a fellow artist. Mrs Koko-Eka Grace Soyinka is a ceramist and poet. Owing to the tempestuous nature of some artists, their devout dedication to work, even at the expense of personal or family welfare, many observers have come to believe that a union of two artists could be likened to a coming together of magnetic like-poles.

Protagonist of this view holds up many examples of failed artists’ associations in different parts of the world to buttress their argument. To these skeptics, a marriage of two creative persons could prove one artist too many. So, we couldn’t help asking TS what his experience has been, being married to Koko.

TS said they have had no peculiar problems due to practising the same profession. TS thinks two artists could conveniently live as husband and wife; after all, every human being is a creative animal. Whatever one’s occupation, the practitioner needs some elements of creativity, and skill, for that’s where the solution to many problems lay”. TS, therefore, believes that creativity should be encouraged.
“I don’t think I could have endured marriage with a different kind of person. You know, two good creative heads are better than one. We rub off on each other, so it works better. And don’t forget that timeless adage: ‘Iron sharpeneth iron’”, he recalled.

As to how he inspires his wife’s calling and vice versa, TS revealed that whenever he gets up to work, Koko, who also owns a studio in the house, sets about working too. In a nutshell, this union of two artists is one of mutual stimulation, we surmised. You could say that Minerva, that Roman goddess of wisdom and patroness of the arts has pitched tent with TS and Koko, since both became espoused.

Monogamous Polygamist
TS has only one wife but he could well pass for a polygamist, being also virtually married to the arts. “Hardly does a day pass, that I do not draw”, he told us. Apart from drawing, he paints, attends to his musical calling as Music Director and pianist/organist. TS also writes verses and works most nights, which brings us to thoughts on the artist by a few famous names.

In his book “Conduct of Life: Wealth”, Ralph Waldo Emerson describes Art as a jealous mistress”, that could be extrapolated to mean that any devout artist, who enjoys a happy married life, is a monogamous polygamist. So, how was TS coping with Mrs. Grace Soyinka and Art, the jealous mistress, according to Emerson?
“My wife, being an artist too, understands the ways of the creative soul under inspiration. Apart from this, she’s a very special being and has been very, very supportive”, TS said.
While art could be a consuming mistress, it seldom gives much back, by way of lucre, to its devotee, it seems. Emerson again: “If a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider”.

Welsh-born literary icon George Bernard Shaw further drives this point home in his work titled “Man and Superman”. According to Shaw, “The true artist will let his wife starve; his children go bare-foot, his mother drudge for a living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art”.
Again, since TS has had less than two solo shows per decade, on the average, over the last 25 years, we had to ask him whether or not his art yielded enough to offset all bills?
TS admits it would have been difficult relying on exhibitions to make ends meet, especially for an artist whose creativity is not prodded by mercantilist inclinations.

That, apparently, is why he took various salaried jobs over the years. He intoned, however, that he earned his keep on each employment, even as he stayed up many nights to answer his private creative impulses. In a nutshell, we reckoned, TS hasn’t been an ill provider.

TS recently resigned his appointment with InsightGrey, a leading international advertising agency. He was Deputy Creative Director of InsightGrey until Tuesday May 24, 2005. Although TS has been part of numerous group shows, locally and internationally, he has had only three one-man shows in over 25 years of art practice. To find the time to come out for each of these solo appearances, TS had to quit his job. The first time was in 1989, prior to his debut one-man exhibition, “Lyrics of a Troubadour”, followed by a resignation encore as prelude to “Beauty will save the Republic” in 1995. Thus, TS’s latest disengagement is bound to raise the question: “Is history poised to repeat itself”? Only time can tell.
Born on May 14, 1962 TS joined InsightGrey, for the second time, in 1997 after his second solo, which took place at Didi Museum. His first employment with the Troika Group was at Link Studios, a sister company to Insight.

TS might be one of Nigeria’s more famous artists given the raving reviews he has enjoyed in the media over the years, but not many art watchers could really imagine how talented he is.

The Universal Man
In the beginning, each man was a good whole. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was also an astronomer, physicist and medical practitioner. Archimedes, another ancient Athenian, was a philosopher, mathematician and physicist, while many centuries later we had Wolfgang von Goethe, the German mathematician, poet, philosopher as well as Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, who was also an astronomer and anatomist. These are a few examples of the Universal Man. As time went on though, man became less and less inclined to holistic knowledge and toppled into a labyrinth of compartmentalization, and later specialization.

The result is that today, we have a good theologian that knows nothing about philosophy or a general, who thinks nothing of fine arts. What a shame…To paraphrase the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, what we have today is hand, a good head but no more a good man.

However, each contemporary society boasts some individuals that are still ambidextrous, capable of grasping knowledge in the arts as well as the sciences. Nigeria has such persons, who are at home both with the arts and the sciences. A good example is Professor Nta Elijah Henshaw, Obong of Calabar and “Bagbimo Oodua”. “Edidem” Henshaw is an author and professor of dental surgery. And who could forget Professor Yusuf Grillo, who chose to study fine art, even after gaining Advance Level passes in Physics, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics.

In the same vein, TS must have surprised many of his classmates at Loyola College Ibadan, when he opted for a degree in Fine Arts. Owing to his flair for the sciences, a lot of his high school peers actually thought TS had been admitted to study medicine at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

At Loyola, TS not only stood out as a good student of the natural sciences, his brilliance also surged to the fore, when it came to Mathematics. The result of his secondary school certificate examination, in which TS got good grades in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics; attests to the lad’s interest in Mathematics and the natural sciences. TS had gone on to study Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics at Advanced Level.

Then came a surprising turning point: Despite TS’s competence in the sciences, his very first job was, curiously, as a graphic artist in the printing unit of the National Cereals Research Institute, Ibadan. It was from that research body; TS took study leave and went to in 1979 take a degree in Art from UNN. But there were some pointers in-between, which enhance his fame as one of Nigeria’s truly versatile talented persons.

Today, TS is an outstanding figure among Nigerian cartoonists and painters. His position of Music Director of Peace Chapel, an Ikorodu, Lagos-based Pentecostal Church, bears testimony to his interest in music, too. TS plays keyboards (piano and organ). With regard to tongues, TS speaks his mother tongue (Yoruba), Nigeria’s lingua franca (English) and wait for this, Igbo!
We happen to know another Yoruba-born alumnus of the Nsukka Art School, who speaks flawless Igbo, Tayo Adenaike. How does his eloquence compare to that of Mr. Adenaike? “Oh, but you know that I’ve been living outside the East for a long time now,” TS responded. TS might have lost some fluency and vocabulary but his comprehension has not suffered that much.

“You know, speaking a language frequently aids retention of fluency. Since I have not been enjoying that exercise, I can’t speak Igbo as much as I used to, those days”, he rued.

As to how he came by comprehension of the Igbo language, in the first place, TS reminded us he spent his undergraduate years in Igbo land. But we know a number of Yoruba-born UNN alumni that can’t tell the difference between “Enyi, kedu” and “K’ebe ina aga”, we countered.

“OK, I was more adventurous. During many holidays, instead of returning home, I used to follow some friends to their villages, to remain in the East, especially during Christmas just to interact”, he recalled.
Following people home, and his interest in travelling to have a better worldview, led TS to explore Okigwe, Mgbidi, Aba, Onitsha, Ikot Ekpene, Eket, Port Harcourt, Owerri, among other towns in Eastern Nigeria. TS revealed one of his most memorable trips in Eastern Nigeria took place in 1984/85, when he spent some time in Oguta at the home of the Oputas. “At that time, Charly Boy (Mr. Charles Oputa) had just launched the album ‘Obodo giri-giri’, shortly after his return from America”.

TS went to Oguta because Charly Boy called on him to come and design a part of the musician’s studio there.
It is not only Eastern Nigeria TS sojourned in, those days. Adventure, curiousity and work took him to some northern settlements, too. TS travelled to Pankshin, Jos, Gboko etcetera getting a feel of the locals, savouring their cuisine and sketching the landscapes.

Moor for a troubadour
Each of the world’s greatest prophets went through some wilderness experience. The same applies to the sincere artist, who must live out his “Wander Jahre” (Vander yahreh) or wilderness years.
Consciously or unconsciously TS was getting acclimatized for the future by travelling across Estern Nigeria during his student days at UNN. After traversing that part of Nigeria, and other areas bedsides, he came to the realization that “we’re all one”. Thus, when it came to starting a family, he felt comfortable marrying a non-Yoruba girl.

About 17 years ago, TS met a young woman named Koko-Eka Grace Akpakip. Koko-Eka, as TS fondly calls her, hails from Ibeno, where the multinational oil giant Mobile has its operational headquarters. Seven years later, Koko and TS were married. Their union is blessed with three children; two daughters, Ikanniwa (9) and Edidi (2) as well as a son, Oorebo, who is now six years old.

As to what made him settle on Koko for his life partner, TS recalled: “I must have seen a bit of my mom in her before I told myself, she’s the one”. Fortunately for Koko and TS, his mom and fiancée hit it off, at first sight. TS is one of his parents’ six children. However, TS’s five siblings include only one sister. To his mom, Koko probably fit the picture of another daughter.

Some couples have been known to quarrel because one of the spouses forgot the other’s birthday or their wedding anniversary. TS has never had such a problem, for this couple chose a mnemonic date to wed: Koko’s birthday, which is November 16.
Style
In "Sorbonne Lecture", French writer Victor Cousin dwelt on “L’art pour l’art” (art for art’s sake). Asian-born critic Cao Yu believes art for art’s sake is the philosophy of the well fed. Although TS could relish in L’art pour l’art, he prefers to use his art as a medium of communication. Thus, aside the graphic appeal, his art must convey a message. His’ is art that speaks: it should incite, excite, remind, inspire or what have you, for our society poses too many paradoxes and the artist could not relent in contributing towards the progress we yearn for.

In “The English Renaissance”, Irish-born literary celebrity Oscar Wilde (Fingall O’ Flahertie Wills) holds the view that “The secret of life is in art”. Conversely, one could say that the secret of Soyinka’s Art is in life. It is from the social turmoil, political distortions and other upheavals that have come to characterize living in these climes, that TS finds basic motifs for some works. But the negative does not overwhelm TS because he also draws inspiration from nature, the landscape, the flora and fauna as well as harmony as could be found among decent Nigerian people. TS believes most people (the silent and tolerant majority), are good and humane. Irrespective of the confounding corruption among members of the political class, TS thinks that even this group has its decent people, too. That is the beauty, TS also celebrates through his art.

Ultimately, he believes, such beauty could be harnessed or mobilized to over-ride the adversarial forces. This probably inspired “Beauty will save the Republic”, his second one-man exposition, which took place in 1995.

Writing in “The Guardian” of February 18, 1989, Jahman Anikulapo aptly encapsulated TS’s efforts thus: “Soyinka’s unique qualities in the works, however, are his predilictive sensitivity to the socio-economic “characters of his society”. This was a preview of “The Lyrics of a Troubadour”, TS’s solo premiere.

In his review of the works that came on view in “The lyrics of a Troubadour”, painter and critic Olu Oguibe observed: “The essence of Tunde Soyinka’s works is not only in their lyrical formalistic appeal but also in their thematic thrust…” Oguibe added that “Soyinka’s experiments in water colour and the possibilities of colour and the limited space have led him unto other grounds, the latest of which is sgraffito”. In some of these works, displayed 16 year ago, Oguibe saw evident gains of the freedom in colour of water colour, but observed: “The use of line as a metaphor and not a mere means of modeling was not yet there”. Are they there, now? Again, time will tell.

Whether working with water colour, oil or pastel, TS’s paintings feature a lot of blue. Is this sheer coincidence or a premeditated reflection of the melancholy of our ambience?
If the artist is a mirror to his society, then there really isn’t much to cheer here, which is the reason some renditions by TS come across as somber. In spite of this artist’s acclaimed skill in drawing and the fascinating throw-ups that water colour could conjure, many of this artist’s works are likely to elicit in the viewer more of deep reflection than mere aesthetics appeal. Whether the painting is sublime blue or indigo, or conversely bright orange, TS aims to invoke sobriety and contemplation. He succeeds most of the time.

Anyone looking for abstract paintings probably needs to go searching away from the studios of TS, who prefers realism and plenty of naturalism, as could be seen from his many waterscape and rocky landscape paintings. Given this kind of bend, TS is not one of the nation’s avant-garde artists.

But this is not to say that TS is immune to that drive to explore, which propels the genuine artist to another pedestal. TS’s most famous experimental effort is probably the sgraffito technique that he brought on view in many works during “Lyrics of the Troubadour”. Since that show, 16 years ago, TS has continued to explore graffito, and could only have mastered this technique. Apart from his snub of abstract representation TS has no room for allegories, either. For one, who wants his message understood, TS paints or draws things as they are. But this is not all together so.

Writing in “Midweek Concord” of February 5, 1997 Ayo Elebute correctly pointed out Soyinka’s “ability to blend realistic representation with stylization”. This could often be seen in this artist’s use of colours.

Before going into the advertising industry, TS had made his mark in the greeting cards industry as well as the Nigerian media. He was once Deputy Editor of “The Cartoonist” Magazine; Principal Artist, “Newswatch” Communications; and Art Consultant to "Change Monthly".

In 1994, TS won the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) for best Editorial Cartoon of the year. In 195/96, he bagged the Nnamdi Azikiwe Cartoonist of the Year prize of the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA). The year 1997 was also a very rewarding one for TS, whose work, The Total Quartz SJ 5000, won him the Grand Poster Award Winning Design, of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN). Now, you see another reason this artist enjoys much attention from the media.

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