Twins Seven Seven

Twins Seven Seven, born Omoba Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki (3 May 1944 – 16 June 2011)[1] in Ogidi, Kogi State, Nigeria, was a Nigerian painter, sculptor and musician. He 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,[2] a Yoruba town in south-western Nigeria. Twins Seven Seven went on to become one of the best known artists of the Osogbo School.

Twins Seven Seven
Born(1944-05-03)3 May 1944
Ogidi, Kogi State, Nigeria
Died16 June 2011(2011-06-16) (aged 67)
Ibadan, Nigeria
NationalityNigerian
Known forPainting and sculpture
MovementOshogbo school
Spouse(s)Nike Davies-Okundaye (divorced)
Healing of Abiku Children (1973) by Twins Seven Seven

Early life and education

He was born as Omoba Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyekale Osuntoki to a father, Aitoyeje, who was a Muslim from Ibadan, Oyo State, and a mother, Mary, who was a Christian from Ogidi, Kogi State, in Nigeria.[3] 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,[4][5] Nigeria having the world's highest twinning rate.[6]

Twins Seven Seven's introduction to the arts was not through painting, but through dance at the age of 16,[5] part of his inspiration for dance stemming from a Yoruba custom that stated that a woman who had birthed twins should dance throughout the streets for money, so Twins Seven Seven danced on his mother's behalf.[5]

He attended primary and secondary school, as well as briefly attending a teachers' training college for one year, and although he achieved academic success in his examinations, he detested the structure of classrooms and grew stronger interests toward art and music.[7]

After performing a show in Oshogbo at the Mbari Club,[8] Twins Seven Seven encountered Ulli Beier, a German editor and scholar living there at the time, who with his wife Georgina Beier ran an artist workshop.[5] The Oshogbo school prided itself as not being a place that taught artists, but rather provided opportunities to confirm the individual vision of the different artists.[9] At the Beier workshop, Seven Seven was given basic tools and minimal instruction throughout his artistic processes. Through this, Seven Seven was able to create his own unique style of painting.[5]

Career and later life

Twins Seven Seven's 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.

Some of his early work was influenced by his reading a copy of Amos Tutuola's book My Life in the Bush of Ghosts that was gifted to him by Georgina Beier.[10] However, as he progressed as an artist, Twins Seven Seven focused more on imagery based on Yoruba folklore and his own dreams.[7]

He attempted to avoid exposing himself to other painters who could potentially influence his unique individual painting style. Upon his first visit to the United States, he refused to attend a Picasso show,[5] stating: "No, I don't want to risk being influenced by anyone else. All I am doing is in me already. I am not going to sit down in a studio and learn to mix colors like an European painter."[11]

In 1972, Twins Seven Seven taught in the US at Merced College in California and at the Haystack Mountain Crafts School, Deer Isle.[12]

In July 1982, he survived a car crash — although an erroneous radio announcement of his death was made after he was pulled unconscious from the wrecked vehicle — and was subsequently given an artificial hip and confined to bed for 18 months.[3]

In the 1990s his work appeared in major exhibitions in Spain, Finland, Mexico, the Netherlands, England, Germany, and the US.[3]

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.[3]

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".[13]

Twins Seven Seven died aged 67 in Ibadan on 16 June 2011, following complications from a stroke.[1]

Private collections
  • Olivier Doria d'Angri (Rome/London)
  • The Glendonwyn family (Madrid/Tenerife/Dubai)
  • Patrick and Awele Okigbo (Abuja, Nigeria)

Discography
  • Slang in Trance (Caravan of Dreams, 1986)

With Ronald Shannon Jackson

Notes
  1. William Grimes (3 July 2011). "Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Nigerian Artist, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
  2. "Twins Seven Seven — About the Artist", Indigo Arts Gallery.
  3. Henry Glassie, "Prince Twins Seven-Seven: In Memoriam", African Arts, Spring 2012, via Material Culture.
  4. Petra Stegmann, "Seven Twins" at ChickenBones: A Journal.
  5. Mundy-Castle, A. C.; Mundy-Castle, Vicky (1972). "Twins Seven Seven". African Arts. 6 (1): 8–13. doi:10.2307/3334634. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3334634.
  6. "The Land Of Twins | BBC World Service". www.bbc.co.uk. 7 June 2001. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  7. Pemberton, John (2002). Beier, Ulli (ed.). "Ulli Beier and the Oshogbo Artists of Nigeria". African Studies Review. 45 (1): 115–124. doi:10.1017/s0002020600031577. ISSN 0002-0206. JSTOR 1515010.
  8. Naifeh, Steven W. (1981). "The Myth of Oshogbo". African Arts. 14 (2): 25–88. doi:10.2307/3335724. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3335724.
  9. "Georgina Beier". africa.si.edu. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  10. Cosentino, Donald J. (1997). "In Memoriam: Amos Tutuola, 1920-1997". African Arts. 30 (4): 16–17. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3337549.
  11. "African Art Today: Four Major Artists". African Arts. 8 (1): 61–62. 1974. doi:10.2307/3334924. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3334924.
  12. The African Studies program at Morgan State University Presents "Prince Twins Seven Seven". ChickenBones: A Journal.
  13. "Prince Twins Seven-Seven Named UNESCO Artist for Peace". 25 May 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2011.

Sources

Twins Seven-Seven, A Dreaming Life: An Autobiography of Chief Twins Seven-Seven, the Ekerin-Bashorun Atunluto of Ibadanland, Bayreuth: Bayreuth University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-3-927510-61-6

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