The Sisters

Ogbonnaya Nwagbara was a member of the new Zaria Art Society founded by Uche Okeke and other art students at the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology (NCAST), now Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, in 1958. He obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts with a specialization in commercial art and graphics from the college in 1962. He went on to attend the Mbari Artists and Writers Workshop, Ibadan, where he studied etching and engraving techniques in 1963. His works were exhibited at the prestigious First World Festival of Negro Arts Exhibition, Dakar, Senegal, in 1966. Enshrined in his style was the “Natural Synthesis” ideology promulgated by the art society and its members.

The Sisters is a representation of 4 young women of the Igbo ethnic extraction, the artist exploring his local heritage. They are elegantly dressed, possibly for a ceremony, in the Igbo traditional regalia with wrappers tied to their chest and covering their entire bodies and their necks ornamented with red bead necklaces. Tiara can be found on the head of one of them while bead bracelets are visible on the wrist of the other. Non-naturalistic, yet aesthetically appealing, the painting immediately brings to mind the attributes of women from the eastern region of the country. The common attributes of elegance, good-looking, charming, gorgeous and most importantly, beauty are emphasized.