Drummers' Return

Adebayo Yusuf Cameron Grillo was born in Lagos in 1934. He was one of Nigeria’s most celebrated, exposed and educated contemporary artists. Early on as a child, he was inspired by the traditional Yoruba ceremonies, festivals and other cultural activities around him at the Brazilian Quarters of Lagos where he was born and raised. He was very privileged to benefit from the tutelage and artistic practices of the early modern art pioneers and masters like Aina Onabolu, Akinola Lasekan and J.K Oye who were the first certified, British trained art educators in Nigeria and were engaged in teaching art in different schools and colleges across the nation during the colonial period. Grillo would go on, in the 1950’s, to continue his art education at the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology (NCAST) where he obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts and a post-graduate Diploma in Art Education. He was a member of the famous Zaria Art Society (popularly known as the Zaria Rebels). In 1966, he left Zaria to study at the Cambridge University, UK and also travelled across Europe and the USA. He was the Head of Department of Art and Printing at the Yaba College of Technology, an office he served for over 25 years. Grillo rose to international prominence and recognition between the 1960’s and 1970’s, when he exhibited his first corpus of works as a pro artist. His works are deeply rooted in the traditional Yoruba philosophy and sculpture in their characteristics. The most dominant colour in his paintings is blue, a reference to the adire and resist-dye textiles common among the Yoruba people. Other favorite colours are purple and green which are traditional chromatic colours.

Drummers’ Return is a representation of Yoruba talking drummers dressed in Agbada who, as the title implies, are probably on their way home after an event. Gángan, the Yoruba talking drum has been part of the heritage of the people for ages and drumming is a very essential aspect of the music and live cultural performances in Yorubaland. The traditional talking drummers are very skilled in the act of “Drumminication”, a system of communication common amongst different African ethnic societies that involves the sounds from drums. As common in Grillo’s style, the characters seem to be arrested in a rather restrained motion and one might guess they are reminiscing and chatting about their performance earlier during the day. The stretching/elongation of forms and images common in his paintings is also noticeable. As an artist, Grillo fuses the western techniques and style learned during his formative training with his rich Yoruba artistic history and heritage in the philosophy of “Natural Synthesis” promulgated by the Zaria Art Society and its members.