Iya Agba

Akinola Lasekan was born S.A Oladetimi in Owo, Ondo State in 1916. He changed his name to Akinola Lasekan in 1941. He was one of the pioneers of Nigerian modernism in art who was famous for portraiture. He was a self-thought artist before his colonial art education by the then British administration in the early 20th century. He was part of the first set of students formally trained by the English art teacher, Kenneth Murray who was sent to Nigeria by the colonial education department. His career started as a textile designer with the Compagnie Française-Africaine Occidental in 1935. Between 1936 to 1940 he worked with the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Bookshop, Lagos where he created bible story illustrations and calendars. In the 1940’s he and his peers became Nigeria’s first set of indigenous formal art educators and taught in government colleges and mission schools all over the country. In 1961, he joined the faculty of the new School of Fine Arts, now the Department of Fine and Applied Art, of the University of Nigeria Nsukka.

Lasekan loved to explore themes surrounding Yoruba myths and culture in his paintings. In the traditional Yoruba society, it is not common to address someone older than you by their names worse still if the person in question could be the age of your grandparents. Iya Agba is a title of family relationship in traditional Yoruba culture which translates to "grandmother" or its equivalents in English. So, in traditional Yoruba societies, as a sign of respect, rather than addressing elderly women by their names, the younger people will usually use the term "Iya Agba". The Yoruba people of Nigeria are fondly known for their exquisite gestures of respect especially towards the elderly. The painting is a portrait of an elderly Yoruba woman.