The Flutist

Born in Nigeria in 1931, Uzo Egonu went on to settle in Britain in the 1940s. He studied Fine Arts and Typography at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London from 1941 to 1952. Here he became very attune with the ideas in his immediate environment while keeping abreast of African political struggles back home. He is acclaimed to have helped redefine the boundaries of modernism, thereby challenging the European myth of the naive, primitive African artist.

In The Flutist, Egonu graphically depicts a young man smoking a pipe with a flute resting on his lap. His use of cool hues like blue, yellow and purple gives the viewer a feeling of serenity.