A critical essay by Ayọ̀ Akínwándé performs a forensic 'autopsy' of the Tate Modern exhibition 'Nigerian Modernism: Art and Independence.' The review dissects the show's structure, arguing it fails in its curatorial framework by isolating Nigerian artists within a regional category, using ethnographic display methods, relying on incomplete research, and excluding key artists and historical context.
The critique matters because it challenges a major institution's presentation of a non-Western modernist canon. The essay contends the exhibition, despite its intentions, reinforces the view of modernism as a European invention by neglecting to show modernism's deep debt to African visual traditions and by presenting a static, incomplete narrative that does violence to the longer, more complex arc of Nigerian modern art from the late 19th century onward.