BiographyPast Exhibitions
Available Works
30 Jun - 30 Jul 2005
Asiru Olatunde (1919-1992) Chasing Dreams
30 June - 30 July
I first met Asiru when I moved to Oshogbo in 1958. Opposite my house there was a blacksmiths' workshop, where half a dozen craftsmen forged hoes, machetes, knives and other agricultural tools. When an important man walked past their workshop, they would use their anvils like a talking drum to recite his 'okiri' (poetic names) and the person so honoured would reward them with a few coins placed on their foreheads. There was a sad man sitting amongst them, who was too ill to do the strenuous work of a blacksmith. I was told that he had developed a heart disease that prevented him from pursuing the craft he had inherited from his forefathers. That was Asiru Olatunde. He was a gentle person who often came to visit me and we became good friends.
- from the catalogue introduction by Ulli Beier.
Three years after they first met, Beier discovered a beautifully crafted animal brooch lying in the sand outside his house. He soon learnt that it had been made some years earlier by his friend, Asiru Olatunde. Recognising the originality of his metalwork, Beier encouraged him to make more jewellery that he could sell for him to his colleagues at the University. From such small beginnings, few could have anticipated the remarkable development that took place in Asiru's art when Beier provided the blacksmith with large sheets of copper and aluminium. Working with a hammer and punch, Olatunde began beating out complex narratives that combined the folklore of the Yoruba people with Biblical and historical stories. Within a few years his visionary panels had been exhibited around the world amongst them the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Chasing Dreams is an exhibition that celebrates the extraordinary story of one of the most original self-taught artists of the last fifty years.
