I still paint at 82 – Fasuyi

Veteran artist, Adebanjo Adesuyi, speaks on his career as he is set for an exhibition to mark his 82nd birthday, AKEEM LASISI writes

For elder statesman and visual artist, Pa Adebanjo Adesuyi, being 82 years old is simply being 82 years young as an artist. He believes that age should not be a barrier to artistic production and this is evident in the fact that Adesuyi, who is the first graduate of painting in Nigeria – from the Nigeria College of Arts and Science, Zaria, in 1959 –  is still very active in the studio.

An evidence of this is the fact that he is set to exhibit 82 new works to mark his 82nd birthday. The programme holding at his The Resource Place in Adeniyi Jones area of Lagos will feature the exhibition, a lecture and a drawing competition for students, all between April 17 and 22.

Many stakeholders, including Prof. Adamu Beikie, Prince Yemisi Shyllon, star artists such as Bruce Onabrakpeya, Kolade Osinowo, Jerry Buhari and Simon Ikpakoronyi, will play different roles.  So also is the Society of Nigerian Artists.

Ever-outspoken Adesuyi says he devotes time to creating new works.

“My pallet is still wet,” he says. “There is no age to creativity. As a creative artist, art helps in planning for your old age. It keeps you busy.  It is not necessarily about making money, but for you to live a full life.”

A good number of Adesuyi’s recent works, which are among the 82 for exhibition, are those that speak to the socio-political problems facing Nigeria. As a result, he says his career is no more about the subjects he explores but those he ‘releases’.

One of such is titled Mixed Feelings, a painting that presents the dilemma of that face parents of a Chibok Girl, who has just returned from captivity. She came with a child whose father no one knows.

“Are the returnees’ parents happy about the child whose father they do not know?” Fasuyi asks.

While another one, Did you Rape me, raises questions about undergraduates who claim that guys rape them, when they too operate in suspicious circumstances, Unknown Soldier pricks the conscience of the viewer on some of the rape cases that have been reported in IDP camps.

Others include Even the Gods are Hungry, The Burden of African Woman and Family Planning Ke? One work that, however, particularly shows that Adesuyi is a very philosophical artist is the one titled Departure Lounge. The artist got the idea one day when he was waiting alongside other people at the departure lounge of an airport. But instead of painting an airport scene, he gives the viewer the painting of a corpse going through the rites that will eventually lead it into the earth.

“When you are eighty or above, there is no way nature will not catch up with you one day. So, the work is about the traditional burial rite. I am looking at a day when all of you will come for my burial – believing my children will invite you,” he notes. punch