Uzo Egonu

• Name — Uzo Egonu • Born — 25 December 1931 • Birthplace — Onitsha, Colonial Nigeria • Died — 14 August 1996 • Place of death — London, England • Other Names — William Uzo Egonu • Occupation — Artist • Education — Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts • Children — 3 • Spouse — Katherine Madge Gee

Born in Onitsha, Nigeria, Egonu was in his early teens when in 1945 he first travelled to England. Having already begun to draw while attending Sacred Heart College, Calabar, before leaving for the UK, he eventually studied Fine Arts and Typography at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London, from 1949 to 1952, and went on to participate in a number of exhibitions. Nigeria had been a British colony since 1914 and Nigerian artists were influenced by Pan-Africanism as well as European art. The Nigerian Civil War influenced Egonu profoundly. Egonu settled in Britain and only visited Nigeria once in 1977. He is credited for merging European modernism with traditional Igbo sculpture and uli wall art. Obiora Udechukwu hailed Egonu as "perhaps Africa's finest painter" and his art was highly regarded by the British Black Art Movement. However, Egonu refused to be categorised. In 1977, he was among the Black artists and photographers whose work represented the UK at the Second World Festival of Black Arts and African Culture (Festac '77) in Lagos, Nigeria (the others being Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Mercian Carrena, Armet Francis, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Neil Kenlock, Donald Locke, Cyprian Mandala, Ossie Murray, Sue Smock, Lance Watson and Aubrey Williams). In 1983, the International Association of Art called on Egonu to advise it for the rest of his life, an honour that he shared with such painters and sculptors as Henry Moore, Joan Miró and Louise Nevelson. Egonu was also included in two major 20th-century exhibitions featuring Black British artists: in 1989, the landmark show at London's Hayward Gallery, The Other Story, and seven years later Transforming the Crown, curated by the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York City. He was a member of the Rainbow Art Group, an initiative set up in 1978, which recognized the main problem that exists in relation to the work and aspirations of all ethnic minorities in the art world, including their own. In later years, Egonu suffered two heart attacks and deteriorating eyesight, and on 14 August 1996 he died in London, at the age of 64.

• Solo • 2004: Uzo Egonu's London, Museum of London, London • 1997: Uzo Egonu: Past and Present in the Diaspora, InIVA, London • 1986: Uzo Egonu Now 1986: Stateless People, Royal Festival Hall, London • Group • 2015: No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990, Guildhall Art Gallery, London • 2001: The Short Century, Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany; House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany • 1997: Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1996, New York City • 1990: Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry • 1989: The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain, Hayward Gallery, London • 1986: Third World Within, Brixton Art Gallery, London (31 March–22 April) • 1975: Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennial, Graphic Art Biennial, Ljubljana, Slovenia • 1973: Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London