#BibeliMimo
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Bibeli Mimo by Aina Onabolu (Nigerian) - Oil on canvas / 1950 - Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art - YSMA (Lagos, Nigeria) #womeninart #AinaOnabolu #art #portrait #womensart #oilpainting #portraitofawoman #bible #holybible #BibeliMimo #womensart #YemisiShyllonMuseumofArt #bibelimimo #fineart #nigerianart
Bibeli Mimo, the Yorùbá term for the Holy Bible, is a 1950 portrait of an older Yoruba woman peacefully looking directly at us in a sitting position with the holy book in her hands. The Yoruba people live in a region in West Africa throughout parts of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Sierra Leone and speak Yorùbá. She is dressed like a typical Christian of the region and time, perhaps set for a church service. Possibly because the portrait was painted during the colonial period, Onabolu chose to explore a Christian religious theme, probably to showcase the acceptance of the "new religion" of the colonial masters by his people. The first Yoruba translation of the bible was published as Bibeli Mimo in 1900 after being translated by into Yorùbá by Samuel Ajayi Crowther in the mid-1880s. Considered by many as the "father of modern Nigerian art," Aina Onabolu loved to explore themes surrounding Yoruba myths and culture, the environment and life around him in his paintings. He was born in 1882 in Ijebu-Ode, to Jacob Onabolu, a successful Ijebu merchant, and Oshunjente Onabolu, a trader. He started his primary education at St. Saviour Primary School, Ijebu-Ode in 1892. At this period of his life, he had begun to develop a strong passion for art and practiced by imitating photographs and illustrations in European magazines and books. Onabolu had become a skilled illustrator who designed charts and visual aids for school teachers at the age of 12. One of his notable portraits titled “Mrs. Spencer Savage”, 1906, is lauded as one the earliest outstanding works of modern Nigerian art. He was the first Nigerian artist to receive formal training from Europe at Académie Julian in Paris and the Royal academy of art in London. In 2018, Aina Onabolu was inducted posthumously into the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) Hall of Fame for his distinguished service to the nation and his immense contribution to the development of modern art and the teaching and practice of art in Nigeria.
January 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM