SEMIOLOGICAL AND UTILITARIAN INTRODUCTION OF MAPOLY ART SCHOOL, ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA

Abstract

The aesthetics of African arts have been appreciated by a lot of scholars and used as inspiration for their works. Upon getting motivation from African arts, Picasso stepped up his works and modernised Western arts through African inspiration. According to Picasso, most present-day Western arts were sourced from African origin and upon which he started a revolution in Western arts (Dereje, Liu and Zhou, 2013). Evidence from excavations and readily accessible works from various Nigerian Art cultures such as Nok, Benin, Igbo Ukwu, Owo, Esie and Ife were not enough to advance a developmental reason to fuel the passionate drive of Aina Onabolu that Art be included in Nigerian education curriculum as at 1915, 18 years after the discovery of first bronze works from Africa through the Benin punitive expedition (Alex Marshal, 2 1) and these works were deemed to have been made hundreds of years earlier.