Art Review: Descending From Heaven to Newark

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

“Ajaka of Owo or Ajaka Owa” (1944) by Akinola Lasekan

NEW JERSEY---Newark has one of the country’s oldest collections of art from Africa. “The Art of Translation: The Simon Ottenberg Gift of Modern and Contemporary Nigerian Art,” a show modest in size but heavy with history, a history that no New York museum tells. In the show — organized by Perrin Lathrop, a curatorial associate at the museum — the story starts with a watercolor by the largely self-taught painter Akinola Lasekan (1916-1972). It dates from around 1944, when Nigeria was still a British colony, and depicts, in a realist style, a famous Yoruba king, Ajaka of Owo, descending from heaven, just as the god Obatala did when he created the Yoruba people. [link]

Newark Museum: “The Art of Translation: The Simon Ottenberg Gift of Modern and Contemporary Nigerian Art” (Ends Nov. 3), 49 Washington Street; (973) 596-6550, newarkmuseum.org