Uthman M. Ibrahim (Nigerian, born 1913)


Five watercolours: 1. A densely branched tree37.5 x 28cm (14 3/4 x 11in).2. Forest landscape with palm trees28 x 38cm (11 x 14 15/16in).3. The fruit seller37.5 x 28cm (14 3/4 x 11in).4. Haggling37.5 x 28cm (14 3/4 x 11in).5. A dance37.5 x 28cm (14 3/4 x 11in).all signed 'U.M. IBRAHIM' (lower right)watercolour on paper(5)
|ProvenanceIn the collection of L.W. Harford, director of Shell West Africa. By descent.In 1927, the colonial government appointed Kenneth Murray to act as the education officer and art supervisor for the civil service in Nigeria. In 1933, after six years of evaluating and assessment, Murray selected five students to form a class at Government College, Ibadan. Uthman M. Ibrahim was the first to be chosen. The others were Ben Enwonwu, C. Ibeto, D. Nnachy and A. Umana. These five students were collectively known as "the Murray Group". To celebrate their graduation in 1937, Murray arranged for a selection of the group's work to be exhibited in London at the Zwemmer Gallery. Ibrahim, then 24 years old, displayed nine watercolours and a terracotta sculpture titled Tortoise. The paintings depicted the fauna and flora of Nigeria, as well as traditional cultural practices.In the exhibition catalogue, Murray described Ibrahim as "the first to have training and thus, having indirectly inspired the others, is the originator of the general style of his paintings".Ibrahim and Enwonwu's sensitive renderings of Nigerian landscapes were praised by visitors who admired their "expressive forms and sense of colour". The exhibition was covered by the BBC and received glowing reviews from a number of eminent art critics. A journalist for Morning Post wrote:"There is nothing being produced in British art today equal in quality to the carvings and paintings by the Nigerian artists represented at the Zwemmer Gallery." The Zwemmer Gallery in 1937 was considered a 'centre for modernism' in London. The works by the Murray Group were interpreted by visitors as an "authentic" new development, superior in certain ways to the efforts of British modern artists. These watercolours were acquired by L.W. Harford, then director of Operations for Shell West Africa. Harford was one of Enwonwu's earliest patrons and helped him to helped him to secure a scholarship to study in England.BibliographyS. Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, (Rochester, 20080 pp.47-52.