Introduction
The development of any art depends largely on how it I s critiqued and historicized. Art criticism and history, on their own part, depend on journals, magazines, books, and other publications in the fulfilment of their roles in the socialising process of education. With the lack-lustre publishing culture in Nigeria, the propagation of Nigerian art, and ultimately its development, falls heavily on few available journals and magazines.

In fact, in the last thirty years, magazines and journals have made very significant contributions to the development of contemporary Nigeria art. This study therefore seeks to examine their roles of these and other publications in such development. But before this, it is pertinent to define what is meant here by the terms, “Nigeria” and “Contemporary,” in order to place the thesis in the proper hermeneutic and historical perspectives.

In the context of this paper we shall be looking at the term, Nigeria, more from the geo-political point of view than from any stylistic implications. This approach presupposes that Nigerian art should be understood here as to any art produced in Nigeria by both indigenous and expatiate artists and may also include the works of Nigeria artists living and working abroad. Owing to the multi-ethnic nature of Nigeria society, there have emerged several art traditions and styles, which are functions of peculiar cultural experiences. Hence the word Nigerian, when it is applied to stylistics, becomes problematic. In fact, when it is thus characterised, it threatens to nullify itself in the face of a hydra-headed ambiguity. With Nigerian, therefore, we will be referring to made in Nigeria art rather than made of Nigeria art.

But it is not only Nigeria art that present such ambiguity. African art, including that of Nigeria has bee classified into two major categories: the traditional and the contemporary. Within are its implications.

Knowing that this term has acquired some ambiguous connotations in Nigerian art discursive parlance, its usage in this exercise will be time-oriented. It will be used to refer to the art of a generation (between 30 and 60 years) as against its other embarrassing usage as a synonym for elitist art. The impression that has been created in the Nigeria art scene is that contemporary is the opposite of traditional. There has also been the tacit attempt to give a stylistic tinge to the term, contemporary, often confusing it with the equally ambiguous term, modern Nigeria art. However, it is evident that the word has not succeeded in these connections. Rather those connotations have become topics of serious debate. Contemporary denote a time frame and for the present work, not exceeding 60 years.

SURVEY
Contemporary Nigeria art owes a great deal to The Nigerian Teacher (later Nigeria Magazine), which was first, issued over 60 years age. Published by the Federal Department of Culture, the magazine focused its interest on issues in national development. Before the end of the 1930s, it had been renamed Nigeria and later Nigeria Magazine, before its disappearance in the late eighties. While the Nigeria Magazine was consolidating its pioneering role in the late sixties, Okike Journal was founded in 1971 by the cream of literary experts, including Chinua Achebe. Although the journal could be described as literaro-artistic, collaborated with Uche Okeke to found the celebrated New Culture, which did not confine its interest to the fine arts alone. Besides the performing arts and architecture also got fair attention in Nwoko’s New Culture.

The disappearance of New Culture barely a year after it was founded, there seems to have left lacuna I n the publication of scholarly journals with keen interest in the fine arts. But the advent of The Eye in 1992 seems to have checked the schism. However, it should be noted that the absence of straitjacket art magazines and journals did not totally frustrate the business of art propagation nor did it hinder art development. For as has been indicated, there were other journals, which, though they tended to marginalize art, also contributed to the development of Nigeria art. Apart from Achebe’s Okike, there were Kurio Africana, Kiabara, Black Orphenus, Transition (later Ch’Indaba and New Transition), Omabe, The Muse, and many others. Of course, besides these, there were the numerous magazines, some of which were Europe based, which demonstrated appreciable interest in the advancement of Nigeria art. These included: New African, West Africa, Africa Now, among others. These are largely Europe-based, although very well circulated globally. O n the home front, weekly news magazines like Newswatch, Tell, Quality, Point, and some obscure others have also contributed in no small measure.

To better appreciate the contributions of these various magazines and the afore-mentioned journals, a brief analysis of their contents becomes imperative. After this it will be necessary to categorise the publications for a more comprehensive study. The categorization will be as sequential as possible in order to locate each publication in its proper place in history. Also, for the purpose of this study, only the notable publications like Nigeria Magazine, Black Orpheus, Okike, New Culture, Egghead, Positive Review, The Muse, Omabe, Kurio Africana and The Eye will be discussed. These are not the only magazines and journals, which have shown commitment towards the cause of art development in Nigeria. But for demands of concision only some major publications will be used to define the scope of this study. Some of the news magazines mentioned earlier will also be critically examined general; other will be put aside for a future study.

THE MAGAZINE CALLED NIGERIA
The title, Nigeria Magazine is a household name among Nigerian artists and scholars. In its early years, even up to the nineteen-sixties when Michael Crowder briefly took over its editorship, Nigeria Magazine handled by an expatriate schoolteacher, the magazine was initially subsidized by the colonial administration and later by the post-colonial government in Nigeria. But even at that, Professor Benson reports, it remained independent of government editorial control until the 1980s when it went out of circulation”. In spite of its old-fashioned outlook, especially in its early years, the magazine’s pioneering interest in both the traditional and contemporary arts of Nigeria obviously provided part of the spin-off for post-colonial Nigeria art. It predated Ulli Beier’s Black Orpheus, and Rajat Neogy’s Transition as well as other well-known African publications such as The Classic and Drum of South Africa, Ghana’s Okyeame, or even Alioune Diop’s Parisian cultural review, Presence Africaine. In the light of these facts, therefore, the role of the Nigeria Magazine in the advancement of contemporary art in Nigeria merits a careful examination.

Nigeria Magazine made its debut in 1933 under the title The Nigeria Teacher. It was essentially a general interest magazine devoting a few of its pages to the visual arts. In a 1935 issue, for instance, one finds Kenneth Murray, then an expatriate Superintendent of Education in Nigeria, writing on “Body Painting from Umuahia,” which is evidence of interest in Uli before the more popularly acknowledged interest of the late fifties, through the early sixties and seventies which are now generally attributed to the intellectual and artistic enterprises of Uche Okeke (Egonwa, 1994; Ikwuemesi, 1995). If one goes by the contents of this 1935 issue mentioned above, one must conclude that The Nigerian Teacher’s intellectual outlook and manner of presentation were poor; its feature articles were unusually short and lacking the usual scholarly trappings which could really engage the readers.

By 1939 (first quarter), T he Nigeria Teacher had been renamed Nigeria, the title under which it was to appear until a few years later when its name was once more slightly altered. Around this time (1939) also, the publishers had found it appropriate to make generous use of artist’s illustrations on the covers. Good examples can be seen in no. 16 of 1939, no. 17 of 1939, no. 28 of 1949, and nos. 62 and 63 of 1959. Out of these, however, only the illustration on no. 17 was properly acknowledged on the cover. For the others, the publishers seemed to be content with the usual artist’s signature, that is, if the work was duly signed. Maybe they considered that mere publishing of artist’ works on a magazine cover was enough justice to him and visual arts-an area of specialisation which, then, was not one of the most attractive enterprises in Nigeria. While the no. 17 featured late Lasekan’s drawing of an “African Carpenter” and no. 16 carried what was credited as “Decorative Leather-work Design from Kano,” the latter being the most abstract and anonymous of all the illustrations examined in The Nigerian Teacher.

Another striking feature of Nigeria is that it was visibly more interested in the so-called traditional art than in t he contemporary art of the era. Evidence if this bias can be found in some of the issues cited above. But it is possible that the contemporary art could not elicit much interest in both the publishers of the magazine and the general readership until much later. Of course, several factors must have been responsible for this. First, the magazine’s editors were expatriate and might not have appreciated African art outside t he realm of masks and crafts. Second, there was the magazine’s interest in the emergent shift in idiom and paradigm as we as made it al most unfashionable for it to report fully on the artists who characterised t hat change. Considering the second factor, there exists the possibility that the magazine might have lacked adequate readership – the kind that would have made a real art review section worthwhile. Moreover, since contemporary art was contrasted in some aspects to what was generally taken as models of African art, the magazine’s editors, mainly non-Nigerian, might have lacked the necessary appreciative skills needed for understanding and interpreting those work outside the bounds of the pre-conceived models.

But by the 1960s, a remarkable improvement had taken place in many aspects of the magazine. Both the format and outlay had been improved upon; the magazine’s interest in what was now vaguely called contemporary art also increased. In addition to these, its name had again been changed to Nigeria Magazine in 1955 as against Nigeria.

It is highly pertinent to mention that at this period in the history of Nigeria art, a handful of academically trained artists had emerged and their efforts and presence must have contributed to the growing interest in their “trade.” Such pioneers, apart from Onabolu and Enwonwu, included Tayo Aiyegbusi, Felix Idubor, Bruce Onobrakpeye, Festus Idehen, Afi Ekong (a female artist) owned and operated very commodious studios and, in a few cases, reputable galleries, where works of some of their colleagues were often deposited for display and possible sales (Nigeria Magazine no. 92, March 1967, pp.2-18). These factors must have helped to create awareness in of contemporary Nigerian art which then was still struggling to free itself from some of the stylistic and thematic features of the “traditional.”

According to the issue of the Magazine just referred to above, “In Lagos alone, there (were) more than half a dozen galleries.” And as a corollary to these the famous Exhibition Center, formerly at Marina, Lagos, must be mentioned. It is on record that the Exhibition Center established in 1946, also housed the publishing machinery of Nigeria Magazine. Lawrence Allagoa also reveals that when the Center was moved to the ground floor of the independence Building near Racecourse. Of course, apart from works by Nigerian artists, those of expatriate artists living and working in the country were also reported and promoted. Good examples can be found in the persons of Eve de Negri, the Italian woman painter, and Mr. Frith, a former alien head of the Art Department at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology, Zaria. De Negri’s exhibition is significant because it was one of those, which enjoyed indigenous sponsorship. It was put together by the Society of Nigerian Artists, the Federal Society of Arts and Humanities, and the editor of Nigeria Magazine in February 1967. In the words of Lawrence Allagoa, “this exhibition, well received, brought in t he handsome sum of Ł700 from sales. This achievement, he continues, “was made possible by her exertion: she summoned all her friends and well-wishers who crowded the hall- a wonderful response.”

Mr Frith’s exhibition, on the other hand, had enjoyed a special “focus” in no. 75 of Nigeria Magazine. It seem he had exhibited at Marian before the relocation of the Exhibition centre. But at the time, the Gallery Section of the Magazine had been created and he was featured there along with Jimo Ako lo who, then was the only northern Nigerian artist to have gained national recognition. The review of Mr. Frith’s exhibition is revealing as it mentions his “considerable influence” on younger artists like Akolo, Nwoko, Okeke, and Onabrakpeya. This obviously adds to claims by some writers that the initial spin-off for the famed Zaira Art society may wellbe located beyond the society itself 9Egonwa, 1994;Ikwuemesi, 1995).

The fact that Nigeria Magazine was part of the syndicated sponsorship for De Negri,s and other such exhibitions show that its interest in contemporary art in Nigeria transcended discursive exploits. So it must be noted that in terms of the development contemporary art in Nigeria, the Magazine’s efforts and achievements can be said to be more involving than those of most others as we shall see in the ensuing g pages.

It may be relevant at this stage to mention that though Nigeria Magazine performed creditably in its efforts to promote contemporary Nigeria art, its feature articles and other essays on art were not without some problems. Moreover, it should be noted that efforts were not made by the magazine to rationalise certain discursive terms. The magazine’s concept of Nigeria art), contemporary, and traditional were not discursive terms. The magazine’s concepts of Nigerian (art), contemporary, and traditional were not defined in scope and meaning. In the present times when most art historical issues are being reappraised in the light of modern currents of thought and reality, the demerits of such uncircumcised outlook of those concepts become more glaring.

Poor language can also be discerned in some of the magazine’s contents of the 1960s. The incursion of poor phraseology into the business of criticism can be seen, for instance, in Allagoa’s (opcit) review. Pedestrian expressions, such as “a return march”,) the glib reference to sales as “achievement,” or even the use of Euro centric terminologies “Impressionism, for instance – in Allagoa’s review (opcit) can only contributed to poor presentation as they sure did.

From the seventh decade to the 1980s when the magazine suddenly disappeared from circulation, better-informed contributors had begun to identify with it. Among these were Dele Jegede, Uche Okeke, Chike Aniakor, Obiora Udechukwu, Chuka Amaefuna, and Osa Egonwa, to mention but a few. All these were artists, and some of them accomplished theorists as well. The impact of their contributions was quick to be reflected in the art contents of the magazine into they started breathed the fresh air of erudition. As a good example, Uche Okeke’s review, “Panorama of Nigerian Art” published in nos. 115/116 of 1975 (pp. 35-55) stands in sharp contrast to that of Allagoa (of eight years before), although it is lacking in some necessary details like dates and venue of the exhibition that was being reviewed.

Of course, the passage of time must have helped in improving the magazine’s style and quality of art propagation. No doubt by 1980, what is known as contemporary Nigerian art would have been more than fifty years old. Fifty years may not be a very long time in the development of an art tradition, but it is enough to affect people’s acceptance or otherwise of such a tradition. During that period, the appreciation of the tradition must have been heightened or diminished. So by the 1980s, the contemporary artist’s audience in Nigeria had widened; new trends had unfolded; more issues continually offered themselves for critical discussion, evaluation, and re-appraisal. This healthy development is reflected in the magazine’s later issues, as they collectively became one of the most reliable guides, if not the only reliable one, at that time, to a study of the development of Nigerian art.

In this connection, nos. 145 of 1983 is an exemplar of these later issues. In a fashion unprecedented in the history of the magazine this particular issue featured the works of eleven contemporary Nigeria artists. These included the works of Muri Adejimi, Chuka Amafuna, Gani Odutokun, Abayomi Barber, Josy Ajiboye, Bisi Fekeye, Yusuf Grillo, Ben Enwonwu, Felix Idubor, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Taiwo Olaniyi more commonly known as Twins Seven-seven. These works were published along with an article by E.N. Bassey on the National Gallery of Modern Art, which had just been established in Lagos. It must be mentioned here that the establishment of the National Gallery, though a major issue in the 1980-85 National Development Plan in Nigeria, was a rather felicitous accident in the history of Nigeria art. The gallery, which finally came into being in 1981is, the child of an Economic summit held at the National Theatre, Lagos, in April 1980. Yet it cannot be denied that the opening of the gallery, inspire of some of its obvious shortcomings, was a boon to contemporary art in Nigeria. It was the culmination of earlier efforts by artists and art enthusiasts at private gallery “business” in Nigeria beginning from the 1960s. But it is quite surprising that in spite of the gallery and the flourish in the arts partly occasioned by its very establishment, Nigeria Magazine remained t he only eclectic magazine with a truly professional interest in artistic matters, having outlived Black Orpheus, which was more or less its contemporary. It is sad, however, that the magazine was the victim of sudden death in the late eighties, in spite of such a vibrant history.

Ulli Beier’s Black Orpheus
To a great extent, the history of Black Orpheus is intertwined with the history of Ulli Beier’s early involvement in the development of art aesthetics in Nigeria and beyond. Arriving Nigeria in 1950 in the company of Suzanne Wenger “to teach English literature to extramural students in Yoruba communities,” Uli Beierr, an expatriate of German –Jewish parentage set himself the task of founding Black Orpheus, the first issue of which appeared in September 1957. Although Black Orpheus was later to champion the cause of a handful of Nigeria artists, its main interest was in the literary realm of the arts. Infact, the main aim of founding the magazine was to make known to Anglophone Africa some of the great African writers, who then were mainly of francophone origin. In this task, Alioune Diop’s exiled Presence Africane was Beier’s arch-model. The idea of Black Orpheus became more fervent in 1956 after Beier attended the World congress of Black Writers, sponsored by the Paris-based Presence Africaine (Benson, 1986:21).

The founding of Black Orpheus the following year then, was a fulfilment of Beier’s well-nurtured interest in traditional African arts and literature. With the magazine, he was able to propagate the principles of these aspects of African life, based mainly on his own aesthetic judgements and literary ethics (Benson, 1986).

An apparent admirer of American pop art, Beier favoured experiment and accident as useful tendencies in the development of the individual artistic psyche. Simultaneously, he believe in the total liberation of the creative mind from the vagaries of the shacking techniques and conventions of the academy, represented by the few colleges and institution of higher leaning then in Nigeria. Hence he assiduously threw his weight behind traditional African artists as well as “the naïve school of the popular urban African craftsmen”, not just by critiquing and publicising their work in Black Orpheus, but also establishing the famous Mbari and Oshogbo Art Workshops, which later metamorphosed into a sort of movement. In a report to Ezekiel Mphahlele on the Mbari workshops, Beier underlined his skepticism about academic artists: “Our first disadvantage in Ibadan has been that most of our students were art teachers from Nigerian schools-by and large the most difficult and lethargic materials you can get” (Benson, 1986:44). Hence, Black Orpheus, with its artistic taste dictated by Beier, found good allies in traditional craftsmen, untutored local artists and those who, though university-trained, had not been psychologically uprooted from the traditional African environment. Among the first category were Muraina Oyelami, Taiwo Olaniyui Twins Seven-seven (who danced his way into Beier’s camp), and Asiru, among others. Of the last category, the multi-talented Demas Nwoko is very significant.

Second to Black Orpheus, the Mbari and Oshogbo Workshops were another main project of infact, the workshops might have been Beier’s way of emphasising his personal opinions about art, although it is on record that his wives, first Susanne Wenger and later Georgina Beier, both artists, wee also very instrumental to the success of the two experimentalist schools.

By 1963, Beier’s Mbari School was already well established with its community of ‘unschooled artists.” In the same year, works of some of these artists were reproduced in Black Orpheus no.12, drawing criticism from Christopher Okigbo, John Nagenda, and some other members of Mbari Club at Ibadan. Calling the works “a disgrace” (Benson 1986:38), Okigbo chided Beier for not being able to distinguish between art and craft. Yet these did not deter the relentless Beier. Although he constantly harped on the undoctrinal attitude of Black Orpheus, there is no doubt that he was attracted more to certain literary and aesthetic principles than others. What makes him interesting, however, is the zeal with which he championed the cause of those principles, which he believed in even in the face of controversy.

Although Beier’s main object seemed to be the building of a literary movement around Black Orpheus, the magazine’s attention to art and artists especially in the sixties cannot be disregarded. And although whatever artistic material that was featured in the magazine had to pander to Beier’s personal artistic tastes, it must be noted that those aesthetic principles favoured by him had earlier been the song of Kenneth Murray and later, the soi-disant rebels of Zaria. Beier’s discovery and promotion of Nwoko and others like Uche Okeke between 1960 and 1961 quickly supports this thesis.

In those days, Nwoko, a final year student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was largely unknown in spite of two local exhibitions. He was first noticed by Beier just at the same time he was called upon by Wole Soyinka to design a set for his A Dance of the Forest. Impressed by his work, Beier devoted ten pages to his paintings in Black Orpheus no. 8. Apart from an introductory essay on the artist, eight of his paintings were also reproduced. Writing in a manner characteristic of his taste, Beier praised Nwoko’s “idiosyncracy”, his great intenseity of feeling” and exploitation of the “deep levels of the mi nd.” Apart from Nwoko’s paintings and illustrations, his theatrical deigns and architectural experiments also received good attention from the magazine, In volume 2, no. I, of 1968, for instance, when the magazine”s range of interests had been broadened under the editorship of abiola Irele and j.p. Clark, there is a focus on Nwoko”s practical modern African artchitectural style”. In fact, Irele and Clark had commissioned a Jamaican writer, Lindsey barrett, to write on nwoko’s pioneering work. Although poorly illustrated, the article must have been one of a few which helped to mould nwoko”s profile in those days.

Black Orpheus’s role under the editorship of Beier as a showcase for mbari/oshgbo workshops could not be denied. Beier often took it upon him to review the works of some of these artists the same way he did for nwoko. He is even reported to have, on other occasions, reviewed the works of Susanne wenger, his former wife, in florid terms. Most of these he did under the pseudonym, Sangodare Akanji or Omidiji Aragbabalu. In face, according to peter benson, “beier’s was the dominant voice in black Orpheu s’ reviews and critical articles for most of the period of his editorial tenure.” That the reptors of the Oshogbo experiments- Beier’s heartthrob-were regular teature or the magazine was not a surprise. Nor could one have expected to find on the pages of black Orpheus artists like Enwonwn, onobrakpeya, Idubor and others favoured by the Nigeria Magazine. Of course, these represented the class of artists whom Beier would refer to as “cynical manipulators of the pubic psyche.”

Not unnaturally, Black Orpheus’s serious s interest in art did not go beyond the sixties, precisely, 1968; that is, after the Beers emigrated to New Guinea because of the civil strife in Nigeria. To some extent, Black Orpheus had been Ulli Beier and vice versa, so much so that when he left, his editorial successors could not look beyond the horizons set by him. In spite of their earlier criticisms of Beier’s aesthetic judgement, it was clear that these successors had no alternatives to proffer. Of course, because of their well known contempt for the Oshogbo artists whom Babotunde Lawal and Dema s Nwoko had earlier called “unschooled primitives” and for whom Okigbo and Nagenda had no respect, Beier’s successors, Irele and Clark, could not continue to promote the products of the Oshogbo School. Lacking the initiative to discover new talents, the immediately feel back on Nwoko, hence the 1968 review of his architecture. Although the civil war helped to dismantle, to some extent, the literaro-artistic fortress, which Black Orpheus had come to represent, lack of funding, disagreements, image crises, and alleged complicity with the CIA also contributed to its final death in 1982 under the editorship of Theo Vincent.