Between Gradualism and Aesthetic Dictatorship in Contemporary Nigerian Art: Awka School of Art as an Example

Abstract

James Hulton’s hypothesis of Gradualism in 1795, tries to explain the origin of earth as a gradual evolutionary process, based on the fact that he believed that sedimentary rocks that encase fossils were formed by gradual accumulation of sediments in lakes, rivers and oceans.¹ Hulton’s hypothesis did not only assist Charles Darwin in concretizing his theory of evolution in 1859 but has also provided clues to solving some problem in different disciplines, since the idea has a wide range of applications. Coming to the contemporary Africa art space, this idea of “gradual evolution” underlines the emergence of post-colonial art in Africa. Unfortunately, it has not been given serious thought by scholars hence scholars such as Willet (1978) dismissed African contemporary art as mere imitation of Western prototype.² Some of these misrepresentations of African art arise from lack of knowledge about the origin of contemporary African art and obvious western Racial determinism, which says that every good thing emanated from the west.