Artwork Description
Toyin Odutola – A Lapse in Judgement
Dimensions: 17 x 14″ framed / 14 x 11.13″ paper
Year: 2012
Medium: lithograph
Edition: BAT/ed. 20
Toyin Odutola is a groundbreaking artist from Nigeria. She was among the first Nigerian artists to establish herself in the international contemporary art world. Her intimate portraits of everyday people capture volume and contour with her unique style of multilinear hatching. She inspired numerous other African artists to employ unique stylistic strokes in their works. Many of those she inspired are male artists like Amaoko Boafo and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, who make monumentally scaled paintings. I love this work by Odutola because its strength and grace triumph far above its small size. Odutola achieves in this small scale what other artists attempt to achieve with monumentality. With only two colors, black and white on black paper, Odutola’s phenomenal artistic skill is also apparent. She highlights contour by precisely placing white ink in the rounded hatched areas of the face, ear, and the edge of the hair.