Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede

{{Short description|Nigerian poet and sculptor (born 1943)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Use Nigerian English|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede | honorific_suffix = | image =  | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = June {{Birth year and age|1943}} | birth_place = Ayegbaju Ekiti, Nigeria | death_date = | death_place = | education = Willesden College of Technology; Hammersmith College of Art | alma_mater = | occupation = Sculptor, poet, painter, printmaker | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | children=Tunde, Martin, Funmilayo, Ayodeji, Toyin, Anu, Kolade, David | awards =  | website =  | module = }} [[File:Sculpture in Elthorne Park.jpg|thumb|A sculpture by Jegede in Elthorne Park, London Borough of Islington<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mata |first1=William |title=Call for artist's work to be honoured with plaque |url=https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/education/elthorne-park-islington-jegede-statue-8232472 |access-date=19 September 2021 |work=Islington Gazette |date=16 August 2021 |language=en-UK}}</ref>]] '''Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede''' {{Audio|LL-Q34311 (yor)-Tunmise123-Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede.wav|Listen|help=no}}(born June 1943)<ref name=BritishMuseum>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/loan_in/e/emmanuel_taiwo_jegede,_the_pra.aspx "Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, The Prayer for Peace, bronze"], The British Museum.</ref> is a Nigerian poet, storyteller and artist, best known as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor (in wood, bronze and ceramics).<ref name=OctoberGallery1>[http://www.october.gallery.ukgateway.net/jegedeprof.htm "Profile: Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede (Nigeria)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232559/http://www.october.gallery.ukgateway.net/jegedeprof.htm |date=3 March 2016 }}, October Gallery.</ref>

==Biography== ===Early years and education=== Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede was born in Ayegbaju Ekiti, a Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria.

He undertook an apprenticeship with sculptor Pa Akerejola in Ekiti before going on to the Yaba School of Technology in Lagos, where he studied with Edo sculptor Osagie Osifo.<ref name=OctoberGallery1 />

In 1963, Jegede travelled to the UK, where he attended Willesden College of Technology and Hammersmith College of Art,<ref name=BritishMuseum /> studying the decorative arts, interior design, sculpture and bronze casting.

===Career=== His first exhibition took place in 1968 at the Woodstock Gallery, London.<ref>[http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/jegede/ "Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede"], October Gallery.</ref> In 1970, he set up a studio and foundry at Riverside, London.<ref>Paul O'Kane, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&q=jegede&pg=PA53 "Jegede, Emmanuel Taiwo"], in Alison Donnell (ed.), ''Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture'', Routledge, 2002, pp. 158–159.</ref> During the following decade, Jegede's work featured on the covers of books such as Buchi Emecheta's novels ''The Bride Price'' (1976) and ''The Slave Girl'' (1977), published by Allison & Busby.

In 1977, he was among the Black artists and photographers whose work represented the UK at the Second World Festival of Black Arts and African Culture (Festac '77) in Lagos, Nigeria (the others being Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Mercian Carrena, Armet Francis, Uzo Egonu, Neil Kenlock, Donald Locke, Cyprian Mandala, Ossie Murray, Sue Smock, Lance Watson and Aubrey Williams).<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/festac "Festac (Second Festival of Black Arts and Culture)"], Tate.</ref><ref>Eddie Chambers, ''Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s'', I.B. Tauris, 2014, pp. 42–43, 58.</ref>

Also in the 1970s, Jegede was artist-in-residence at the Keskidee Centre (the UK's first arts centre for the Black community),<ref>[http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Leisure-and-culture/Information/Factsheets/2011-2012/(2012-03-03)-lhcexhib_keskidee.pdf "The Keskidee — Music, art and poetry"]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217224953/http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Leisure-and-culture/Information/Factsheets/2011-2012/(2012-03-03)-lhcexhib_keskidee.pdf |date=17 December 2013 }}, Islington Local History Centre, 2009, p. 3.</ref><ref>[http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/archive-showcase-june "Archive Showcase: June"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416150037/https://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/archive-showcase-june |date=16 April 2019 }}, George Padmore Institute, 13 June 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.tundejegede.com/bio3.php "General Biography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101138/http://www.tundejegede.com/bio3.php |date=4 March 2016}}, Tunde Jegede website.</ref> where he was exposed to resident and visiting artists who worked in a multi-disciplinary mode, including Bob Marley, Walter Rodney, Edward Brathwaite, Angela Davis and Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 1978, Jegede led to the founding of an initiative called the Rainbow Art Group (members included Indira Ariyanayagam, Uzo Egonu, Lancelot Ribeiro, Errol Lloyd, Yeshwant Mali, Gordon V. de La Mothe, Durlabh Singh, Suresh Vedak, Ibrahim Wagh, and Mohammad Zakir, as well as Jegede)<ref name=Diaspora>[http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=191&table=artists "Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603235045/http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=191&table=artists |date=3 June 2022 }}, Diaspora Artists.</ref> that mounted its first exhibition the following year — ''Paintings and Sculptures'' at Action Space, London.<ref>[http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=364&table=exhibitions "Rainbow Art Group exhibition (Action Space)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603235051/http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=364&table=exhibitions |date=3 June 2022 }}, Diaspora Artists.</ref>

Among other exhibitions that included Jegede's work were ''Afro-Caribbean Art'' (27 April–25 May 1978 at the Artists Market, London), organised by Drum Arts Centre,<ref>[http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=363&table=exhibitions "Afro-Caribbean Art"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603235044/http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=363&table=exhibitions |date=3 June 2022 }}, Diaspora Artists.</ref><ref>Chambers (2014), pp. 45, 47.</ref> and ''Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966 – 1996'', curated by the Caribbean Cultural Center, New York City, in 1997–98.<ref>[http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=135&table=exhibitions "Transforming the Crown"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603235045/http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=135&table=exhibitions |date=3 June 2022 }}, Diaspora Artists.</ref> More recently, Jegede's work featured in the 2015 exhibition ''No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990'' at the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London,<ref>FHALMA (Friends of the Huntley Archives at London Metropolitan Archives, [http://huntleysonline.com/the-artists/ "The Artists' Profiles"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725212510/http://huntleysonline.com/the-artists/ |date=25 July 2015 }}, Huntleys Online.</ref> which is inspired by the papers held at London Metropolitan Archives of Jessica Huntley and Eric Huntley and the publishing company they founded, Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications,<ref>[http://new.diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=1182&table=artefacts&artistslink=expand "No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 catalogue"], Diaspora Artists.</ref> as well as its associated bookshop, where in the 1970s greetings cards featuring Jegede's artwork were sold.<ref>[https://www.nocolourbar.org/emmanuel-taiwo-jegede "Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede"], ''No Colour Bar'' website</ref>

Jegede participated in his son Tunde Jegede's theatrical project ''The Griot's Tale'', which was showcased in 2013 at Yinka Shonibare's studio and subsequently performed at the Africa Centre, London.<ref>[http://www.tundejegede.org/The_Griots_Tale/Project.html ''The Griot's Tale''] Project page.</ref><ref>Tunde Jegede, [http://theinsightnewspaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/portuphy-confirms-he-wants-to-be.html "Africa: Development and the Double-Sided Mirror"], ''The Insight newspaper'', 3 June 2013.</ref>

He has also written a number of poems and children’s stories.

==Family== Jegede has eight children; five sons and three daughters including: * Tunde Jegede a musician and composer.<ref>Ed Keazor, [https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/tunde-jegede-neo-classical-renegade-and-griot "Tunde Jegede: Neo-Classical renegade and Griot"], ''Music in Africa'', 24 November 2014.</ref> Tunde has performed at and founded the Art Ensemble of Lagos and the African Classical Music Ensemble. He is the artistic director at the MUSON Centre, one of West Africa's only music conservatoires specialising in classical music. *Martin Jegede, an award-winning fashion designer and founder of jewellery brand Love Bullets. *Ayodeji Jegede, a basketball player with London Westside, trainer and entrepreneur. *Adekunle "David" Jegede, a successful artist in his own right, having exhibited at London's Saatchi Gallery, as a winner of the CARISCC artwork competition, in addition to being a published author.

His four other children are: Kolade Jegede, Anu Jegede, Funmilayo Jegede and Toyin Jegede.

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRUvHRn-XBc "Emmanuel Jegede Endless Omen Peterborough Sculpture Park August 2015"], YouTube.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jegede, Emmanuel Taiwo}} Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Nigerian painters Category:20th-century Nigerian male artists Category:20th-century Nigerian sculptors Category:21st-century Nigerian male artists Category:Black British artists Category:Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:21st-century Nigerian painters Category:Nigerian woodcarvers Category:Yoruba artists Category:Yoruba poets