Passion, intellectual curiosity, and intuition inspired His Royal Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, over a period of forty years, to collect and support artists from his native Onitsha, southeastern Nigeria, Ghana, the broader West African region, and indeed the African continent.

Accompanying the opening of his Chimedie Museum to the public—a repository to house and display his personal art collection—this volume chronicles the Obi of Onitsha’s journey as a collector and patron, and it is written in an easily navigable language by some of the finest scholars on the subject. It illuminates the many friendships he has forged along the way with several artists, becoming as entangled in the process of making as in acquiring their work, much in the manner of the patrons of the High Renaissance.

This book illuminates not only the Obi of Onitsha’s collecting thrust and underlying philosophy, but it also chronicles his relentlessness and successes in restoring marginalised artists to mainstream discourse. In addition, this publication addresses the emerging role of art patronship in Africa and how indigenous collectors are expanding narratives on the art of the African continent.

Author: Sandra Obiago
Hardback
580 pages
28.5 x 28.5 cm