The characters of the modern Igbo textile art

Abstract

For almost six decades of its inception, the history of modern Igbo textile art presents no generalized stylistic tendencies. Though style, as a manner of expression or characteristics, could be identified and are consistent and recurring, they are highly individualized, and are not identifiable with any historic period in the decades of modernism in Igbo textile art. However, these individualized characteristics will be assumed, and treated here, as the characterisations of the modern Igbo textile art. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to identify the characteristics of the works of the modern Igbo textile artists, and categorize and study them as the characterizations of the modern Igbo textile art. This study has deduced these characteristics from the conceptual attributes of the works of the individual modern Igbo textile artists. Six conceptual attributes; the ethnocentric, technological, impressionistic, metaphorical, and the painterly and sculptural are identified. Though they are individualized, they nevertheless can be seen as the characters of the modern Igbo textile art. While some of the artists build their concepts on a number of these attributes, others find satisfaction in one dominant area.