Babatunde Lawal is an art historian and scholar of the arts of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. His research is focused on the visual culture of the

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

and its influences in the Americas. He is currently a professor of

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

. Lawal was born and raised in Isale-Eko (Oju Olokun Street), a district of

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

. Having been raised in Nigeria himself, Lawal's scholarship demonstrates the use of a theoretical model that draws heavily from first-person accounts of various Nigeria customs and art making practices. This sets him apart from the majority of European and American scholars of African art. In his book on Gelede, Lawal writes: "A number of scholars ..have called for a new critical approach that will allow African traditions to be studied on their own terms, instead of being viewed through Eurocentric lenses... What is urgently needed, as Henry Gates has pointed out, is a method that enables a given culture 'to speak for itself about its nature and various functions, rather than to read it, or analyse it, in terms of... theories borrowed whole from other traditions, appropriated from without.'"

References

Living people 20th-century Nigerian historians People from Lagos American people of Yoruba descent Nigerian emigrants to the United States Virginia Commonwealth University faculty Historians of African art Yoruba historians Yoruba academics Historians of Yoruba art Year of birth missing (living people) {{Art-historian-stub