The New Artist: Clary Nelson Cole
The ARTSPLIT marketplace offered new artworks last week, one of which was by a brand-new artist. The piece in question is titled “Gestation,” and it was made by Nigerian Postwar & Contemporary artist Clary Nelson Cole. We’ll examine his significance as an artist in this piece and explain why purchasing this new listing on the ARTSPLIT site is a good idea.
Clary Nelson Cole
Clary Nelson Cole was born in 1945, and the 1960s environment in Nigeria had a significant creative impact on him. The 1960s represent an incredibly potent period that produced a considerable amount of breaks and questioned the established order of things, historically situated in the backdrop of the Cold War.
People and ideologies in Europe would be irrevocably changed by the Berlin wall and the Iron Curtain, while in the United States, future generations would be affected for all time by the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam War. The period saw a redefining of social standards in Western civilization, from education to gender issues and ideology, with revolutionary principles and movements developing in a cradle of creativity.
The very important Minimalist movement, which was exemplified by artists like Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Agnes Martin, stressed simplicity and a lack of emotion. The gestural components of Abstract Expressionism bore the minimalist painters, who concentrated on producing works mostly made of smooth, pure lines and mathematical shapes. Conceptualism’s first emergence was greatly influenced by minimalism’s simplicity but went further in challenging all underlying preconceptions of art, much like Pop Artists did when they elevated common culture to the level of high art.
Numerous philosophical schools had a profound impact on artists. Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were two artists who were fundamentally influenced by Existentialism. They became well-known around the world for their representations of the human form and the distress frequently associated with the human condition. Globally, a sizable number of art movements — many of which were susceptible to regional differences — resonated with the profound developments of the 1960s. Spatialism was founded in Italy by Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and it was adopted in Germany by the Zero group, which was led by Günther Uecker. On the same journey as them was Clary Nelson.
Clary was known to be a Graphic Artist, Painter, and Printmaker, who was born in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. Died in December 1990.
He began his education at Yaba College of Technology between the years 1961–1963, where he got his diploma. He then attended Ahamdu Bello University in 1967, where he specialized in painting and then got his Master of Art in painting and printmaking in 1973 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
He has had solo Exhibitions at the Gallery Labac, Lagos, 1965, the Bronze Gallery, Lagos, 1966, the Independence Building, Lagos, 1966, just to name a few within Nigeria. Abroad, he works participated in the Group Exhibitions Mid-West Annual National Print and Drawing Show, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, USA, 1970, the Fifth National Print Exhibition, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1970, the 11th National Exhibition of Prints and Drawings, Oklahoma Art Centre, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, 1970, the Second Annual National Print and Drawing Show, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA, 1970, just to name a few.
Why You Should Own a SPLIT of His Works
Clary Nelson Cole’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from $11 to as high as $10,309, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2010 the record price for this artist at auction is $10,309.00 for his, “MOTHER AND CHILD,” artwork, which sold at Arthouse Contemporary Limited in 2011.
It is said that Clary was among those who laid the foundation of artistic training from the 1960s at the Zaria Art School where he, alongside Professor Charles Argent, Mrs Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu, Messrs, and Mike Tailor, contributed to building Kolade Oshinowo’s artistic practice. Clary was an internationally known artist as he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
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