Whether traditional or contemporary,
realistic or abstract, an artist's choice is guided by expressive purpose. Stanley
Dudu’s numerous drawings attest to this.
His works are lavishly composed and they offer bigger than life experience that paradoxically lead viewer away from the real world and its surface appearances into the inside spaces of the mind.
His major influence he says: “Is my brother, Emmanuel Dudu. I grew up seeing him doing drawing, attempted the ink, do creative things. It wasn’t just him alone; I had another brother though he fell by the roadside. I saw the two of them work. With his (Emmanuel Dudu’s) own little achievements, I was able to pick up from there. I must confess he has been a very big influence in my life,” he says and described his brother as “my mentor”
By Udemma Chukwuma
His works revolve around women and children, which are done by memory and
imagination. Dudu interprets every day activities of women and
children. The resulting images thus reflect the artist’s feelings about the
subjects, which are worth discussing.
Dudu depicts a lot of children participating in all sorts of play, such as
playing “mummy and daddy.” These body of works he says were inspired by
his childhood experiences. “Basically, my works reflect the society,
particularly women and children. I tend to favour them more. The
connection between me and them is very strong. I find market women very
interesting and very hard to walk pass them. I want to look at them, the
arrangement of their baskets, the gesticulations, the transactions; all these
things are what inspire me about the market women. I kind of drawn to that,” he
says.
His works are lavishly composed and they offer bigger than life experience that paradoxically lead viewer away from the real world and its surface appearances into the inside spaces of the mind.
He achieves this inward view by balancing a
realistic drawing technique with addition of symbolism and allegorical
elements. His true ambition is to remind us of where we are coming from, where
we are and where we are going.
His works were mainly monochrome
before; an identity he created for himself. “I realised I needed an
identity and fortunately it was at the period people were tired of seeing
coloured works everywhere. By the time I was showcasing more of these, it was
welcoming, I was receiving accolades,” he explains.
His major influence he says: “Is my brother, Emmanuel Dudu. I grew up seeing him doing drawing, attempted the ink, do creative things. It wasn’t just him alone; I had another brother though he fell by the roadside. I saw the two of them work. With his (Emmanuel Dudu’s) own little achievements, I was able to pick up from there. I must confess he has been a very big influence in my life,” he says and described his brother as “my mentor”
His work has revolved. He is currently
working with pastel. “In the next five years I want to move beyond this, I want
to experiment things. I want to do art that the society can associate with; I
mean art that can reach out to the whole society, even beyond. I am equally
nursing the notion of doing art internationally such as residency
programmes, even participate in the auction they do abroad.”
He is an Auchi Polytechnic graduate with
Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in General Art in 2003 and Higher National
Diploma (HND) in Painting in 2006. He is a full time studio artist.
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