New Culture; Review of Contemporary African Arts. Plastic Arts, Architecture, Performing Arts

Ibadan, Nigeria: New Culture Studios, 1978-1979. First Printing. 11 Issues running from November 1978 to October 1979, with no December 1978 production as issued. Small Quarto. 24.5cm. Publisher's original vibrantly decorated thin card wraps. Approx. 68-80pp. per issue. Clean, bright, and sharp; internally clean, printed on various colors of paper, some light spotting and offsetting in places due to the necessarily cheap paper stock, with the "Dark Pages" complete and unopened. A very good clean, bright set indeed.

A full run of Demas Nwoko's visually striking, and culturally ground-breaking "New Culture" magazine. Ulli Beier, the driving force behind the equally impressive and influential "Black Orpheus" described new Culture as "Easily one of the most meticulously structured and planned magazines I have ever seen." Nwoko, a visionary architect, and now counted as a leading pioneer of Nigeria's 20th century art movement, was one of the members of the inflammatory Zaria Art Society (popularly called "Zaria Rebels") during the 1950's, and later on a prominent member of the legendary creative collective known as the Mbari Club of Ibadan in the years prior to his creation and editorship of New Culture. The drive of the Zaria Rebels was to take their heavily western-influenced art education (Nwoko for example studied in Paris) and turn its methodology into a uniquely African themed art movement, eradicating the concept of African art as subject to Western art critique and interpretation, and rendering it its own liberated entity. New Culture was the logical extension of that mission, providing a platform for the celebration of pan-African art, architecture and literature, and most importantly offering a place for cross-generational education on African history, folklore, and culture to younger Africans, with specially curated sections for children's education. The design ethic behind New Culture is not only clear from the layout and general content, but also in a sort of considered uniqueness that manifested itself in things like the famous "Dark Pages"; unopened sections of the magazine that contained unknown "surprise" features. Perhaps indicative of Nwoko's theatrical background, these pages rendered each issue of New Culture an exercise in surprise revelation, and audience participation. The magazine was short lived, as most publishing efforts out of Ibadan tended to be, a second volume was planned for early 1980, but never came to fruition. This brief, vivid run of issues remains however, as an indicator of the energy and vibrancy of the definitively African art scene of the period.