AESTHETIC DUALITIES: GESTURE, GEOMETRY, AND THE DIVERGENCE OF EXPRESSIONIST AND FORMALIST PRACTICES IN NIGERIAN PAINTING

Abstract

This paper explores the aesthetic dualities underlying the differences between expressionist and formalist tendencies in contemporary Nigerian painting, specifically the visual vocabularies embodied in gesture and geometry. Through the paintings of Chike Obeagu, Odun Orimolade, and Tola Wewe, the study examines how Nigerian artists negotiate form and emotion to signify identity, cosmology, and political engagement. Drawing on Nelson Goodman's theory of symbol systems, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological theory of perception, and Rowland Abiodun's Yoruba philosophy of aesthetics, the paper argues that these visual approaches serve not merely formal purposes but also function as culturally situated signifiers. Using qualitative methods, specifically formal analysis, interviews, and textual reviews, the study demonstrates that Nigerian painting operates along a continuum defined by the interaction, tension, and hybridization of gesture and geometry. By theorizing this duality, the paper contributes to the historiography of African art and complicates simplistic binaries commonly found in global modernist discourse.