Simon Ottenberg Collection (Olayinka Research)

Content Description

Research collection of materials related to Freetown artist Miranda Olayinka Burney Nicol (1927-1996) created between 2007 and 2013. The collection includes 4 boxes of correspondence and research and 1 box containing 11 electronic discs (CD-ROMS) primarily of images of Oyalinka's artwork. This research was compiled during the preparation of Ottenberg's book, Olayinka: a Woman's View: the Life of an African Modern Artist (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2014).

Biographical / Historical

Simon Ottenberg (1923-) is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. He studied under Melville J. Herskovits and William R. Bascom at Northwestern University. He was a 1970 Guggenheim fellow. He has written at least seven scholarly books including...He curated the exhibition...at the Smithsonian Institution.

Freetown artist Miranda Olayinka Burney Nicol (1927-1996) is known for her experimental art created from numerous art mediums. She moved to New York City in 1949 and then to London in 1954. She experimented with various art forms, including painting, murals, prints, drawing, sculpture, textile design and mixed media. In 1958, she returned to Freetown and became the Government Artist for Sierra Leone's Ministry of Education, but also continued making her own art, including creating murals on public buildings in Freetown. As a Harmon Foundation artist, she spent a year in Paris doing textile design and fashion. After she left government service in 1968 and until she went into exile from Sierra Leone in 1988, she continued to create art and exhibited at home and abroad. After being exiled to London, Olayinka fell on hard times, and ultimately died in poverty in 1996.

Related Materials

Related EEPA collections include: EEPA 1996-020 and EEPA 1994-012 (video-recorded interviews conducted by Ottenberg), EEPA 2000-007 (photographs taken in Southeastern Nigeria within the Afikpo Village group), EEPA 2012-011 (Ottenberg Nsukka Photo Collection), EEPA 2017-010 Simon Ottenberg Collection (Research on Nsukka artists). Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.Simon