Toyin Ojih Odutola

Last Portrait of the 18th Marquess

Maker

Toyin Ojih Odutola (American, born in Nigeria, b. 1985 in Ife, Nigeria)

Title

Last Portrait of the 18th Marquess
from the series When Legends Die

Year

2018

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Dimensions

Sheet: 60 x 47.6 cm (23 5/8 x 18 3/4 inches) (sight)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund

Object Number

2018.92

Type

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 14: Shadows

The RISD Museum’s fourteenth issue of Manual shines a light on the shadow, centering the black body as a site of possibility, liberatory self-awareness, radical non-conformity, and joyful defiance. This issue serves as a companion to the exhibition Defying the Shadow.

Manual 14: Shadows opens with an excerpt on the shadow from W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, followed by an introduction by Dr. Anita N. Bateman, who elucidates: “Operating in the shadow comes with a legacy of resistance, both in spiritual and ideological forms.”

Exhibition History

On Paper
Gifts from Paula and Leonard Granoff
Oct 29, 2022 – Apr 16, 2023

Label copy

There is mystery in this portrait’s title and the way the subject’s face is partially obscured by foliage. It is part of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s series of works about a fictional Nigerian aristocratic family helmed by a nobleman and his husband. She explored this narrative through the conceit that each series is a new exhibition from the patriarchs’ collection. The final exhibition, for which this drawing was made, provides a more intimate look at the family. The artist explained, “I need text to give me the permission to draw. They are two intertwining paths.”

–Jan Howard, Houghton P. Metcalf Jr. Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

Defying the Shadow
Dec 01, 2020 – Dec 18, 2021

Image use

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Tombstone

Toyin Ojih Odutola (American, born in Nigeria, b. 1985 in Ife, Nigeria)
Last Portrait of the 18th Marquess; from the series When Legends Die, 2018
Charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper
Sheet: 60 x 47.6 cm (23 5/8 x 18 3/4 inches) (sight)
Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund 2018.92

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