Lamidi Fakeye, Internationally Renowned Sculptor | | Western Michigan University
NEWS UPDATE October 2010: Film screening and reception to be held on Oct. 21 to celebrate the life of Lamidi Fakeye, internationally acclaimed African Sculptor. For more information, please see the event flyer or contact Dr. Bruce Haight at (269) 387-5361 or at Bruce.Haight@wmich.edu.
INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AFRICAN SCULPTOR WITH
CLOSE TIES TO WMU DIES
Lamidi Fakeye, Nigerian sculptor who was named a "Living Treasure" by
UNESCO in 2006, came to WMU recently for an exhibition of his work at
the Richmond Center in October 2009. His 2009 visit was supported in
part by the Burnham-Macmillan Fund of the Department of History. Fakeye
then returned to Africa where he died on Christmas Day.
Fakeye first connected to Western Michigan University in Ibadan,
Nigeria, where WMU was implementing its Agency for International
Development grant from
1960-1968. Fakeye became close friends of Fred
and Isabel Beeler, WMU faculty who had been
commissioned by Lydia Siedschlag to find authentic African art for WMU
to display in Bigelow Hall and around the university. The pieces the
Beelers acquired for WMU, many from Fakeye, led to numerous other WMU
faculty securing Fakeye's pieces for their private collections. It was
the Beelers who coordinated Fakeye's first visit to WMU in the summer
of 1963, with personal support from Irving Gilmore. Fakeye then made
WMU his "American University" and Kalamazoo his American hometown for
the next three decades. Fakeye stayed at the Oaklands with President
James Miller and his family on his second trip in 1966, and President
Miller commissioned two 5.5' veranda posts that the university displays
and has made available for exhibitions. It was then that President
Miller approved that Fakeye wear a WMU ring and he has done so with
pride
ever since.
Fakeye's first major American Retrospective Exhibition occurred at
Space
Gallery, WMU, in 1987. This show drew heavily on Fakeye pieces from the
1960s that were purchased by WMU and WMU faculty who had been in
Nigeria
with
the AID team. Fakeye has had over a dozen shows of his
work at WMU since 1983 with the most recent being at the Richmond
Center in October 2009. WMU Professor Bruce Haight of the
Department of History worked closely with Fakeye as his coordinator and
collaborator from 1983 - 1999. Haight, Fakeye, and WMU's David Curl
coauthored Fakeye's 1996 autobiography (see image at left) that is the
definitive study of Fakeye's life and career. President Diether Haenicke arranged for WMU
to purchase an important door by Fakeye on medical themes that was
dedicated at the Sindecuse Health Center in 1998. That door, and other
pieces from WMU's collection, then went to the Smithsonian Institution
for their 12 month show by Fakeye at the Focus
Gallery of the
National
Museum of Natural History. Fakeye's fame both for exhibitions of
his
work and for his lecture/demonstrations has also brought Western
Michigan University to national and international attention.
Read Dr. Bruce M. Haight's Eulogy for
Lamidi Fakeye