*To celebrate Kenny Adamson at 70 is to celebrate the doyen of Nigerian editorial cartoons. I had the privilege of working with him as a teenager at PUNCH newspapers in Nigeria. He paved the way for many cartoonists and myself to follow in his footsteps. Kenny, an icon and an inspiration to many is also a celebrated sculptor and painter.
Suffice to say, Kenny was not the first Nigerian editorial cartoonist. There was Akinola Lasekan (Pioneer of Nigerian modern art) and later dele jegede and Josy Ajiboye with the later two, having worked for years for the government owned newspaper Daily Times. Along came PUNCH an independent national newspaper where Kenny showcased his skill in cartooning and mesmerised newspaper readers with his witty, political and thought-provoking cartoons for PUNCH on daily basis and weekends as well.
His cartoons spared no one. He later joined the VANGUARD newspapers where he continued with more punchy editorial cartoons that made him a household name and still is today. An arrangement different with those who came before him. He took his brand of editorial cartoons to a different level, cartooning local and foreign issues. His caricatures of government officials in power were apt. Born in 1951, Kenny is a graduate of the iconic art school in Lagos, the Yaba College of Technology from 1973 – 1977.
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He had his first joint exhibition at Didi Museum in Victoria Island, Lagos in March 1983 and ten years later had his first ever solo exhibition at the same Museum. which was declared open by the first lady then, the late Mariam Babangida. Since his cartooning years, Kenny’s commissioned sculptural works and paintings now grace public places in Nigeria including at the famous Tinubu square in Lagos and some of his works are at the Presidential villa in Aso rock, Abuja.
Kenny Adamson’s works have enjoyed large patronage from Nigerian and foreign collectors. Notable among personalities his works have been presented to include Queen Elizabeth II, during her state visit to Nigeria in 2003, President George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States and also several foreign dignitaries.
Congrats to a living legend at 70, a man respected in the annals of Nigerian art by his peers, his mentees and upcoming generation of cartoonists, sculptors and painters who still clearly adore him. He is a likely feature later in OUR ROOTS.
TAYO Fatunla is an award-winning Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer and Illustrator is an artist of African diaspora. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US. and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated at UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France and took part in the Afropolitan Comics virtual comics exhibition arranged by the French Institute in South Africa coinciding with its annual National Arts Festival. His image of Fela Kuti was used as a backdrop in the Burna Boy’s YouTube channel the mega-Afrobeat hit song “Ye”. –– www.tayofatunla.com/[email protected]/[email protected]
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