Dogo the Kidnapper

Dogo the Kidnapper is an early work by Twins Seven-Seven, the father of Yorùbá modernism. The artist began making art in 1964 at the Mbari Mbayo workshops organized by Ulli and Georgina Beier, from which the so-called Òsògbó School emerged. Seven-Seven created the image in low relief by carving holes in the plywood board and attaching it to a second board. By doing so, he acknowledged the sculpture of his Yorùbá ancestors and rejected the flatness of European painting. Some of the patterns in Seven-Seven's work derive from Nigerian textile traditions of indigo resist-dyed adire and popular screen-printed fabrics. The subject is a self-portrait in the guise of a mythical Pied Piper who charms throngs of followers by playing a long, curved wind instrument.