Visual artist and member of the New Sacred Art Movement, Pa Isola Folorunso, has died.
The artist, whose works took the form of beaten metal panels in aluminium, brass and copper, passed on May 31, 2021, in Osogbo, Osun State after a short illness, and was buried the following day according to Muslim rites. He was aged 72.
A staff of the National Museum, Osogbo, and liaison between the New Sacred Artists and the Adunni Olorisha Trust assisting in maintaining the Osun Osogbo Grove, Mrs Toyin Ajayi, confirmed the passing.
Folorunso trained for many years under the renowned Asiru Olatunde, inventor of the beaten metal panel medium. When the famous artist passed, Folorunso, the closest to him, naturally became head of his studio.
Folorunso also had a close relationship with the late German anthropologist Ulli Beier and the high priestess of Osun, Susanne Wenger, also known as Adunni Olorisha.
Folorunso featured in many exhibitions including ‘Legacy of Susanne Wenger: An Exhibition of the Artists of the New Sacred Art Movement’ which held at Ouintessence Gallery in Lagos in 2009. He was also featured ‘The Yoruba Journey Through Life,’ organised by the Niagara Artists Centre in Ontario, Canada, also in 2009.
The artist’s distinctive metal panels have featured in several auctions, and are held in many private and public collections.
Notably, Folorunso was among several Osogbo artists who assisted the late artist Erhabor Emokpae in creating the elaborate frieze at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.
Reclusive but talented, the late Folorunso was born into a blacksmith family before further honing his craft under Olatunde.
During an interaction in Osogbo last year, Isola Folorunso confirmed that he was still working. Two of his children, Jelili Oloruntoyin, based in the US and Taofeek Adebayo, are also artists working in beaten metal panels.