20 Nigerian Contemporary Artist you should know: Yusuf Grillo

Number 4: Nigerian Contemporary Artist you should know: Yusuf Grillo

Painting of Yusuf Grillo

Yusuf Grillo (born 1934) is a contemporary Nigerian artist known for his inventive works and the prominence of the color blue in many of his paintings.
Grillo is considered one of Nigeria's outstanding and academically trained painters; he emerged to prominence and international recognition in the 1960s and 1970s, while exhibiting a large collection of his early works.
He makes use of his western art training in many of his paintings, combining western art techniques with traditional Yoruba sculpture characteristics. His preference for color blue in natural settings paintings, is sometimes similar to the adire or resist-dye textiles used in Nigeria.

Another painting of Yusuf Grillo