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As more of the original players die out - Susanne Wenger a.k.a Adunni Olorisa (d. 12 January 2009), Ulli Beier (d. 3 April 2011) and Twins Seven-Seven (d. 16 June 2011) - the curtain closes gradually on the famed Osogbo Art School. But a curtain also rises, because their works live on. The Susanne Wenger Archives will open today in Krems, Austria. In attendance at the Susanne Wenger Foundation event will be Hugh and Robin Campbell of the Adunni Olorisha Trust. The Campbells are shown in the image below, photographed at the Demas Nwoko Celebration at the Grillo Pavilion in Ikorodu on April 23, 2011. Wenger's adopted Yoruba children, Doyin Faniyi and Sangodare Ajala, respected traditionalists and artists in their own right (Sangodare won the 2010 National Art Competition), will speak at the opening of the Archives in Krems today. I expect a man by the name of John Adeleke will also be there. I've linked Wenger's name above to an obituary I wrote on her on the night of her passing. It was published the following morning, on January 13, 2009, the first to appear in the press anywhere in the world. May Adunni rest well among the Orisa. Ase.
Concerning the epochal passing of Ulli Beier on April 3 at the age of 88, I feel the words are better left to those who can say it best. Many rose to the challenge, and t
here was an avalanche of writings in the Nigerian press in the first few days, perhaps reaching an apogee on Sunday, 10 April (the man having been cremated the Friday before).
Among the pieces published last Sunday, Muraina Oyelami, the man who broke the news of a death in Australia from his base in Iragbiji and something of a living authority on Beier, wrote the moving tribute, 'Ulli Beier Akanji. Sun're O'. Mufu Onifade introduced a new weekly column with the piece, 'Ulli Beier: Unfulfilled dream of a true Africanist'. And Canada-based poet, Amatoritsero Ede, recalled meeting the man also known as Obotunde Ijimere in Germany circa 1996, in his piece, 'Ulli Beier: A Pagan Yoruba Man in Christian Bayreuth'. All the relevant pages are reproduced here. Toni Kan's piece is also here, although I don't think it's available online. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke also wrote something in ThisDAY on April 10.
I was struck by
the dearth of photographs of Beier, precious few available, for a man t
hat did so much to document the works of others - artists and cultures, especially the Yoruba. Very rarely must he have had cameras focused on his own face. Which gives the ring of truth to John Martin's words on Beier: "He is one of the great unsung heroes of art and I think his significance will only be really understood in years to come. Partly it is the fact that he took a back seat and was, rightly, prepared to duck out of the limelight in favour of the artists he nurtured, encouraged and promoted."
As more of the original players die out - Susanne Wenger a.k.a Adunni Olorisa (d. 12 January 2009), Ulli Beier (d. 3 April 2011) and Twins Seven-Seven (d. 16 June 2011) - the curtain closes gradually on the famed Osogbo Art School. But a curtain also rises, because their works live on. 
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