An Archeology of Nigerian Art Criticism: Discourse, Authority, and the Canon from 1960 to 2024

Art criticism in Nigeria has operated as a discursive practice that constructs canons, confers authority, and shapes what counts as significant art, yet the history and sociology of Nigerian art criticism as a field of practice has itself received insufficient scholarly attention. This study conducts an archaeology of Nigerian art criticism from independence to the present, examining how critical discourse has been produced, who has held critical authority, how the canon of significant Nigerian artists has been constructed and challenged, and how critical frameworks have evolved in relation to changes in the art world. The theoretical contribution draws on Foucauldian archaeology of knowledge to articulate art criticism as a discursive formation with specific rules of production, authority relations, and canon-forming effects. The empirical component uses systematic corpus analysis of critical writing from Nigerian newspapers, art journals, gallery catalogues, and online platforms from 1960 to 2024, supplemented by interviews with 15 active and retired art critics. The corpus analysis employs both thematic and discourse analysis methods to identify recurring critical frameworks, valorised aesthetic categories, and the demographic profile of those accorded critical authority. The geographic dimension examines whether critical authority has been disproportionately concentrated in Lagos and Ibadan to the exclusion of critical voices from the North East, North West, and North Central zones. The theoretical framework integrates Foucauldian discourse analysis, sociology of intellectual fields, and postcolonial literary criticism. Findings contribute to art history, critical theory, and the intellectual history of Nigerian cultural institutions. Keywords: art criticism, critical discourse, Nigerian art canon, archaeology of knowledge, art history