Uzo Egonu was born in Onitsha, Nigeria in 1931 and immigrated to England in 1945, aged 13, to study art in London at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and at St Martin’s School of Art. Despite only returning to Nigeria once in the 1970s, his painting and printmaking, which blurred the distinction between abstraction and figuration, continued to recall his strong West African and Igbo heritage and experiences of diaspora and isolation, influenced by his experiences of European travel and modernist art movements.
Painter, Uzo Egonu was born William Uzo Egonu, son of a government functionary in Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria on 25 December 1931 He attended Holy Trinity School, Onitsha and Sacred Heart College, Calabar, where he won first prize in an art competition, before leaving for England in 1945, aged 13, to further his art education. As artist and curator Rasheed Aareen writes, Egonu was 'perhaps the first person from Africa, Asia or the Caribbean to come to Britain after the War with the sole intention of becoming an artist' (Rasheed Araeen, The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post War Britain, Southbank Centre, 1989). Having completed his schooling in Little Snoring, Norfolk, Egonu enrolled at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London, where he studied painting and typography under L. J. Daniels and Gilbert Spencer (1949-1952). Around this time, he also became a member of the West African Students' Union. On graduation, Egonu was taken to the studio of renowned Jewish émigré sculptor Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), an encounter that would hold great artistic meaning for the younger man. Shortly thereafter, Egonu travelled abroad to study European masters and classical African art. In 1953 he briefly settled in Paris, where he made a living by selling watercolours. He also visited Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Italy. Returning to England in 1959, he set up a studio in West Hampstead, London. During the 1960s he developed his unique synthesis of modern art (especially Cubism and Pop art) and African visual languages (Igbo culture, Nigerian ornamentation, circular composition, and bird's-eye views), blurring the distinction between figuration and abstraction. Although Egonu only returned to his homeland once, his compositions reveal a lasting bond with African history and culture, especially the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom and the Nigerian Civil War.
In 1963 he joined the newly-formed Free Painters and Sculptors Group, exhibiting with them at the FBA Gallery, London, also showing in the winter salon of the Royal Institute Galleries. In 1964 Egonu had a first solo show at the Woodstock Gallery, London. In 1966 he participated in the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. In 1971 Egonu married his longtime girlfriend, German portrait painter Hiltrud Streicher. Streicher had conducted the first detailed interview with the artist in 1966 and continued to assist Egonu with administration, acting as his private secretary, and liaising with dealers and buyers. In the early 1970s Egonu also began printmaking, developing his technical knowledge at evening classes in etching, lithography and screen-printing at the Workingmen's College in Camden Town. Egonu's printmaking during this period led to a serious engagement in book illustration and design which continued throughout the early 1970s and provided much needed finances, namely through collaborations with publishers including Oxford University Press, Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, Ginn & Co. Ltd and Heinemann. However, a lack of protective eyewear while etching severely damaged Egonu's eyesight. As Olu Oguibe, author of the 1995 monograph writes, 'Thus began his period of 'painting in darkness'. So severe was the failure of sight that the artist could no longer see his own work or even his palette of colours, and had to mix by memory.' The painting series Stateless People dates from this time (exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall in 1986). The difficult period continued until 1983, when Egonu underwent a series of operations in Germany to restore his eyesight.
In 1977 Egonu, together with his longtime friend, Jamaican-born, UK-based sculptor Ronald Moody, was among several prominent black artists and photographers who represented the UK at the seminal Second World Festival of Black Arts and African Culture (Festac '77) in Lagos, Nigeria. In 1989 Egonu's work was included in the landmark exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain at the Hayward Gallery, London, curated by Rasheed Aareen. In 1997, his works featured in Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966-1996 held at the Caribbean Cultural Centre in New York. In 1983 he was named by the International Association of Art as a life counsellor, an honour shared with such notables of 20th century art as Henry Moore, Joan Miro and Louise Nevelson. He was also appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Life Fellow of the London Printmakers Council. During 1985-86 Egonu suffered two heart attacks, after which he was given less than a year to live. Nevertheless, Egonu lived for another ten years, actively working up until his death.
Uzo Egonu died in London, England on 14 August 1996. His works featured in several posthumous exhibitions, including Uzo Egonu: Past and Present in the Diaspora, Norwich Gallery and Maidstone Library Gallery (1997); Uzo Egonu's London, Museum of London (2005); No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990, Guildhall Art Gallery, London (2015). Egonu's works are held in UK public collections, including the Arts Council Collection, Tate, and V&A, London.