Artsplit, the pioneering African art technology platform, has closed its contemporary masters split and lease auction featuring the iconic works of Yusuf Grillo and George Pemba with a VIP dinner to honour the two artists in Lagos.
The Artsplit auction, which was held recently in Lagos featured Eyo (1993) by Nigerian artist, Yusuf Grillo, and Between Life and Death (1976) by South African artist, George Pemba.
The lease value of the works is $2000 for Eyo (1993) and $1000 for Between Life and Death (1976), while the winning bidders now have physical access to the works for 24 months.
Onyinye Anyaegbu, the executive director at Artsplit, said Artsplit is an art technology company driven by a common goal of enhancing the investment status of African art by allowing users to co-own rare and valuable artworks on a platform that guarantees price discovery and market liquidity.
“Our mission is to position African art and artists as the preferred alternative investment choice by democratising access to iconic African art alongside developing the African art ecosystem through technology and co-ownership. We believe that, in this way, we can make wealth accessible through alternative investments,” Anyaegbu said.
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Yusuf Grillo is a Nigerian artist and founding president of the Society of Nigerian Artists. Grillo is regarded as one of Nigeria’s most distinguished academically trained painters that rose to prominence and international acclaim in the 1960s and 1970s, exhibiting an extensive collection of his early works.
Many of his paintings incorporate elements of his western art training, combining western art techniques with traditional Yoruba sculpture characteristics. His use of blue in natural settings paintings is sometimes reminiscent of ‘adire or resist-dye’ textiles used in Nigeria.
George Pemba is a South African artist known for his bold use of colour, with many of his paintings inspired by his moments in the hospital, where he spent much of his time drawing his surroundings, fellow patients, and doctors.
Pemba is regarded as a forefather of African social realism, and in 2004 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga for his contributions to art and literature.
The Artsplit platform (mobile app) allows its users to own fractions, also known as ‘Splits’ of prominent African artworks on the app and in the ‘Split Auction’, where they can either keep or sell in its secondary market to other users for profit. These ‘Splits’ (fractions) enable multiple individuals to co-own a single piece of art on the platform.
Following the Split Auction, users on the app can also bid to win physical custody of the co-owned artworks for a set period via the lease auction, while the cycle is repeated on the app as far as multiple individuals own splits of the artwork.
