The world’s largest painting is a love letter to Nigeria

Nigerian artist Fola David says he has not been the same since he created the biggest painting in the world.

At 1,004.7 square meters – or roughly the size of four tennis courts – Unity in Diversity a map of Nigeria full of many different styles of the country’s food, dance, music, art, history and more.

It took David six days to draw it in black marker, bent over in front of the crowd at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, a football stadium in Lagos, in July.

But before he started painting, he traveled all over his country to experience many cultures firsthand.

“It changed me,” said David, who lives in Lagos As It Happened hosted by Nil Köksal. “It broadened my knowledge of Nigeria. It broadened my knowledge of myself, of what I can achieve if, you know, I put my mind to something.”

The artwork, made with a permanent marker on the canvas, is broken Guinness World Record for largest individual paintingpreviously owned by Indian artist Ravi Soni for his 629.98 square meter painting, The Tree of Life.

Drawing in front of ‘the whole world’

David, an artist and doctor whose real name is Adefemi Gbadamosi, is known for his speed painting. He says he first got the idea of ​​setting a Guinness record nine years ago.

“I usually paint in front of a large crowd or audience,” he says. “I wanted to see what it would be like to paint in front of the whole world.”

Over time, he began to realize that this piece could be more than a personal challenge. It can be a love letter to Nigerian culture.

But he says that is not easy, because there is no Nigerian culture. The West African country is home to more than 200 million people, from more than 250 nations, who speak more than 500 languages.

David received a grant from Tolaram, a Singapore-based company doing business in Nigeria, to spend three months traveling the country this spring and last summer preparing for the painting.

“I talked to political leaders. I talked to cultural leaders to learn about these traditions. Then I spent time eating their food, listening to their music, dance, and festivals,” he said.

“Nigeria is very diverse, and I fell in love with many parts of the country.”

Doubled in size

The final piece was drawn on a pile of canvases strung together in the field, which took David and his collaborators two days to set up.

Among the displayed images are a Yoruba cooking pot and traditional dress; periwinkle sea snails, two staple foods of southern Nigeria; copper work of Benin; the Efik dancer, the mask of Queen Idia, the historical leader of the Edo people; and Ada and Abere, the swords of the kingdom of Yorubaland.

Originally, David says, he planned to fill about 800 square meters of canvas. But as he looked at the blank pages laid out in the field, he quickly realized that they were too small for what he wanted to do.

“So I tell everyone to get the one support they have and size up,” she said. “We almost doubled.”

Those pieces he says have been dismantled and put in storage.

“It’s too big,” he said. “We had to cut.”

David says he is working with his sponsors to build a center that will permanently view this piece. But for now, he’s just happy to have reached the culmination of nearly a decade of dreaming.

“The people I met on my journey, the time I spent as an artist, is what created this,” he said. “I feel very relaxed and, you know, enlightened and just happy in general.”