Nigeria has lost a leading and influential modern artist and teacher, Prof Yusuf Grillo.

A statement by Otunba Babatunde Grillo announced the passing of the patriarch at the age of 87.

He died in the early hours of Monday, August 23 at 87.

According to the statement, the first President Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) died at the Gbagada General Hospital in Lagos state after a ‘brief illness’.

He was buried at the Atan Cemetry, Yaba on Monday according to Islamic rites.

Grillo, who was a prominent art teacher at the School of Art, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos before his retirement trained at the Nigerian College of Arts and Science Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University), and was a member of the Zaria School, a society founded in 1958.

Born in 1934 in the Brazilian Quarter of Lagos, Yusuf Grillo went on to become one of the most influential figures in Nigerian art.

After studying extensively in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, Grillo became the Head of Art and Printing at Yaba College of Technology, a post he retained for over twenty-five years.

During this period he has received a number of public commissions; his mosaics and stained glass can be seen in churches, universities, government buildings across Lagos, and most recently at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.

Prof. Grillo is one of the most famous stained glass designers in Nigeria with his work adorning some of the biggest church buildings in the country.

In particular, his works adorn the windows of St Dominic’s Catholic Church and All Saints Anglican Church both in Yaba, Lagos.

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