PORTFOLIO – 37

NAAKI NARH: MASONIC PAINTINGS.

By Nii B. Andrews.

Masonic banquets have always been very formal and lavish affairs and particularly so when a lodge celebrates its annual festival.

Last Saturday, Achimota Lodge celebrated its 62nd Anniversary with a well appointed banquet at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra.

The hotel is well known among CAA lovers for its excellent display of artworks and especially as the site for Gallery 1957 – a gallery that has carved an international reputation for promoting important African artists.

THREE MASONS: Naaki Narh, acrylic on canvas, 90 X 75 cm, 2018; signed lower left. Courtesy of the artist.

It was therefore no surprise that the masonic banquet had an artsy element that lent support to one of the important tenets of masonry – namely, Charity.

Three paintings donated by Naaki Narh, were immediately bought when auctioned at the banquet.

Narh graduated in architecture at the University of Kent and went on to train at the Royal Art Academy.

The three paintings featured masonic themes. The white shirts, dark ties, black suits and aprons are easily recognizable in two paintings.

One features three masons and the other seven. The latter painting shows the seven masons in more striking fashion against a reddish background. Perhaps this depicts freemasonry at its fullest splendor.

SEVEN MASONS: Naaki Narh, acrylic on canvas, 90 X 75 cm, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

In the former painting, the three masons appear against a largely black background. Does this mirror the emergence of the fraternity in a society mired in religious and civil strife as was the situation in Europe over 300 years ago?

Or is this a reference to the primary mission of the order, to make good men better?

The third painting perhaps reinforces this.

In what is perhaps an interesting coincidence as the auction proceeded, the night sky above the event venue was ruled by the glorious constellation Cygnus the Swan which has as its center, the first black hole ever identified, Cygnus X – 1.

Narh shows us the famous masonic emblem emerging again from darkness….or if you like a black hole.

The painting is suffused with multiple spirals, arrows, chevrons, triangles and other ideograms. There is also text that spells out Justice, Truth, Honor etc…..all of which are virtues and attributes prized by freemasonry.

VEILED MASONRY, ACHIMOTA LODGE: Naaki Narh, acrylic on canvas, 90 X 90 cm, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

It is gratifying that a lady artist has chosen to depict freemasonry in such complimentary terms and with such artistic finesse. The fact that the paintings were purchased so readily by members of an order that promotes and venerates Beauty and Harmony also speaks volumes.

Finally, that the proceeds are to be donated to Charity squares the circle; Charity comprehends the whole and is the basis of the order.

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