As art historian Freida Tesfagiorgis rightly observes, “African women artists remain unknown to the Western world.” Her lament is borne out by the sparse literature about Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu, one of the most impressive modernist painters that Nigeria ever produced. What we do know is that she was born in the northern Nigerian city of Kano in 1921. Ugbodaga-Ngu, who died in 1996, began her career teaching art in the region’s British colonial mission schools. This led to her receiving a scholarship from the British colonial administration to study at Chelsea School of Art, London. After a period training as a teacher at the London Institute of Education, Ugbodaga-Ngu returned to Nigeria, where she found her lifelong passion – a commitment to education alongside her work as an artist that would be her lasting legacy.

Her appointment in 1955 as the first female Nigerian art teacher at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST) in Zaria, one of the most influential art institutions in the whole of Africa, was a key moment. There she made an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of her country, not least through her students Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo and Erhabor Emokpae. They would go on to form the influential group of artists known as the ‘Zaria Rebels’, who disrupted the old colonial hierarchies within art education to develop a Nigerian art canon that rejected European approaches to art in favour of a homegrown post-colonial modernism.

Ugbodaga-Ngu’s own artistic work was no less revolutionary. In her painting Dancers (1965), to be offered in London’s African Art sale in March, two dark-skinned figures sway closely together. They are dressed in vibrantly coloured, geometric, diamond-patterned wrappers, worn in the traditional style and raised high up across their chests. Their heads are adorned with the same fabric, loosely draped like a veil. They are dancing – more specifically, they have been captured mid-dance at some ceremonial occasion. Painted with thickly applied brushstrokes, this work is highly textural and boldly explores colour and shape. The two figures blend in with their colourful background, which mimics the diamond patterns of the cloth they are wearing.

Ugbodaga-Ngu was a trailblazer, not only through her academic and artistic achievements, but also due to her relentless drive in establishing indigenous art organisations, led by the artists themselves. She was part of the group, convened at a meeting in October 1961 and spearheaded by Uche Okeke and Ben Enwonwu, that led to the formation of the Nigerian Art Academy. Albeit short-lived, the Academy brought together many future stars of the Nigerian art world, including Aina Onabolu, Felix Idubor, Simon Okeke, Festus Idehen, ‘Afi’ Ekong, Jimo Akolo, T.A. Fasuyi, J. Nkobi and M.A. Ajayi, as well as Okeke’s fellow Zaria Rebels Nwoko, Grillo, Onobrakpeya and Emokpae.

Among Nigerian women artists, Ugbodaga-Ngu stands alongside only Ladi Kwali (1925-1984), ‘Afi’ Ekong (1930-2009) and Josephine Ifueko Omigie (1936-1997) in her integral importance to the shaping of Nigerian modernism, yet remains widely unknown today. It is hard not to see this invisibility as a direct consequence of the resolutely male bureaucratic structures that were in place at the height of their artistic careers. Colonial gatekeepers not only displaced African histories, but more specifically silenced and erased female perspectives on art and creative practice in Nigeria – and across Africa more generally. It is remarkable that Clara Ugbodaga-Ngu’s exceptional work has hitherto been lost to art history. Redress is both urgent and necessary

Jareh Das is a curator and historian. Her most recent exhibition is Body Vessel Clay at Two Temple Place, London WC2 which runs until Sunday 24 April