At a time of increasing multi-culturalism in Britain, there is a growing interest in work from African and Asian countries, particularly those that have strong ties with Britain, such as Nigeria. Tayo Quaye's work reflects the history of art-school teaching in Nigeria, which has been very much influenced by European methods, yet his work retains a decorative quality that appears to rely very much on traditional techniques of pattern making.

Tayo Quaye's work comes out of a complex tradition of Eurocentric art-school teaching established in Nigeria by the 1940s, and a reassertion of indigenous approaches to visual arts. This was called the 'Natural synthesis' theory and was first propounded in the late 1950s by a group of artists at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Zaria. It was, in the words of Nigerian art historian Chika Okeke, 'the merging of the best of the indigenous art traditions, forms and ideas with the useful Western ones'. The Man is typical of Quaye's work, which frequently addresses family relationships.