Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 69

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E
(Nigerian, 1917-1994)
Dance form 172 x 9 x 5cm (67 11/16 x 3 9/16 x 1 15/16in).

17 March 2021, 17:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £14,000 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our African Modern & Contemporary Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994)

Dance form
ebony
172 x 9 x 5cm (67 11/16 x 3 9/16 x 1 15/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance
A private collector, Lagos.

Although undated, the above sculpture was most likely executed in the late 1970s. It bears a great stylistic resemblance to a bronze statue that Enwonwu created for Murtala Muhammed International Airport in 1978. Both pieces depict an elongated female figure rising up from the ground, back arched, both arms raised above her head. Enwonwu has abstracted the facial features in this wood carving, lending the figure a supernatural quality.

Enwonwu received a number of public commissions in this period, including the famous Drummer for the Nigeria Telecommunications Headquarters in Lagos. Art historian and writer, Sylvester Ogbechie, describes these sculptures as having a "mythopoetic sensibility". In 1977, Lagos hosted the second World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC). Enwonwu was appointed the director. His involvement in the festival cemented his belief that postcolonial Nigerian art must communicate the nation's independent cultural identity. A new visual language was needed for a country composed of such a wide range of ethnicities and art traditions. Ethereal sculptures such as Dance Form fuse these various influences:

"(Enwonwu's) appropriation of Yoruba concepts of supernatural force and the classical human form as a vessel for expressing modern technology aspired to an inclusive national aesthetic."

Bibliography
S. Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, (Durham, 2008), pp.163, 187.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Bertina Lopes(Mozambican, 1924-2012)"Respiro" (Breath)

Bertina Lopes(Mozambican, 1924-2012)"Jazz una forma di musica classica contemporanea che riflette il cosmo prospettico dell'Africa II (da una frase di Harolds Bradley)" (Jazz is a form of contemporary classical music that reflects the cosmos African II perspective (from a phrase by Harold Bradley))

Bertina Lopes(Mozambican, 1924-2012)"Il sole la vita" (The Sun, Life)

Bertina Lopes(Mozambican, 1924-2012)"Ipotese dello continuo" (I'm a fan of the continuous)

Willem Boshoff(South African, born 1951)Neves I & II

Karen Jarosynzka(South African 1934-2014)Quasimodo

Rom Isichei(Nigerian, born 1966)Conversation with my Alter Ego

Anton Karstel(South African, born 1968)Portrait of Ian van Biljoen

Anton Karstel(South African, born 1968)Adderley St

Greg Marinovich(South African, born 1962)

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela(South African, 1918-2013)Left hand

Sophie Mowat(British, born 1988)The Other Bounty

Christine Dixie(South African, born 1966)Hide (To withhold or withdraw from sight)

Glory Samjolly(British, born 1997)Dear Archives

Walter Whall Battiss(South African, 1906-1982)Three Fook Stamps

Alison Turner(British, born 1976)At The Hands Of The Enslaved, Our Society Was Built

Stuart Bird(South African, born 1977)Zuma Biscuits 2 x 5 x 7cm (13/16 x 1 15/16 x 2 3/4in). (each) (4)

Neequaye Dreph Dsane(British, born 1973)Dress Code

Gail Deborah Catlin(South African, born 1948)Female nude

Kione Grandison(British, born 1996)Let Us Not Forget

Norman Clive Catherine(South African, born 1949)Fook Dog

Alvin Kofi(British, born 1961)The Longitude Of Culture

Guy du Toit(South African, born 1958)Little Deaths

Kazvare Knox(Zimbabwean, born 1986)Someone's Been Stealing Our Things