Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994) Ogolo Titled
Provenance : [Timeline chronologique]
1988-01-01 | The composition and posture of the performer are similar to a work depicting the same subject executed in 1988, titled Spirit of Ogolo, (sold in our saleroom in May 2016)
2016-01-01 | Spirit of Ogolo’, sold in our saleroom in May 2016 for
[Propriété non datée]
- [and] a steady flow of thought and development
- I find it extremely beautiful
- Enwonwu’s preoccupation with the Ogolo figure during the years 1988 to 1994, can also be explained by his own declining health
- He had been diagnosed with cancer in 1986
- Confronted by his own impending death, the symbol of Ogolo - a gatekeeper to the spiritual world - took on particular poignancy. his large oil is one of Enwonwu’s greatest expressions of the subject
- The present lot is unusual within the genre in that the artist appears to have painted over another composition
- A signature and date is just visible ‘Ben Enwonwu / Ife 1972’
- This composition is landscape in format, and one can just see the faint outlines of a male Purapakali dance ensemble
- Enwonwu’s lifelong interest in dance forms was further fuelled when he met Peggy Harper, a dancer and choreographer who had travelled to Nigeria to study the forms of traditional West African dance
- Harper resided in Nigeria from 1963 to 1978, working first in the drama department and the institute of Africa studies at the University of Ibadan and then at the University of Ife
- Enwonwu sympathized with Harper’s desire to preserve the region’s traditional ceremonies
- Whilst she incorporated elements into her own performances, combining traditional sequences with contemporary western staging techniques, Enwonwu’s paintings from the period provide a visual equivalent
- Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: the Making of an African Modernist, (Rochester, 2008), p.198
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