Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994) Agbogo-Mmuo O
Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- A private collection, London
- Part of the Igbo pantheon, the masquerade figures of Agbogho, Mmuo and Ogolo have been celebrated for centuries in Nigeria, and are at the heart of many rituals and ceremonies
- For Enwonwu, they symbolised a unique aspect of the nation’s cultural heritage
- Having been appointed as art advisor to the Nigerian government in 1948, Enwonwu felt a responsibility to develop a new aesthetic, one that celebrated and was inspired by Nigeria’s rich history
- His lifelong fascination with the masquerade and Igbo dance forms was motivated in part by this desire to communicate a national identity
- Following the death of his brother, the figure of Agbogo-muo Ogolo took on additional private meaning for the artist
- Ike Francis Enwonwu was an important figure within his community and his passing was celebrated in traditional Onitsha fashion, with a performance of masked dancers
- The masqueraders having taken on their spirit roles pay their respects to the deceased with graceful, ritualistic gestures accompanied by a repetitive drumming
- The ceremony is intended to transport the participants, bringing them closer to the spirit world
- Witnessing this performance at his brother’s funeral provoked intense emotions in the artist
- From this point, he became increasingly superstitious
- This late representation of Agbogo-Mmuo Ogolo communicates Enwonwu’s awe, and his attempts to comprehend this mysterious and sacred ritual
- Enwonwu’s masterful handling of colour communicates the visual drama of the masquerade performance
- It also functions as a metaphor for the complexity of human existence; the dance is made up of complex individual movements, which can only be fully understood from a distance after the event
- Between 1988 and 1994, Enwonwu produced more than fifty drawings, paintings and sculptures that focused the masquerade theme
- This intense preoccupation with invoked in performance, masking and the communication between gods, ancestral spirits and human beings is suggestive of Enwonwu’s confrontation with his own morality
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