₦airaland Forum

Early life

Ben Enwonwu was born a twin on 14 July 1917 into the noble family of Umueze-Aroli in Onitsha, Anambra State, southeastern region of Nigeria. His father, Omenka Odigwe Emeka Enwonwu, was a technician who worked with the Royal Niger Company. He was also a member of the Onitsha Council of Chiefs and a traditional sculptor of repute, who created staffs of office, stools, decorative doors and religious images. His mother, Chinyelugo Iyom Nweze, was a successful cloth merchant.

Upon his father's death in 1921, Enwonwu inherited his tools, going on to perfect the art of carving in the style of indigenous Igbo sculpture, begun earlier with his father, who first nurtured his precocious talent.

Education

Between 1921 and 1931, Enwonwu attended five primary schools: St. Joseph's Elementary School, Onitsha (1926–28); St, Theresa's Elementary School, Umuahia (1928–29); St. Mary's Primary School, Port Harcourt (1929–30); Holy Trinity Primary; and St. Mary's Primary School, both in Onitsha (1930–31).

In 1933, Enwonwu attended St. Patrick's School, Ibusa, and later enrolled at the Government College, Ibadan, completing his secondary education at Government College Umuahia in 1937.

At both colleges, he studied fine art under Kenneth C. Murray. Murray was an education officer in charge of art education in the colonial civil service and later director of antiquities. During their time together, Enwonwu became Murray's assistant and was recognised as one of the most gifted and technically proficient students of the "Murray Group" (Ben C. Enwonwu, C. C. Ibeto, D.L. Nnachy, M. Teze and A. P. Umana). The period of study under Murray marked the beginning of Enwonwu's formal education in art.


In 1944, under a joint Shell Petroleum Company and British Council scholarship, he attended the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, and in 1945, the Ruskin School, Ashmolean, Oxford University, where the Slade had been relocated during World War II. In 1947, he received a first-class diploma in fine art from the Slade and registered for postgraduate work in anthropology (with a focus on West African ethnography) at the University of London. In 1948, Enwonwu completed his studies.


Nkiru Nzegwu states that the racist atmosphere he encountered during his stay in England sparked his interest in entering this programme. Anthropology offered a space for the scientific study of the races, their physical and mental characteristics, customs, and social relationships. In 1937, Murray exhibited Enwonwu's work at the Zwemmer Gallery in London. In 1969, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, north-western region of Nigeria.


Career


After working with Murray for many years, Enwonwu was hired as a teacher at the Government College of Umuahia. According to art historian Sylvester Ogbechie, author of Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, Murray was displeased with the school's choice to provide Enwonwu with the same salary as the other seasoned teachers. This created a rift between both men. Eventually Murray left Government College and Enwonwu replaced him as art teacher. He continued his work as an art teacher in other various schools, including mission school in Calabar Province (1940–41), and Edo College, Benin City (1941–43). He was art adviser to the Nigerian government from 1948.

During the years following 1950, he toured and lectured in the United States, and executed many commissions as a freelance artist. In 1951, he met with the founding members of the Lagos auxiliary to the Anti Slavery and Aborigines Right Society, which was at that time headed by Candido Da Rocha, and had James Johnson, Samuel Pearse, and Sapara Williams as members and became their official art illustrator. From 1949 to 1954, Enwonwu held many art exhibitions within London, Lagos, Milan, New York City, Washington D.C., and Boston. In the course of her 1956 visit to Nigeria, Queen Elizabeth II commissioned and sat for a portrait sculpture by Enwonwu. At the Royal Society of British Artists exhibition in London of 1957, he unveiled the bronze sculpture.


In 1959, Enwonwu was appointed Supervisor in the Information Service Department office in Nigeria. He was a fellow of Lagos University (1966–68), cultural advisor to the Nigeria government (1968–71), and visiting artist at the Institute of African Studies at Howard University, Washington, DC, in 1971. He was appointed the first professor of Fine Arts at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, from 1971 to 1975. He was also art consultant to the International Secretariat, Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Lagos of 1977. The President of Nigeria, Shehu Shagari, presented a small sculpture of Enwonwu's Anywanu, a representation of the Igbo earth goddess Ani, to Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on the occasion of his state visit to the United Kingdom in 1981.

Enwonwu executed portraits of Nigerians as private commissions and illustrated Amos Tutuola's 1958 novel The Brave African Huntress. He maintained a studio in London and was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London.

A bronze sculpture by the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu was formally presented to the United Nations on 5 October 1966. The sculpture, entitled "Anyanwu" ("Sun" ), stands 6 feet 10 inches high. It is a statue of a, woman, clad in the regalia of Royal Benin, an ancient kingdom which is now part of Nigeria, and is symbolic of the rising sun of a new nation. It is mounted on a marble base. The work symbolizes the sun's various aspects - the light of the day, dawn, rebirth, a new day, hope and awakening. It is located on the second floor corridor of the Conference Building between the Security Council and Trusteeship Council.

01 October 1977
United Nations, New York
Photo # 126482

Nigerian Sculpture Unveiled at Headquarters
A bronze sculpture by the Nigerian artist, Ben Enwonwu, was unveiled today at Headquarters. The sculpture, entitled “Anyanwu” (“Sun”) is a gift from the Government of Nigeria to the United Nations. Chief S. O. Adebo, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, presented the sculpture, on behalf of his Government, to Secretary-General U Thant.

Shown conferring after the presentation are Secretary-General U Thant (left) and the sculptor, Ben Enwonwu.
05 October 1966
United Nations, New York
Photo # 221408

Oct 5th 1966: Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations(UN) Chief Simeon Adebo presents Ben Enwonwu’s ‘Anyanwu’ sculpture to the U.N Secretary-General U Thant on behalf Nigeria. Enwonwu can be seen on the extreme right.

naptu2:
Legendary Nigerian artist, Professor Ben Enwonwu’s painting of an Ile-Ife princess, Adetutu Ademiluyi, who he met while he was a lecturer at University of Ife has been sold at auction for  £1,205,000.

Professor Enwonwu made the painting of the Ife princess in 1973 and 1974, but the painting went missing for many years until it was recently found in a London flat.


https://mobile.twitter.com/bonhams1793/status/968914310541004803

naptu2:
Ben Enwonwu's "African Dancers" Sold To Bidder At Lagos Auction Event.

Bonhams auction house sold several expensive pieces of African art yesterday in London and the star of the show was Tutu, a painting by Professor Ben Enwonwu.

However, Bonhams also had an event at the Wheatbaker Hotel, 4 Onitolo Road, Ikoyi in Lagos where guests watched a live stream of the event and could also bid for items that were on sale. Several of the items, including "African Dancers" by Professor Enwonwu, were bought by guests in Lagos.


https://mobile.twitter.com/Osisiye/status/968897614942007296

Ben Enwonwu’s Painting Sold For £1.1m After Google Search


A painting by the Nigerian artist responsible for the ‘African Mona Lisa’ sold at auction in London on Tuesday for £1.1m after the family who owned it googled the signature and realised its importance.

‘Christine,’ by 20th century master of African modernism Ben Enwonwu, had been in the sitter’s family home ever since it was painted in Lagos in 1971.

“The family were unaware of the significance of the painting or the importance of the artist, until a chance googling of the signature led them to Sotheby’s free Online Estimate Platform,” said the London auction house.

The painting fetched over seven times the pre-auction estimate, finally going under the hammer for £1.1m (1.3 million euros, $1.4m).
The work precedes the artist’s 1974 painting of Ife royal princess Adetutu ‘Tutu’ Ademiluyi, which recently turned up in a London flat after not being seen in decades.

The portrait is a national icon in Nigeria, with Booker Prize-winning novelist Ben Okri telling AFP that it was thought of as “the African Mona Lisa.”

Enwonwu, who died in 1994, is considered the father of Nigerian modernism.

He made three paintings of ‘Tutu,’ the locations of all of which had been a mystery until the recent discovery.

The works became symbols of peace following the clash of ethnic groups in the Nigerian-Biafran conflict of the late 1960s.

2nd Rediscovered Version of Ben Enwonwu’s “Tutu” Painting Auctions for £320,750


Published on October 5, 2018


The second rediscovered version of Ben Enwonwu‘s famous painting “Tutu” on Thursday, sold for an impressive £320,750 at Bonhams‘ Africa Now sale.

Nine of Enwonwu’s paintings made the top 10 slot for the 121-lot sale which achieved £1,802,625.

Tutu is a 1974 painting of Princess Adetutu Ademiluyi, an Ife royalty.

The first version, which was discovered at a London home after going missing for decades, was auctioned for £1.2 million in February this year.

Enwonwu is said to have made three versions of the iconic painting.

Rediscovering the Art of Ben Enwonwu

Decades after his death, one of Africa’s most famous artists is gaining renewed attention, and his pieces are bringing big prices.

By Farah Nayeri
Published Sept. 24, 2019

In 1971, an American hair stylist living in Lagos posed for a portrait by the artist Ben Enwonwu of Nigeria. Christine Elizabeth Davis (who was the wife of a British missionary) wore an elegant Nigerian gele, or head wrap, and sat so still that the painting was completed in a week. The finished work, “Christine,” then moved with the Davis family to Texas in 1978.

Four decades later, after her death, her stepson — who was a little boy when the portrait was done and always lived with it — reached out to Sotheby’s via its online-valuation platform to see what “Christine” might be worth. The answer was, quite a lot.

Mr. Enwonwu’s market prices had recently soared. His 1974 portrait of a Yoruba princess, “Tutu,” sold for 1.2 million pounds ($1.49 million) in a February 2018 auction at Bonhams, four times its high estimate, setting a record for the artist.

So when Sotheby’s holds its sale of modern and contemporary African art on Oct. 15, “Christine” will go on the auction block for an estimated £100,000 to £150,000 — a price that Sotheby’s describes as deliberately conservative to maximize bidding.

The portrait is “a personal heirloom, so not such an easy decision to make,” Hannah O’Leary, Sotheby’s head of modern and contemporary African art, said of the stepson’s wish to part with the painting. “But the time is great to sell it.”

“If you told me that my painting of my grandmother was worth six figures, I would feel a little less sentimental about it,” she said. For most people, “it’s a life-changing amount of money.”

Ms. O’Leary said that because the international market for Nigerian and African art was growing, Mr. Enwonwu was being rediscovered as an artist, and his pieces were being spotted in private collections around the world.

“These works are coming out of the woodwork,” she said.
Mr. Enwonwu (who died in 1994 at 77) was, for much of his life, one of Africa’s most famous artists. He was originally trained as a sculptor.

He produced a sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II for which the queen sat a dozen times, including at Buckingham Palace; the sculpture was completed in 1957. In 1966, he presented a tall bronze sculpture of a female figure, “Anyanwu,” to the United Nations in New York, where it is still on display.

While Mr. Enwonwu’s stature in Nigeria remains undiminished, he has faded out of the international spotlight in the last couple of decades, Ms. O’Leary said. The “Tutu” auction record is bringing him renewed attention.

“I’m very happy that my father is getting his due, but there’s still a long way to go,” said the artist’s son Oliver Enwonwu, a 44-year-old figurative painter and gallerist based in Lagos. He noted that contemporaries from other parts of Africa who were far less recognized in their lifetime were worth more on the international art market today.

“Christine,” the artist’s son noted, was “much more than the portrait of a woman.” It was an important precursor to pieces such as “Tutu,” and painted in the wake of the Nigerian civil war, a time of conflict, bloodshed and tribal tension, he said.

Through its serene depiction of beauty and femininity, it symbolized a certain “national consciousness,” and was destined to “bring our peoples together,” Mr. Enwonwu added. It was part of a series of works in which the artist “promotes all things black and all things beautiful.”

When Oliver was young, growing up as the son of a celebrated artist was rewarding and enriching. Yet it could also be intimidating.

His father was “a very, very hard-working man” who “liked absolute quiet,” his son recalled. The children “always scampered away” to avoid disturbing him, to show that they were keeping busy, too.

“He didn’t like you just lying around,” Mr. Enwonwu said. “He always believed that you have to be reading or doing something, not just hanging out.”

It was even more challenging for the young boy to follow in his father’s footsteps, and to prove that he had what it takes to be an artist in his own right.

“He didn’t believe I could draw,” the son said. “He asked me to repeat a drawing in front of him, because he thought I was tracing. He then told my mom: ‘Oliver is drawing with mathematical precision.’ From that day, he was more accepting of my development as an artist.”

The father then started lending a hand with his son’s school art assignments, helping him paint foregrounds or backgrounds, or the sky. One important lesson, Oliver Enwonwu said, was that “sometimes, when working, you must learn where to stop, because if you add a few more touches, you might spoil the work and disrupt the energy.”

As a gallerist promoting Nigerian and African art today, Mr. Enwonwu said, he has high hopes for the “Christine” auction at Sotheby’s.

“I’ll be very happy if it eclipses ‘Tutu,’” he said. “It’s a beacon of hope for a Nigerian artist who has a practice: He can work and earn good money for his work.”

He added, “It makes my work as a promoter of art in Nigeria much easier.”