Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E

(Nigerian, 1917-1994)

Moonlight Masquerade, 1943 (framed)

Footnotes

Provenance
The collection of Prof. Anthony Kirk-Greene CMG MBE (1925 – 2018);
Private collection.

Exhibited
Lagos, Exhibition Centre, Dec 1943-Jan 1944.

Originally owned by Professor Anthony Kirk-Greene CMG MBE who held the position of president of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK) from 1998 to 1990, the present lot can be held in high regard not only due to it's beautiful rendering, but also it's significant provenance. With an extensive body of written work on Nigerian history, politics, colonisation and post-independence Africa, Kirk-Greene had also served as a senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State from 1961 to 1965.

The watercolour painting Moonlight Masquerade (1943) is by Ben Enwonwu, from his Benin period (1941 to 1944), and in the conceptual and formalistic style of his other early genre artworks such as Coconut Palms(watercolour, 1935). All these works have a consistent image orientation, often including figures in a landscape of dense trees who are mostly engaged in forms of indigenous cultural ritual or quotidian practices. This one is distinguished by its focus on a plethora of masquerades and for being the first recorded instance of representational use of Uli art in Nigerian painting: the path in the middle of the painting leads to a shrine whose wall is decorated with Uli symbols, a decade and half before Uche Okeke began his experiments with Uli art. This fact alone makes this watercolour painting extraordinary and unique.

The indistinct inscription (W.Kwa.i..Ukon) might refer to the Akwa Ibom region hinting at the area where these masquerades are often performed, it is the border region between the Eastern Igbo and Ibibio territories.

The painting substantiates the fact that Enwonwu's art explored the numinous aspects of masquerades quite early in his career. It also shows his improved handling of human anatomy and compositional techniques both of which reveal an improvement in Enwonwu's capabilities as an artist. His signature in this painting is also unique: it is signed Ben Chu.. Enwonwu and the letters are sandwiched between two horizontal bars, one of a very small number of artworks he signed in this manner (see Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu 2008: 67-68 for description and meaning of Enwonwu's changing signatures). He dropped the horizontal bars but retained "Ben Chuka Enwonwu" as a signature through his first year at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London.

All in all, Moonlight Masquerade is a key painting in Enwonwu'ss oeuvre for its inclusion of Uli imagery and representational format showing significant advances in the formal and conceptual ranges of the artist. He sailed for London the next year to begin his education at the Slade. His career can be divided neatly into before and after this artwork, the "before" showing his skill level resulting from his education under K.C. Murray and the "after" documenting the post-Slade education and artistic capabilities that belong to his professional career proper.

We are grateful to Professor Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie for the completion of the above footnote.