Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E

(Nigerian, 1917-1994)

Olokun Dancers (framed)

Footnotes

Provenance
A private collection.

Literature
Ogbechie, S. O., "Portrait of an Artist: The Queen to Sit for Ben Enwonwu", Ben Enwonwu, the making of an African modernist, (New York: University Rochester Press, 2008), p. 128.

In response to the romanticised account written by Geoffrey Gorer in his book Africa Dances published in 1935, Benedict Enwonwu concluded that, although Gorer's account critiques colonial rule, very little was in fact understood about the role dancing had in ritualistic performances. It was this travelogue that prompted Enwonwu's African Dances series, beginning in the 1940's, which aimed to evoke and emphasise the conceptual symbolism of dance forms, movement and cultural identity.

Completed in 1974 at a time when the artist was generating a large number of paintings for the series, Enwonwu was also serving as a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Ife between 1971 and 1975. It was during this period, S.Ogbechie observes, that the Africa Dances series took a direction that pointed away from more literal representations affiliated with his 1940's work. More informed by the Negritude ideology and during a period where subject use of the female figure took a front seat in Enwonwu's work, the series took a more conceptual angle, away from naturalistic notions of dance. It was Enwonwu's opinion, Ogbechie writes, that female representations in his work were displays of idealisation within African culture. During this time period, Enwonwu met the granddaughter of the former Ooni (king) of Ife, Adetutu Ademiluyi and would complete the first of his monumental Tutu works, completed in 1973. As perhaps a continuation of using the female form as ideological figures of power, the present work was completed only the following year from the Tutu series.

'In our rising nation, I see the forces embodied in womanhood; the beginning, and then, the development and flowering into the fullest stature of a nation- a people!'

The present work is unique in composition in comparison to other works of the 'Africa Dances' series as the posture of the women is hunched over, contrasting the more fluid and open postures of dancing women in works preceding it such as Africa Dances (1973). This comparison allows us to identify the dance presented as 'Olokun'. Enwonwu would, on occasion, visit the Ori Olokun Performing Arts Centre in Ife which was co-founded by Peggy Harper, a choreographer who studied and championed traditional forms of Nigerian dance. Indeed, the date of the present work and the Ife clothes the dancers are wearing, suggests that this painting may well have been completed at Ori Olokun Performing Arts Centre.

Resonating with the compositional approach that Enwonwu had used in earlier works of his Africa Dances series in terms of mirroring and repetition of the figures in this present work. While the figural repetition may be literal to the dance being depicted, it could also be a technique given by the artist to imbue a sense of movement throughout the work, contributing to a sense of rapid motion. The use of repetition is thematic of the artist's wider oeuvre and can also be seen in his Negritude series, the subjects of which, while more metaphysically conceptual given the exaggerated curvature of the forms, are rhythmic in depiction due to this similar echoing technique.

Bibliography
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu, the making of an African modernist, (New York: University Rochester Press, 2008)