Ben Enwonwu, The Durbar of Eid ul-Fitr, Kano, Nigeria, broke the artist’s previous best by selling for £193,250. Image courtesy of Bonhams

ART AUCTION: Ben Enwonwu, one of Africa’s leading artists, puts African art at the center of global art market with record art auction prices

Ben Enwonwu (Benedict Chukwukadibia), M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994) Seven wooden sculptures commissioned by the Daily Mirror in 1960. Sold for £361,250 (US$ 561,867) inc. premium. Image courtesy of Bonhams

LONDON— The art of Ben Enwonwu (1917 – 1994) took center stage at Bonhams sale of Modern and Contemporary African Art in London with a new world record for the artist at £361,250 against his previous best of £125,000. His record work, a collection of seven wooden sculptures of figures holding newspapers, was commissioned by the Daily Mirror in 1961. The figures had been estimated to sell for £80,000 to £120,000 but tripled the high estimate to make £361,250.

The 120 lot art sale made a total of over £1.3 million. New world record auction prices were also set for over twenty other artists, including Erhabor Emokpae, Uche Okeke, Uzo Egonu and Tshibumba Kanda Matulu.

Giles Peppiatt, Head of African Art at Bonhams, comments:

African Contemporary Art took another step forward today with world record prices achieved. The national spotlight being cast on African art by Bonhams, the Tate and others has focused increasing interest on African artists and I am delighted to see them getting the recognition they deserve. As the only auction house offering a stand-alone sale of Contemporary African Art for the past five years, today’s result pleases me very much.”

Durbar of Eid ul-Fitr, Kano, Nigeria, an evocative oil on canvas also by Enwonwu broke the artist’s  previous best by selling for £193,250. The packed saleroom gave Giles Peppiatt, the auctioneer, a round of applause as this inaugural work of the afternoon’s auction was knocked down.

Artworks by Ben Enwonwu Continue to Ignite the Art Market

A bronze sculpture also by Ben Enwonwu ignited the auction hall when it was presented to the enthusiastic art collectors. Titled Anyanwu and estimated to sell for  £50,000-80,000, the sculpture surpassed estimation, making £133,350. This is a small-scale version of the famous work mounted on the façade of the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos. Anyanwu is one of  Ben Enwonwu’s most significant sculptures. The title Anyanwu (eye of the sun) invokes the Igbo practice of saluting the rising sun as a way to honor ChiUkwu, the Great Spirit.

Enwonwu’s Anyanwu is commonly cited as among the artist’s most accomplished works, not only formally but also in terms of its positioning in Nigerian cultural history. The noble figure, with its lithe bronze torso arising as if from the earth, is considered the pre-eminent expression of what Sylvester Ogbechie describes as “the aspirations of the Nigerian nation and Enwonwu’s personal intercession for its survival and growth”.

Ben Enwonwu has said of the sculpture:

My aim was to symbolise our rising nation. I have tried to combine material, crafts, and traditions, to express a conception that is based on womanhood – woman, the mother and nourisher of man. 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! This sculpture is spiritual in conception, rhythmical in movement, and three dimensional in its architectural setting – these qualities are characteristic of the sculpture of my ancestors.

The first Anyanwu sculpture (1954-5), made for the National Museum, Lagos, was so popular that another was commissioned for the United Nations headquarters in New York (1961).

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Ben Enwonwu  (Benedict Chukwukadibia), M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994) ‘Anyanwu’ 91cm (35 13/16in) high (excluding base). Sold for £133,250 (US$ 207,249) inc. premium. Image courtesy of Bonhams

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