Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E, (Nigerian, 1917-1994)

Dance Form 172 x 9 x 5cm (67 11/16 x 3 9/16 x 1 15/16in).

Dance Form
ebony
172 x 9 x 5cm (67 11/16 x 3 9/16 x 1 15/16in).

Provenance
A private collector, Lagos.

Although undated, the above sculpture was most likely executed in the late 1970s. It bears a great stylistic resemblance to a bronze statue that Enwonwu created for Murtala Muhammed International Airport in 1978. Both pieces depict an elongated female figure rising up from the ground, back arched, both arms raised above her head. Enwonwu has abstracted the facial features in this wood carving, lending the figure a supernatural quality.

Enwonwu received a number of public commissions in this period, including the famous Drummer for the Nigeria Telecommunications Headquarters in Lagos. Art historian and writer, Sylvester Ogbechie, describes these sculptures as having a "mythopoetic sensibility". In 1977, Lagos hosted the second World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC). Enwonwu was appointed the director. His involvement in the festival cemented his belief that postcolonial Nigerian art must communicate the nation's independent cultural identity. A new visual language was needed for a country composed of such a wide range of ethnicities and art traditions. Ethereal sculptures such as Dance Form fuse these various influences:

"(Enwonwu's) appropriation of Yoruba concepts of supernatural force and the classical human form as a vessel for expressing modern technology aspired to an inclusive national aesthetic."

Bibliography
S. Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, (Durham, 2008), pp.163, 187.