Beschreibung:

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994)Mask
ebony
121 x 14 x 6.5cm (47 5/8 x 5 1/2 x 2 9/16in).FootnotesProvenance
Acquired from an exhibition in London in the 1950s;
A private collection, London;
Acquired from the above by the present owner's family in 2011;
Thence by direct descent to the present owner in 2020;
A private collection.
The elongated form of the present work recalls the lengthened shape of traditional wooden Fulani masks demonstrating Enwonwu's ongoing interest in synthesising the indigenous traditions of West Africa with his own modernist art practice. Hand-carved from ebony, the mask draws upon the skills the artist believed he acquired from his father, who was also a sculptor, as a young boy.
The surface of the present work is characterised by its roughly hewed texture. Significantly, Enwonwu pursued an ongoing project of creative experimentation through his artistic practice which led to a variety of finishes and technical approaches to the artmaking process. Levied with accusations regarding his technical skill in relation to the loose style of his 1949 painting Fulani Girl of Ropp, he asserted:
'This painting can be appreciated in strict aesthetic terms, if I may use the language, and from the standpoint of art. The technique may be disappointing to very good painters but technique in painting is not the criterion for knowing what is good, bad or indifferent in art. Cézanne was a bad technician but he is among the greatest of the Impressionists' (Ogbechie, 2008: p. 107).
Similarly, the unpolished surface of the present work does not gesture to the technical failings of the artist, nor does it indicate that the work is unfinished. Instead, it marks Enwonwu's pursuit of new possibilities through his approach to sculptural form. Ogbechie explains that the artist had a deep 'fascination with the textural qualities of wood' and this informed the wide variety of works that he produced in the medium (Ogbechie, 2008: p. 112). Ebony was a particularly meaningful material within the artist's practice, and he was absorbed by 'the specific effects he achieved through use of indigenous African tools such as the adz' (ibid). The present work thus stands as a powerful example of Enwonwu's synthesisation of traditional West African techniques and materials with his own distinctly modern practice.
Bibliography
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2008).