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Notes
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This painting shows one of the Agbogho Mmuo, or 'Maiden Spirits', characters of the Nigerian masquerade, which Enwonwu first employed in the 1950s following his reading of Geoffrey Gorer’s colonial critique, 'Africa Dances' (1935). The performance is put on in honour of unwed adolescent girls and ancestors from the community, and is danced exclusively by men dressed in vivid, colourful costumes with props including elaborate feathered headdresses and painted wooden masks. The delicate features drawn in the white paint represent the purity and innocence of the maidens’ souls. A review of the artist’s Exhibition Center show in Lagos, Nigeria in September 1962 noted 'some excellent new paintings, particularly the ones of the Ibo masquerades called Agbogommuo (sic)'.
Title
The Dancer
Date
1962
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 93 x W 62 cm
Accession number
2022-02
Acquisition method
on loan to the Ben Uri collection
Work type
Painting
Signature/marks description
signed (lower left): Ben Enwonwu 1962
