Three decades after his death, Nigerian painter and sculptor Ben Enwonwu continues to be hailed as Africa’s leading artist.
His paintings and sculptures grace galleries and public spaces worldwide, but recently two of his works were discovered in the UK, unexpectedly concealed in plain view—one of which had even been used as a doorstop. This discovery has sparked renewed fascination with Enwonwu’s life and artistic legacy.
During a recent appraisal on the BBC TV series Antiques Roadshow, a guest brought in an unfamiliar object, unaware it was a valuable sculpture by Enwonwu. Acquired years ago at a car boot sale for £50 ($60), it is now appraised at around £15,000.
The base of this stone sculpture features a plaque inscribed with “Ben Enwonwu–Igbo Sculpture,” alongside the signature of the now-defunct Zwemmer Gallery in London. This signature was key in validating the sculpture’s authenticity, believed to have been crafted in the 1970s during Enwonwu’s career peak.
Just days prior to this find, an unknown Enwonwu watercolor poster from 1942 was discovered in the UK’s National Archives. Titled Yams, it depicts the transportation of yams along a river and was commissioned by the UK’s Ministry of Information during World War II to promote food production and self-sufficiency in West Africa.
This poster has been authenticated by the director of modern and contemporary African art at Bonhams, a leading auction house, and by Enwonwu’s biographer, both of whom were previously unaware of its existence.
This is not the first surprise discovery of Enwonwu’s art. In 2017, his painting Tutu, missing since 1975, was found in a London flat’s attic and subsequently sold at Bonhams for £1.2 million, significantly higher than its estimated value of £300,000.
A distinguished career
Enwonwu’s journey, often labeled “the most influential African artist of the 20th century” by The Guardian, was not without its obstacles. Born in Onitsha, Nigeria, in 1917 under colonial rule, he was the child of a cloth merchant mother and an engineer/sculptor father. After his father’s passing, Enwonwu took up carving in the traditional Igbo style.
He studied fine arts in Nigeria, and the success of his first solo exhibition in Lagos in 1944 led to a scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he graduated with top honors. Enwonwu later taught at various Nigerian institutions and was named art adviser to the Nigerian government in 1948. His reputation significantly grew throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.
In 1955, to mark Nigeria’s independence, the Nigerian National Museum commissioned Enwonwu to create Anyanwu, a bronze statue representing the Igbo goddess Ani, which still stands outside the museum today.
He garnered international attention in 1957 with a life-sized bronze sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned during her visit to Nigeria the previous year. Enwonwu became the first African artist to create an official portrait of a European monarch, with the Queen posing for him in London. The statue was unveiled later that year. Sylvester Ogbechie, Enwonwu’s biographer and visual artist, noted in his 2008 book, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, that the statue united the Queen’s distinctive features with the serene expression found in Enwonwu’s Head of a Yoruba Girl sculpture.
Oliver Enwonwu, the artist’s son, commented in an interview with CNN in 2022 that his father’s portrayal of the Queen included fuller lips.
“Many positive reviews noted that the artist represented the Queen through his African perspective, leading to a work enriched with African attributes, typical of his style,” he explained.
Following this, Queen Elizabeth II commissioned Enwonwu to sculpt a bust of her eldest son, then-Prince Charles, now King Charles III.
Ben Enwonwu, Master of the British Empire
However, Enwonwu’s ties to the British monarchy drew criticism from those who viewed it as a betrayal of Nigerian nationalism. He received an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his sculpture of the Queen while Nigeria was on the brink of independence.
In a 1998 essay in African Studies Quarterly, Professor Nkiru Nzegwu charged Enwonwu with “seeking validation from colonial authorities” through his art. Nevertheless, Enwonwu was a staunch advocate for Nigerian independence, delivering a speech in Paris in 1956 where he stated:
“I understand that when a country is politically repressed by another, the native artistic traditions of the oppressed begin to vanish. Consequently, artists also start to lose the essence of their creative expressions. Under such conditions, art is doomed.”
As both an artist and an individual, Enwonwu navigated a complex identity, working to reconcile his accomplishments within the British art sphere with his African heritage, particularly after experiencing racism during his stay in London. He recognized the challenge of embracing modernist art techniques while rejecting colonial mindsets that portrayed African art as primitive and tribal while celebrating Western advancement.
In a BBC interview in 1958, he asserted: “I refuse to accept an inferior position in the art world. My art has not been classified as ‘African’ because I have not accurately conveyed my reality.”
Throughout his lifetime, Enwonwu championed black art and artists, producing numerous series of paintings and sculptures that celebrated Africa and black culture, including his Africa Dances series created during the 1960s.
An image of reconciliation
In the aftermath of the Biafran War, Enwonwu’s works prominently celebrated Igbo culture. In 1971, he painted Christine, a portrait of an American hairstylist living in Lagos with her British husband, which was sold in 2019 for £1.1 million. His most famous work, Tutu, was created in 1973 and is viewed as a symbol of reconciliation between the government and Biafran separatists. This triptych of portraits, often referred to as the African Mona Lisa, represents Ifẹ princess Adetutu Ademiluyi. All three portraits went missing in 1975, yet the second version was rediscovered in 2017. In an interview with The Guardian, Nigerian-British novelist Ben Okri called this discovery “the most significant find in contemporary African art in over 50 years.”
Enwonwu passed away in 1994 at the age of 76, having dedicated his life to bridging the African and Western art worlds. By combining European artistic styles with African and Igbo traditions, his work challenged Western stereotypes of African art and articulated the identity of post-colonial Nigeria on the international stage.
His artwork is still displayed in esteemed locations around the globe—illustrated above, where then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seen walking past Enwonwu’s Anyanwu at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Enwonwu is revered as the defining figure of modernist art in Africa, influencing many artists, including Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare. In a 2021 interview with New Internationalist, Shonibare reflected that his early appreciation for Enwonwu’s sculptures was among his first encounters with art and cultural heritage. Enwonwu’s legacy persists, showcasing art’s transformative ability to transcend boundaries and shape identity in an ever-evolving world.
