Ben Enwonwu MBE
b. 1917 Onitsha, Nigeria
d. 1994 Lagos Nigeria
Celebrated artist Ben Enwonwu MBE produced some of the greatest paintings and sculptures of the twentieth century.
Ben Enwonwu graduated from the Slade School of Art with a distinction in Sculpture, following studies at Ruskin College, Oxford and Goldsmiths College, London. He was awarded an MBE in 1955 after serving as Nigeria's official artist and artist ambassador under the colonial government. He exhibited a commissioned bust of Queen Elizabeth II at the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1957.
Enwonwu's work has continued to be exhibited widely including at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and MoMA PS1, New York. The works have seen a substantial increase in commercial value over the last five years - frequently setting new auction house records for African modernism.
Works by the artist are placed in numerous institutional collections globally including the permanent collection of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.