Enwonwu first embarked on his Africa Dances series during his time studying in London in the 1940s, in reaction to Geoffrey Gorer’s 1935 book of the same name. A critique of colonial rule and its impact on traditional life in Africa, Gorer's writings led Enwonwu to embark on a series of work which would use symbolic imagery of dance and performance rituals from his Onitsha-Igbo heritage to illustrate the true state of modern Nigerian culture. Enwonwu revisited the theme throughout his career, exploring a range of dance forms, from masquerade and traditional ceremonies, to modern dance and performance. Earlier paintings in the series include Africa Dances/Agbogho Mmuo (1949) and Dancing Girls (1951-54).

Enwonwu had received a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom in 1944, where he attended Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Fine Arts. During this time, he engaged with the international art world, studying modern European art movements such as Italian Futurism, and engaging with the Pan-Africanism movement which had roots in the Harlem Renaissance; all these influences are clearly illustrated in the present lot.

On his return to Nigeria in 1948, Enwonwu became Artist Adviser to the Federal Government. Among his many accolades, Enwonwu was awarded an MBE in 1955 by Queen Elizabeth II, and the following year he became the first African artist to receive a royal commission when she sat for a large bronze sculpture, now at the entrance to the Parliament Buildings in Lagos. By 1963-64, when the present lot was painted, Enwonwu was internationally recognised as Nigeria's premier artist.

Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, and with it the country was in search of a new post-colonial identity. By 1963-64 Enwonwu's series had taken on another dimension in his quest to represent modern Nigeria. Weary of the hasty acceptance of European abstraction among Nigerian artists, Enwonwu wrote the article Into the Abstract Jungle: A Criticism of the New Trend in Nigerian Art (1963), a perceived attack on abstraction. However, Enwonwu’s presupposed opposition to abstraction was misunderstood, and the present lot perfectly exemplifies the artists mastery of employing European techniques to convey African subject matter in both abstract and figurative forms. The present lot displays Enwonwu’s maturity as a colourist, as well as a mastery of form and composition.

Bibliography:
Nkiru Nzegwu, Contemporary Textures: Multidimensionality in Nigerian Art, Binghamton, 1999, p. 161-163
Sylvester O. Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, Rochester, 2008, p. 155