Yoruba Bowl by Areogun of Osi-Ilorin (circa 1880 - 1954), Nigeria

Opon Igede Ifa

Gerd Stoll, Berchtesgaden, acquired in Nigeria in the 1960s
Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler, Munich, acquired from the above

Kevin Carroll, Yoruba Religious Carving: Pagan and Christian Sculpture in Nigeria and Dahomey, New York, 1967, pl. 48 (photographed in situ)
Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich, 2009, p. 38

Very good condition overall. Some old chips, nicks, and minor cracks and losses in places, consistent with age and use within the traditional cultural context. Exceptionally thick black encrusted patina, with some scattered losses.
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Areogun was a Yoruba artist from the village of Osi in the Ekiti region of northeastern Nigeria. Together with his contemporary, Olowe of Ise, Areogun is considered one of the great Yoruba artists, and his talent earned him commissions across the northern Ekiti region. His artistic talent is reflected in his name; born Dada, he earned the 'praise name' Areogun, a shortening of 'areogunbunna', meaning 'one who gets money with the tools of Ogun and spends it liberally.' (Carroll 1967: 79); Ogun is the Yoruba deity of iron and of those who use iron tools, such as blacksmiths, warriors, hunters, and carvers.

The English priest Kevin Carroll lived for many years in Ekiti, where he met Areogun in his dotage. Carroll's book, Yoruba Religious Carving, which shows this bowl in situ, was instrumental in bringing Areogun's work to wider notice in the west. Areogun himself established his stalwart reputation, and his work could be found in villages well over a day's walk from Osi-Ilorin.

This bowl, which held the implements of a priest of Ifa, the divination system used to determine and influence one's destiny, is one of a small number of its type which can definitively be attributed to Areogun; one is in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (inv. no. "2008.189"), and another is in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. no. "2015-8 a-b").

Discussing this bowl, Carroll writes that Areogun 'like the carvers of the generation before him [...] created the functional form required by his patron and embellished it with illustrations of Yoruba life unrelated to its purpose.' (ibid.: 53). Here Areogun illustrates some of his favorite subjects, including a woman in trouble with two soldiers, two women pounding yam, and a European smoking a pipe whilst riding a bicycle. Pemberton, discussing a very similar bowl by Areogun, writes: 'there is no narrative in the series of figures, but there is a message conveyed in their congregation. All are involved in actions entailing interdependence and intercourse, or change and transformation. For the Yoruba, life is an aggregate of relationships [...] with other persons, with nature, with disease and death, and with one's own past, as well as one's personal destiny. Relationships are never static. They are always undergoing change. Hence the problem of life is how to shape the change for one's benefit.' (Fagg, Pemberton, and Holcombe 1984: 164).