Uzo Egonu

The canvas is unlined. There are small brown surface marks to the yellow background in the upper right quadrant. Examination under UV shows no evidence of retouch or repair. Overall this work appears to be in very good condition.
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Artist painting mother and child is a later work by Nigerian artist Uzo Egonu, painted during a period of physical and emotional agony. His partial blindness and deteriorating health prompted an introspective examination of his life. Stylistically, this painting is formed of abstract inspired bold patterns, simple linear detail, and broad flat areas.

A painting of an artist live-painting a mother who caresses her young child, this work is a personal reflection on Egonu’s short relationship which his mother. Egonu moved to England as a 13 year old boy when his father, an affluent British colonial civil servant, sent him to a private school (as most wealthy Nigerian families did at the time).

Decades afterwards, in the later part of Egonu’s life, he painted this work amidst a period of anxiety when he was occupied with questions of nation and identity. These thoughts formed the conceptual foundation for the ‘Stateless People’ series, in which this painting belongs.