When I heard of this exhibition, I only had one painting in mind and anchored it by that painting being there because if it wasn’t there, this exhibition, as wonderful as it is, would still be incomplete. Tutu is Ben Enwonu’s seminal work, over very own Mona Lisa or Girl with the Pearl Earring, it is of equal importance, equal magnificence. There is a regalness to it that has coloured the myth of the painting, a story about who she is or was and the tale surrounding Enwonu’s affection for this painting. It was on my bucket list until this past summer; I never thought I’d see one version of the three said to have been painted by the artist because he loved it so much.
Enwonu painted three portraits of Adetutu Ademiluyi, the woman he saw in Ile-Ife in Nigeria, Ife. He was struck by the grace of her beauty and tracked her down because he wanted to paint her. It would take some persuading, six months allegedly, because she was a daughter of the royal family of the Kingdom of Ife.
Tutu came to embody the concept of the Negritude movement which Enwonu was passionate about; an anticolonial and political movement that sought to reclaim Black narratives and celebrate our culture globally. Founded by students in the 1930s, its aim was to promote an appreciation of our history, culture, histories, stories on the world stage. It gained even more momentum by artists who has sought refuge in Paris in the onslaught of the second world war.
Therefore, this portrait and this exhibition are sympatico for me, it is the anchor upon which a movement and a narrative was built and remains so today. Indeed, the exhibition poster is Negritude, the artwork.
The first portrait of Tutu so satisfied the artist that he hung it in his bedroom to avoid selling it, and at times when he did, he would chase down the buyer, return their money and take back the painting… according to his son Oliver.
I love this story because it is so symbolic of an artist’s refusal to part with their work, for fear of judgement or misunderstanding or devaluation by a public who will not view it through their, the artist’s own, eyes, but I suppose that is the point of all art, the subjective gaze. Enwonu painted two more versions of Tutu which he sold but the first was one he could never part with. In 1974, the second version of Tutu was found in a London flat unbeknownst to the occupants. The first version of Tutu was stolen after a burglary that devastated Enwonu and is thought to have accelerated his death though he suffered cancer at the time.
The painting is resplendent; Tutu is regal with a head dress that emphasises her daintiness. She is painted in a three fifths profile her long neck swathing her oblong shaped face. Her scarf, which is made of aso-oke, indigenous to the South, hangs off one shoulder in a cerulean blue over a Buba that comes in an ice blue shade interspersed with other colours for a deeper texture.
Her skin is beautifully brown with features that are both pristine and pronounced, full lips that look a little turned down, yet regal, nose straight and firm. She is holding it all in; like a queen, the daughter of a royal family, never shows her emotion for what she suffers, her people suffer more and it is not for them to carry her pain but for her to carry theirs and who knows, from this look of stillness and poise on her face, what secrets and stories and sorrows she carries.
We don’t know, but the artist wants us to find out.
Enwonu painted Tutu three years after the Biafra war. For context, the war was being fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra a secession state that declared its independence from Nigeria after its own declaration of independence from the British. Enwonu was Biafran. For him to have been so entranced by a woman, with whom, three years before, he would have only seen as an enemy is an added layer to the origins of this story. Hence Tutu is, arguably, the symbol of national reconciliation following the war, with a past, a present, and a future much hoped for.
The exhibition also includes the works of Ladi Kwali a pioneer who brought art into pottery making and breathing new life into a tradition of her homeland. Kwali is a seminal artist who existed at a time of turmoil and when women artists were not taken seriously; she became the one who could not be ignored. She was so highly revered that the Emir recruited her to work for his palace, which at the time was high praise indeed.
The photographs of JD Okhai Ojeikere can also be seen here; the iconic images of Nigerian hair styles that soon emerged in the run up to independence, he would photograph women attending public events and soon enough the art in these hairstyles became a staple of his lens… Șuku (which I hated getting done growing up!), Onilé Gogoro, and haunting memories of hours spent in the market place in questionable positions at the time getting our hair done in these same styles that are equivalent to art today.
Stateless People is the work of another one of my favourite artists; Uzo Egonu and it is the first time in 40 years that all three works will be alongside and publicly displayed. His use of colour infused with modernism to tell a story is astoundingly nostalgic. At its heart these works explore feelings of a statelessness whilst yearning for home from afar, nostalgia of things past and trying to capture them in these images, very much evoking that feeling of Saudade, a listless yearning and deep regret. It seeks to answer the question, rather pose the question, of the Nigerian identity in a way only art knows how, by depicting a single image in each; artist, writer, musician, as we roam from home, who are we truly at our core and how does that shape our relationship with the homeland.
The conversation in the art world remains incomplete without the insertion of African art and the role it played on the way to modernism, which was crucial. The lack of representation of African artists, painters, sculptors, photographers… in the wider artistic conversation and representation, is a disservice to future generations and the present, when thinking about the contribution to art and the diversity of thought, medium, vision and subject. Which is why this exhibition as it is, is so important.
Go see it.