The Dancer

Inspired by a book titled “Africa Dances”, authored by Geoffrey Gorer in 1935, Ben Enwonwu embarked on the Africa Dances series during his studies in London in the 1940s. In the book, Gorer reflected on colonial rule and its impact on traditional life in Africa. Enwonwu used the series as visual illustrations of his views on the state of the modern Nigerian culture at the time, with attention to the symbolic imageries he saw in different scenes of traditional ceremonies, cultural dances and ritual performances of different ethnic groups in the country. This became a dominant theme throughout his career and was revisited in a lot of his paintings and sculptures.