BONHAMS MODERN & CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART SALE FEATURES NIGERIAN ARTIST WHO PAINTED THE QUEEN
A painting by Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy M.B.E. – the female Nigerian artist who produced a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II recently – will feature in Bonhams next `Africa Now’ sale in London on 16th March 2011.
One of Nigeria’s rising stars she received worldwide recognition for painting the official Golden Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of The Commonwealth and for her work with a number of prominent personalities. In June 2009, Chinwe was awarded the MBE for services to art in the Queen's birthday honours list.
In 2003 Chinwe addressed the European Council Committee in Paris on Contemporary African Art and Artists, and later that year was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of East Anglia. Chinwe’s work appeared on the national postage stamps of seven countries during 2006.
Chinwe has exhibited widely in recent years ‘Ancestral Footsteps’ at the Mall Galleries, London, 2005 showcased a vast body of new works and was met with much acclaim, preceded by ‘Seeing in Colours’ at The Gallery, in Cork Street, 2004, her Land, Sea and Sunsets exhibition in May 2007 was also at The Gallery in Cork Street.
Chinwe has exhibited widely in recent years ‘Ancestral Footsteps’ at the Mall Galleries, London, 2005 showcased a vast body of new works and was met with much acclaim, preceded by ‘Seeing in Colours’ at The Gallery, in Cork Street, 2004, her Land, Sea and Sunsets exhibition in May 2007 was also at The Gallery in Cork Street.
For the 2007’s Black History Month, her week long residency at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia in October produced many Drawings and Monotypes which were hung with the Sainsbury Collection.
July and August of 2008 saw her as one of the artists in Residence at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Scotland. As well as painting the portrait of the Chairman of the Distillery Mr Peter Gordon, Chinwe made many more works some of which are in the Glenfiddich collection. Other works from the Glenfiddich Residency have inspired the present woodcut series.
There has been an explosion of interest in modern and contemporary art from Africa over the past year, and Bonhams ‘Africa Now’ auction is at the forefront of this market. Created by artists from a multitude of cultures, African contemporary art reflects the complex heritage of this dynamic continent.
Last year Bonhams doubled the existing world record for an African artist, when it sold `Bahora Girl’ by the South African artist, Irma Stern, for R26m (£2.4m). As a result of this sale there is now a new focus on what is being produced by the best of Africa’s artists. All of whom have works in Bonhams `Africa Now’ sale.
A work by one of Nigeria’s best known artists, Benedict Enwonwu, M.B.E.(1917-1994), titled `Africa Dances’ painted in 1964 is priced at £25,000 -£35,000. Ben learned to carve from his father and later attended Goldsmith College in London and Ruskin College Oxford.
He said as a member of the Royal Academy of Arts: ‘’I will not accept an inferior position in the art world. Nor have my art called African because I have not correctly and properly given expression to my reality. I have consistently fought against that kind of philosophy because it is bogus.”
“Art is not static, like culture. Art changes its form with the times. It is setting the clock back to expect that the art form of Africa today must resemble that of yesterday otherwise the former will not reflect the African image. African art has always, even long before western influence, continued to evolve through change and adaptation to new circumstances. And in like manner, the African view of art has followed the trend of cultural change up to the modern times”.
