Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora)
Winner, African Studies Association's 2009 Melville J. Herskovits Award.  A landmark work. The scholarship is superb. (.) The book is a seminal work that will stimulate numerous dissertations and monographs on modern African art and artists. H-NET REVIEWS, April 2010   Artist Ben Enwonwu, Nigeria's pioneering modernist, straddled the colonial and postcolonial eras, attempting to balance competing constituencies: the colonial establishment that supported him, the younger generation of artists who followed him, and his own creative and political needs. Deeply influenced and inspired by Igbo aesthetics and philosophy, Enwonwu repeatedly turned to the vigorous imagery of Igbo masquerades and dancers. Ogbechie's examination of Enwonwu's life and work challenges Eurocentric neglect of African modernists. Here was an artist who achieved international acclaim early in his career, received a royal commission for a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, became art advisor to the Nigerian government, befriended Leopold Senghor, and espoused Negritude. Clearly, this is an essential book for anyone interested in African art and modernism. --Janet L. Stanley, Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art  An absorbing and critically informed account of the career of a major African modernist. In turn lionized and ignored in British and American art circles, Enwonwu's career serves as a primer on the West's reluctance to accept the validity of African modernisms on their own terms. --Sidney L. Kasfir, Department of Art History, Emory University  The scholarship is superb...a seminal work that will stimulate numerous dissertations and monographs on modern African art and artists. H-NET