Anyanwu is a bronze sculpture created between 1954 and 1955 by the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, depicting an elongated, stylized standing female figure with arms raised as if greeting the rising sun. Its title, meaning the sun in Igbo, draws on Igbo cosmology and was intended by Enwonwu to evoke the dawn of a new era for Nigeria as the country moved toward independence, fusing the formal vocabulary of his Edo-Onitsha heritage with a modernist, Western-influenced sculptural language. Commissioned for the opening of the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos in 1956, where a cast still stands, a further life-size cast was presented by Nigeria as a gift to the United Nations in 1966 and remains on display at UN Headquarters in New York.
Facts
Year Created LocationNational Museum, Lagos, Nigeria 1 Connections
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Nigeria, located there.
Sources
1. Anyanwu (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction, sentence 1 (medium and creation dates)
Anyanwu (English: The Awakening) is a bronze sculpture created by the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu between 1954 and 1955.
Introduction, sentence 1 (creation date range, 1954 to 1955)
Anyanwu (English: The Awakening) is a bronze sculpture created by the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu between 1954 and 1955.
Introduction, sentence naming the original display site
It was created to mark the opening of the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos in 1956 and is still on display outside the museum.
Genre reference
Anyanwu is a bronze sculpture created between 1954 and 1955 by the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, depicting an elongated, stylized standing female figure with arms raised as if greeting the rising sun.
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