Ancient and contemporary benin bronze – differences and similarities: the content, context and the journey so far

• Authors: Egwali, Franklyn

Abstracts

EN

In recent times several features have emerged as regards the contemporary sculptures of Benin. These features have either overtly or covertly created the differences between the ancient and contemporary bronze sculptures of Benin. These unfortunate features includes (1) careless finishing, (2) contemporary bronze are heavier, (3) themes are repeated, (4) lack deep storylines, (5) most times, bronze antiques are forged, and (6) most lack sensitive commanding forms. Indeed, these are the traits which made ancient Benin bronze sculptures resonate, reverberate and resound both in ancient and contemporary time. What therefore should be done to move the contemporary Benin bronze sculptures to a higher artistic level is what this paper seeks to appraise and critically establish.

Keywords

EN

art; sculptures; forms; artistic level

• Publisher: Bialystok University Press
• Journal: IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 28/1
• Pages: 319-332

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Egwali, Franklyn

References

• Atmore Stacey (1979) Black Kingdom, Black Peoples. Nigeria: Olauga Fagbamigbe Ltd.
• Ben-Amos, Paula (1995) The Art of Benin. London: British Museum Press.
• Dark, Philips (1973) An Introduction to Benin Art and Technology. London: Oxford University Press.
• Ezra, Kate (1992) Royal Art of Benin, The Pearls Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Franklyn Egwali (2002) Quintessential Icons and Images of Africa. An Appraisal of Queen Idia Mask of Great Benin Kingdom, pp 72 – 83, Journal of Creative Arts, Vol. 4, No.1, Department of Creative Arts, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
• Franklyn Egwali (2003) Expressive Style of Benin Sculpture: Nigerian Journal of the Humanities, Faculty of Arts, University of Benin, Nigeria, No. 10, September 2003.
• Franklyn Egwali (2003) Styles in Nigerian Sculptures: An Appraisal of the Woman Undaunted. Journal of Creative Arts, Vol. 3, No. 1, Department of Creative Arts, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, January 2003, pp. 64 – 73.
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• Franklyn Egwali (2006) Creativity and Stylistic Sculptures in Nigeria: A Study of Ben Osawe’s Sculptural Monuments – African Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. An International Journal of Research Studies in Multidimensional Field. Pp. 74 – 80.
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• Franklyn Egwali (2007) An Appraisal of Dexterity and Creativity in Osawe’s Plaster of Paris (PoP) Casting and Clay Modelling. ELA – A Journal of African Studies, No. 21 & 22. Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Faculty of Environmental Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Nigeria, pp. 9 – 23.
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• Leuzinger, Elsy (1989) The Art of Africa. New York: David E. Seham Associates Inc., Centre for African Art.
• Phodes Colins (1994) Primitivism and Modern Art. London: Themes and Hudson Ltd.

Identifiers

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11320/5519

DOI

10.15290/idea.2016.28.1.16