b. 14 July 1917, Onitsha, Nigeria | d. February 1994 Lived and worked in Lagos and Ife, Nigeria Ben Enwonwu (Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu) was a pioneering Nigerian painter and sculptor who shaped the course of modern African art. Born into a family rooted in artistic tradition (his father was a traditional Igbo sculptor) Enwonwu received his early training under Kenneth C. Murray while attending Government Colleges in Ibadan and Umuahia. In 1944, he earned a prestigious scholarship to study in England, becoming the first African student to graduate with distinction from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1947, and later pursued further studies in anthropology at Oxford. Enwonwu rose rapidly to international prominence, earning the title “Africa’s greatest artist” by the mid–20th century. He held exhibitions across London, Paris, New York, Boston, and Milan, and in 1956 made history by creating a bronze sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II which was the first official royal portrait by an African artist. Among his most celebrated works is Anyanwu (1954–55), a modernist sculpture inspired by the Igbo sun goddess, which remains a powerful symbol of Nigeria’s postcolonial identity, and now stands both outside the National Museum in Lagos and at the United Nations headquarters in New York. As an intellectual and cultural leader, Enwonwu held roles including Art Supervisor of Nigeria’s Colonial Office, cultural advisor to the post-independence government, and the first Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He served on the leadership team for FESTAC ’77 and received numerous honors, including an MBE (1955) and Nigeria’s National Order of Merit (1980). A retrospective of his work was staged by the Royal Society of British Artists in London in 1985. Ben Enwonwu passed away in Lagos on 5 February 1994. His legacy endures through landmark works like Tutu, a portrait of Princess Adetutu Ademiluyi, rediscovered and sold in 2018 as one of Nigeria’s most emblematic images, as well as through continued scholarly interest, exhibitions, and record-setting auction prices that reaffirm his status as a father of African modernism.