Stunning sculptures from West Africa's legendary 11th-14th century
Kingdom of Ife, are about to go on display in England. Curators say the
works are the pinnacle of African art and yet they were only discovered
less than 100 years ago.
The exhibition is on a tour of Spain, London and New York - the very first time the wider world has seen such sculptures. The exhibition is on a tour of Spain, London and New York - the very first time
the wider world has seen such sculptures.
An exhibition of what critics and curators call some of the highest
achievements of African art is about to go on show in London.
"Kingdom of Life", at the British Museum, is a spectacular display
of what are some of the most refined and beautiful sculptures ever
found in Africa.
The works have a fascinating history, they were, for many centuries, hidden from much of the world.
Hassan Arero, curator of British Museum, said, "Ife was unknown to
many people and still remains unknown in many ways. We think Ife
started at about 800 AD. It was based within a forest next to the River
Niger and mushroomed and became well known about 11th century, so most
of these objects are maybe dated about 11th century to 14th century.
And, we know that it really mushroomed between 11th century and 14th
century, but we don't know what happened to it. It went silent after
that."
The Kingdom of Ife was a community based in what is now known as
Nigeria and Benin, amongst the Yoruba people. It was populated by many
different ethnicities as a religious, spiritual and royal hierarchy.
Ife once flourished as a powerful, cosmopolitan and wealthy city
state. It developed a refined and highly naturalistic sculptural
tradition in granite, stone, copper, brass and terracotta to create a
style unlike any other in Africa at that time.
To the rest of the world, Ife art wasn't discovered until many
centuries later, when a German explorer went in search of artifacts
from this legendary kingdom in 1910. In 1938, more Ife artworks were
discovered by chance during building work.
The current collection has just been shown in Spain and will move on to New York after its exhibition in London.
CCTV