Contested Vision: Ben Enwonwu's Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II

Abstract

This essay focuses on the experiences of a colonial subject/artist in the ideological spaces of the British Colonial Empire, and in the art object as a site of contestation between different historical imperatives. In 1957, Elizabeth the Second, Queen of England and monarch of the British Empire, commissioned and sat for a portrait sculpture. The commission was carried out by Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu (1921–1994), Art Adviser to the Colonial Government in Nigeria and foremost Nigerian artist of his period.