Artwork Page for Untitled (bowl)

Details / Information for Untitled (bowl)

Untitled (bowl)

c. 1960s

Ladi Kwali OON MBE

(Nigerian, c. 1925–1984)
Culture
Africa, West Africa, Nigeria
Medium
stoneware
Measurements
8.5 x 31 x 31 cm (3 3/8 x 12 3/16 x 12 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2021.166
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Ladi Kwali is the only woman to appear on Nigerian currency (the 20 Naira bill), where she is depicted at her potter’s wheel.

Description

Skilled in Gwari pottery techniques and aesthetics, Ladi Kwali learned non-African techniques like wheel throwing and kiln-fired glazing at Nigeria’s Abuja Pottery Centre. She was the first Nigerian woman to pursue such pottery techniques there, including Japanese techniques used by artists of the “British Studio Pottery” movement beginning in the early 1900s. This distinctive glazed bowl reflects her practice’s dual inspirations, which she called “translating.” The bowl’s delicate, mirrorlike surface reflects her experience with Japanese-style glazes like tenmoku, in which a coating can achieve different visual effects or colors. Kwali cooled the brown-black glaze slowly, allowing iron in the glaze to surface as crystals. Departing from the incised motifs of Gwari pottery, Kwali painted a curving eel with zigzagging scales around the bowl’s interior.

Untitled (bowl)

c. 1960s

Ladi Kwali OON MBE

(Nigerian, c. 1925–1984)
Africa, West Africa, Nigeria

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