Object Details
- Series
- 5/75
- Label Text
- This body of work was designed to illustrate "Africa: On Her Schedule Is Written a Change," a book of poems by Barbara Haegar (Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1981). Many of these poems coupled with Onobrakpeya's visual renderings address the complex, tumultuous history of political fortunes and movements in post-independence Africa. They often highlight problems of corruption, despotism and the disabling legacies of colonial domination.
- This work tells the moral tale of a beggar's pleas rebuffed and later of the remorse that stems from this act of stinginess and neglect.
- Description
- Etching featuring a sleeping figure lying under a sheet in the proper right, and an emaciated male figure with a staff in his left hand and holding a box in his extended right hand in the proper left. There is a title and signature along the bottom of the composition: "5/75 Beggar's Gift - Deep Etching - Bruce Onobrakpeya, Lagos Sept. 1980."
- Provenance
- Warren Robbins, Washington, D.C., -- to 1991
- Exhibition History
- Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002
- Published References
- Haeger, Barbara and Bruce Onobrakpeya. 1981. Africa: On Her Schedule is Written a Change. Ibadan: African Universities Press, p. 8.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Bruce Onobrakpeya, born 1932, Nigeria
- Date
- 1980
- Credit Line
- Gift of Warren M. Robbins
- Medium
- Deep etching on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 39 x 52.3 cm (15 3/8 x 20 9/16 in.)
- Type
