{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O141559"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O141559/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AY9079/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AY9079/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AY9079","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O141559","accessionNumber":"E.2694-1962","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Rubber growers","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Ben Enwonwu (1921-1994) was a Nigerian artist of international renown. Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, he studied art under Kenneth Murray at Government College in Umuahia before becoming an art teacher there and at mission schools in Calabar Province. This print was created, presumably for Nigeria’s colonial government, just a couple of years before he received a scholarship from the Shell Company of West Africa to study art in England in 1944. After attending Ruskin College in Oxford, Enwonwu finished his art studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Returning to Nigeria in 1948, he became the first black Nigerian to hold the post of Federal Art Advisor. \r\n\r\nA great nationalist who used art to enhance social coherence in Nigeria, Enwonwu was well aware of the challenges faced by artists in Africa and he wrote widely on this subject. Using diverse media – paint, wood, metal, plastics and plaster – he sought to preserve an ‘African’ aesthetic while engaging with international discourses of European modernism. Made at an early stage in his career, this image prefigures the energy of his later work, with the syncopated pattern formed by the trunks and bark of the rubber trees evoking the rhythmic movements of the workers below.","physicalDescription":"Printed image of a group of seven men in a grove of rubber trees. The men are tapping the rubber trees, that is drawing sap from the scored bark of the trees.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Enwonwu, Ben","id":"A20739"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"process engraving","id":"x45591"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Colour process engraving","categories":[{"text":"Africa","id":"THES49019"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AY9079"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC (VA)","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"GG","shelf":"60","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Nigeria","id":"x30055"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1942","earliest":"1942-01-01","latest":"1942-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"size of sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"24.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"size of sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"30.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"plate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"23","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"plate","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"‘B.C. ENWONWU 1942’","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed at bottom right of image"},{"content":"‘Designed by a West African Artist for West Africa   GPD 365/37/25'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Print entitled 'Rubber Growers'. Colour process engraving by Ben Enwonwu, Nigeria, 1942.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1962</u>. London: HMSO, 1964."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"rubber","id":"AAT12941"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.2694-1962"],"accessionNumberNum":"2694","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1962,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-02","recordCreationDate":"2007-12-12","availableToBook":false}}