SUPERB VINTAGE NIGERIAN “WOOL-PAINTING” WALL HANGING Start Price USD 3,500.00 Current Price USD 3,500.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, September 04, 2008 End Time Sunday, September 14, 2008 Location ALCALÁ DE GUADAIRA, Andalucía Ceuta y Melilla See more about 'SUPERB VINTAGE NIGERIAN “WOOL-PAINTING” WALL HANGING' Description belampara Store   Normal 0 21 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4    A highly collectible piece of Nigerian art by deceased artist, Ade Odus Fabunmi - brother of the famous Oshogbo artist Adebisi Fabunmi - with the "Ankobra" signature (see below for the curious story behind this name) - a VERY large wool tapestry ‘painting’ – measuring a huge 171cm x 176cm.  I purchased this while working in Nigeria between 1981/3.    The work represents a typical traditional Nigerian festive scene with the local witchdoctor and is made from hundreds of pieces of coloured wool glued onto canvas.  An iron curtain rod can be placed in the pockets at the top and at the bottom for hanging to keep it stretched – however, this wool-painting requires a large wall to itself in order to fully appreciate it!    This wool-painting has been in folded in storage for a long time but is in extremely good condition and only needs hanging for the creases fall out.  It is signed in wool strips bottom left “Ankobra,” in one of the photos you can see a scanned copy of a Polaroid photo taken of Ade Odus Fabunmi actually working on this piece.     My special thanks to Ms. Victoria Scott of the Black Art Studio in Santa Fé for her input as to the origins:    "Ankobra" was the name adopted by two artists who formed a unique partnership; Ade Odus Fabunmi – seen working on this tapestry in the photo (brother of the famous Adebisi Fabunmi, one of the founding members of the Oshogbo artists’ club) was one.  The other is a white South African artist named Grey Mundy-Castle, who adopted the name “Kofi Ankobra”- Kofi being the name of the day he was born and "Ankobra" after the river in Ghana where Ade grew up and his own signature after his partner’s death.  A lifelong artist and son of psychologist Alistair Mundy-Castle, Grey (aka Kofi,)  born in Johannesburg in 1954, travelled extensively around Africa and began painting the strange world surrounding him after studying at several art colleges in West Africa and developing a strong visual sense he decided to become a professional artist.   He and Ade collaborated closely on all aspects of every work produced under the name.  They adopted the "wool painting" technique that Adebisi Fabunmi originated in the late 1960's and also produced drawings and paintings.    Ade died in 1987, thus putting an end to the collaboration, although Grey, who now lives in London, continues to produce art under the name Ankobra to remember and honour his friend.  I have included a photo of one of these works shown in the Museum of Erotica in Barcelona in 2004.  His work can be found in private collections in the US, Spain, Ghana, Japan, Brazil and London.   This painting was supposedly ‘SOLD’ here recently but, unfortunately, the Buyer defaulted on the payment so – ONLY GENUINE BUYERS PLEASE!!! Place a Bid!