Now available in the Museum Store, Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition is the first monograph dedicated to the 50-year career of the Nigerian artist Moshood Olúṣọmọ Bámigbóyè (ca. 1885–1975). Bámigbóyè was one of a number of Yorùbá woodcarvers with workshops in southwestern Nigeria and is best known for the masks he carved for local religious festivals called Ẹpa, which are considered some of the most complex and elaborate works of Yorùbá art ever made. The catalogue accompanies a major international loan exhibition organized by James Green, the Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation Associate Curator of African Art, reuniting for the first time the masterworks attributed to Bámigbóyè’s workshop—among them the Gallery’s Equestrian Shrine Figure (Ojúbọ Ẹlẹ́ṣin) Depicting a Priestess of Ọya (1920–40). In addition to essays by leading scholars, the book presents the first published translation of Bámigbóyè’s full oríkì, or oral praise poem, recited by the artist’s family in honor of the exhibition. The catalogue offers a definitive account of a man who was revered not only as a sculptor with local, courtly, and colonial patrons but also as a healer and figure of religious and political importance in his community.

Tiffany Sprague

Director of Publications and Editorial Services