Plaque

Brought up at court as an omada page, Chief Ovia Idah became an artist. He traveled to Lagos as a young man, producing tourist art, then returned and created palace works, such as the statue of Oba Ozolua and architectural decorations. At the same time, he built an idiosyncratic house into the side of the old Benin city wall - originally intening it to be in the shape of an elephant - and proceeded to decorate it with unusual sculpture.

Using new materials such as ebony or clay mixed with cement, he created innovative objects in an individualistic style. By doing so, he epitomized Western concepts of creativity, rather than those of Benin. Although he undertook numerous royal commissions, he also interacted with visiting foreign artists, researchers, and U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, who became additional patrons and supporters. Straddling two worlds of patronage and inspiration, he stood alone, taking a path without followers.

This work is similar in style to the seven plaques Chief Idah made for the palace exterior, which portray five past Obas and two Obas' wives. Like them it conforms to traditional head-to-body proportions, and also maintains a static, frontal pose. This work, however, has a narrower format and depicts Agboghidi, a noted 18th century warrior who ruled the town of Ugo. Agboghidi features in the popular Benin story of Adesuwa, a beautiful maiden intended for the Oba, but supernaturally lured to her death by a rejected provincial ruler. On behalf of his monarch, the loyal Agboghidi spiritedly attacked the disappointed suitor in the Igbo polity of Oboro-Uku.

His successful battles, disagreements with his fellow general the Imaran, and subsequent disenchantment with the Oba became the subject of a popular oral epic sung in Benin. Variations in the tale have been published from both Ishan and Igbo areas. Folklorist Dan Ben-Amos researched Agboghidi's saga, which is sung accompanied by the Akpata string instrument. A frield of Ben-Amos's, Idah produced this work, which shows the armed warrior next to heads of the defeated. He is smiling, departure from traditional norms of impassivity.