For many artists, their most enduring works are born from people they love or admire. B’anu, the elegant bronze sculpture by Abayomi Barber, is one such work, intimate, reflective, and rooted in affection.
In the 1960s, Barber was living in the United Kingdom, based in London, while his friend B’anu had settled in Manchester. During visits north, Barber became increasingly fascinated by her striking presence. What began as a series of sketches gradually evolved into this bronze sculpture, completed in 1967, a quiet but powerful act of remembrance.
The sculpture foregrounds B’anu’s angular, regal features, celebrating a distinctly African physiognomy. At the time, Barber was profoundly homesick, and his work from this period reveals a deliberate return to Africanness, an insistence on form, identity, and heritage as anchors in a foreign landscape. In B’anu, Africa is not romanticised; it is asserted with dignity and restraint.
Stylistically, the work also pays homage to Oscar Nemon, the leading British sculptor with whom Barber worked closely. Nemon’s semi-cubist approach, marked by angular planes tempered by realism, is subtly echoed here. Barber adopts these structural lines while preserving softness, poise, and an understated elegance that feels uniquely his own.
Ultimately, B’anu is a sculpture of longing and affection. It is at once a personal tribute, a reflection on Ife womanhood, and a marker of Barber’s artistic journey abroad. Part history, part homage, and entirely captivating, the work stands as a testament to how memory and identity can be cast, quite literally, into enduring form.