Loan (Loan In)
Andrews Gallery, 09/02/2017 to 09/02/2018, Benin Related Print
Event Date 9/2/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Other)
Etching titled 'The Lounge'. Lent as part of the series of 10 etchings from a 1984 twelve plate suite, 'The History of the Benin Bronzes', and 5 oil paintings on canvas from the series, 'Encounters' by the artist, Tony Philips.
Event Date 17/3/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Amendments / updates)
Lent by the artist in February 2017 and purchased in November that year.
Event Date 3/8/2020
Author: rachel hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
In 1897 the British Admiralty led a punitive raid on Benin City under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, in response to the ambush of an eariler British-led party under Acting Consul General James Philips. This followed a series of frustrated attempts to end a monopoly on palm oil and various other commodities held by the Oba (king) of Benin. Justification for this brutal event was sought, in the British press, by depicting the Oba and his people as ‘savages’ who practised human sacrifice. However, the elaborately carved ivories and cast brass plaques and sculptures seized from the royal court, and dispersed to among European museum collections via dealers such as William Webster and members of the expedition, were evidence of a sophisticated and technologically-advanced society.

This unsavoury aspect of British history was reflected on by Black British artist, Tony Phillips (b.1952) in a 1984 series of etchings, 'History of the Benin Bronzes'. In the series, Phillips adopts the unusual technique of reusing a printing plate to create a second image, with elements of the first image still visible. In this image, 'The Lounge', the eleventh in the suite of twelve plates, edition 1/12, we revisit a cast bronze figure first pictured at the ‘Shrine of Sacrifice’ (MN0130.1) now standing on a plinth next to a TV in a European living room. The schematic way in which the home environment is depicted emphasises the means by which the figure has been forcibly removed from its original context. MAA holds only 10 etchings of the twelve suite series, scenes one and four are missing.

A version of the series 'History of the Benin Bronzes' (1984) is also held at the V&A. A series was also exhibited at Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery', held at the Whitworth Art Gallery, June 2007 - April 2008. The version of this image at the V&A is titled the 'Living Room'.

Event Date 3/8/2020
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Etching titled 'The Lounge'. Lent as part of the series of 10 etchings from a 1984 twelve plate suite, 'The History of the Benin Bronzes', and 5 oil paintings on canvas from the series, 'Encounters' by the artist, Tony Philips.

Event Date 3/8/2020
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Physical description)
Etching depicting a cast bronze figure first pictured at the ‘Shrine of Sacrifice’ (scene three, MN0130.1), now standing on a plinth next to a TV in a European living room. This is the eleventh in the suite of twelve plates.
Event Date 4/8/2020
Author: rachel hand