Untitled (bowl)

c. 1960s

Untitled (bowl), c. 1960s. Ladi Kwali OON MBE (Nigerian, c. 1925–1984). Stoneware; 8.5 x 31 x 31 cm (3 3/8 x 12 3/16 x 12 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, J.H. Wade Trust Fund 2021.166 Ladi Kwali was Nigeria's foremost modernist ceramicist. From a pottery background, she learned Gwari/Gbagyi hand-building techniques from maternal relatives. She later learned Western techniques like wheel throwing and kiln-firing at the Abuja Pottery Centre. This thrown circular bowl is glazed with tenmoku, a Chinese-inspired Japanese coating. Kwali painted its interior with a Gwari-style eel with zig-zagging scales. She described her combining of influences as "translating." Ladi Kwali is the only woman to appear on Nigerian currency (the 20 Naira bill), where she is depicted at her potter’s wheel.