Members of the British Expedition to Benin City

In an exquisite sepia portrait, we see printmaker James Lesesne Wells looking intently at the Bakuba ceremonial cup he holds in his hands...

Between them these two statements, both written in the late nineteenth century about different aspects of Benin culture, encapsulate the essential ambivalence of the European colonial response to material culture from West Africa and other colonies. These commentaries confusingly register an admiration of Benin culture according to western European aesthetic criteria, while simultaneously...