Behind The Numbers | Spring 2013

Sweetening the pot
With their masterful balance of the con­vex and concave and their rich surface luster, Odundo’s ceramics possess a sculptural singularity that has eli­cited comparison with such modern­­ist sculptors as Brancusi, Arp, and Nadelman. Untitled (Cat. 134) was selected for a 2001 retrospective of Odundo wares at Blackwell house, in the northwest of England, which adds an attractive layer to its provenance. Works by Odundo are owned by more than forty museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. An increased curatorial imperative to acquire and study works by con­temporary African artists means much of Odundo’s limited output is chan­neled into public col­lections. When works by her come on the market, collec­tors may find themselves “willing to push the limits to acquire the most spectacular pieces,” says Ben Williams, a contem­por­ary ceramics specialist at Phillips de Pury, who adds that Odun­do’s work appeals to a range of col­lectors because of its “tech­nical ability, sheer aesthetic beauty, and [because] it covers many more complex ethnicity and gender issues too.”