archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper

Artwork date: 2005
Signature details: signed, dated, numbered 1/8 and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin
Edition: from an edition 8 + 1 AP
Exhibited: Examples from the edition were exhibited in:
Armory Show, Piers 92 & 94, New York City, Yossi Milo Gallery, 8 to 12 March 2012.
Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City, 'The Hyena and Other Men', 29 November 2007 to 12 January 2008.
Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, 'Gadawan Kura' - The Hyena Men', 22 February to 25 March 2006.
Literature: Abiola, A. and Hugo, P. (2007). 'The Hyena and Other Men'. Munich: Prestel, an example of this image illustrated in colour, unpaginated.

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image size: 50.5 x 50.5 cm; sheet size: 63 x 61 cm; framed size: 71 x 69 x 4.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Following a theme prevalent in many of Pieter Hugo's works, The Hyena and Other Men series focuses on a marginalised community existing on the fringes of society.

Hugo's compelling images originated from a chance encounter. A friend sent him a cellphone photo, taken through a car window in Lagos, depicting men walking down the street with hyenas. Captivated, the artist sought the help of a Nigerian reporter Adetokunbo Abiola, familiar with the ‘Gadawan Kura’, as they're called in Hausa. Abiola arranged for Hugo to meet the group and he travelled to Nigeria.

Contrary to popular belief that the group consists of criminals, the ‘Gadawan Kura’ are actually traditional storytellers. A group of distant relatives, practicing a tradition passed down from generation to generation; their livelihoods are based on mysticism; performing for crowds with their animals, selling medicines and charms.

The photograph, Nura Garuba and Friend with their Monkey, Abuja, Nigeria, 2005 was taken on Hugo’s first of two trips to Nigeria. Traveling with the group across cities, Hugo captured the ‘Gadawan Kura’ during the Harmattan season (November-March), when the Saharan desert sands blanket western Africa, creating a diffused, muted light. The resultant lack of colour in the photographs contributes to the gloomy and ethereal mood, alluding to the precarious and strange world these men inhabit.

The series has caused a multitude of reactions – fascination, disbelief, disapproval, and curiosity. Concerned animal-rights groups have wanted to intervene, although the handlers do have permits from the Nigerian Government. However, Hugo notes that, in Nigeria, people are largely confused when asked how they feel about the treatment of the animals. Their responses are rather centered around economic survival. For Hugo, a focus only on the welfare of animals does not consider the multiple socio-political and economic conditions. The artist suggests that one instead asks, “why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalized if Nigeria is the world’s sixth largest exporter of oil”?[1]

^{[1] Abiola, A. & Hugo, P. (2008). The Hyena and Other Men. Munich: Prestel Verlag, unpaginated.}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Pieter Hugo’s auction record was set at $75,976 in 2018 in London, for a work from the Hyena and Other Men series, titled Mummy Ahmadu and Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Abuja, Nigeria.
• Works from Hugo’s 2005 series, The Hyena and Other Men were included in the 27^th São Paulo Biennale in 2006.
• Pieter Hugo was named the Standard Bank Young Artist in 2007.
• Hugo has received numerous other accolades, including the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival (2008), the KLM Paul Huf Award (2008), the Seydou Keita Award at the Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial (2011), and a nomination for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2012).
• In 2015 Hugo was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet and was chosen as the ‘In Focus’ artist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
• Major museum solo shows include exhibitions at Museu Coleção Berardo; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Fotografiska in Stockholm, MAXXI in Rome and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane.
• Hugo has been included in important group exhibitions at prestigious institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Modern, the Folkwang Museum and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the 21c Museum, Louisville, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, USA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; Daimler Art Collection, UK; Deutsche Börse Group, Frankfurt, Germany; Ethnologische Museum, Berlin, Germany; FNAC, France; Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, the Netherlands; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; Johannesburg Art Gallery and Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.