/internal/media/dispatcher/146089/fullṢànpọ̀nná and Alájere,c. 1980[Susanne Wenger]Susanne WengerÖl auf Sperrholz Susanne Wenger, a cofounder of the Vienna Art Club, emigrated to Nigeria in 1950, where she turned to Yorùbá spirituality and was eventually ordained as a priestess. In collaboration with local artists, Wenger dedicated herself to the preservation and expansion of the Sacred Grove of Oṣogbo - a site of worship honoring Ọṣun, the goddess of love and fertility, and other deities, such as Ṣànpọ̀nná. The latter is associated with illness, suffering, and healing. In the expressive, surrealistic painting „Ṣànpọ̀nná and Alájere“, the artist refers to the titular beings while drawing on elements of Yorùbá mythology. Executed in muted colors, the elongated bodies of the depicted figures merge with one another and dissolve into the surrounding space, which is populated by birdlike creatures and figures in boats. Wenger’s work is shaped by a holistic worldview in which humans, nature, and spiritual realms are inseparably linked.Painting© Bildrecht, Wien 2026https://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/93573/rdf