Abdoulaye Diarrassouba 'Aboudia' (Ivorian, Born 1983) Untitled (Unframed)
Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- A giant on the contemporary art landscape, Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, known as Aboudia, has rallied monumental success and prestige for his vivacious and brutal paintings which reflect how dark realities effect innocence
- Aboudia recognises the influence of his experience in growing up in Abidjan as central to his artistic practice
- Lines of brightly coloured oil stick articulate figures and animals atop ghostly passages of semi-opaque acrylic paint that, in places, reveal the layers of newspaper pages, magazine cut-outs, and educational materials typically pasted beneath
- The gestural application of pigment, large-scale canvases, and format favoured by the artist recall both the graffiti murals of Abidjan and the avant-garde formalist experimentations of artists central to the Western canon such as Cy Twombly; whose work Aboudia had greatly admired when visiting the permanent collection at the Tate Modern, London
- Recognising the fusion of diverse cultural and artistic references in his work, Aboudia names his stylistic approach Nouchi – a term more typically used to describe the colloquial language spoken in urban Abidjan which blends several Ivorian languages with French
- Applied to the visual register of the artist's body of work, the term encompasses a style that is distinctly Ivorian, while simultaneously cultivating universal appeal with its bold application of medium and graphic style
- Aboudia sees his use of colour as an antidote to these challenges: 'I want life to be good – so I treat sadness with happiness
- I speak of something sad, but it makes you happy when you look at the painting
- There's light
- There's colour
- I use colour to transform sadness into happiness' (quoted in Todd Bartell, 2017)
- His desire to improve living conditions for the youth of his native country is echoed in the establishment of his foundation in Bingerville, which aims to provide underprivileged children access to healthcare and art
Exhibited :
Literature :
Notes : This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: *
Condition_report :
