Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, (b. Cote D`Ivoire, 1921) Series of ten drawingseach signed and dated (

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, (b. Cote D`Ivoire, 1921) Series of ten drawings

each signed and dated (verso)

pen and ink and wax pastel

each drawing 20 x 14cm (7.9 x 5.5in)

Framed and glazed

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré was born in Zéprégüé, Côte d`Ivoire, in 1923 and is recognised as one of the greatest contemporary artists from West Africa.

He was amongst the first of his generation from Côte d`Ivoire to be educated by the French colonial government. He is a self-taught artist - in the West he might have been viewed as an "outsider” though this term is meaningless in the African context. A fascination with language and literature permeates his work. `Alphabet Bété` (1991/92), which was shown at Documenta 2002, comprises an alphabet Bouabré invented, for Bété people, made up of over 400 signs which correspond to phonetic syllables.

Bouabré was profoundly influenced by a vision he had on March 11th, 1948, when he witnessed seven suns orbiting round the sun. This revelatory experience lead him to embark on a lifelong mission of conducting and collecting research about art, religion, philosophy and other fields of knowledge. In the 1970`s he began illustrating his thoughts and created hundreds of postcard sized drawings, using crayons and a ballpoint pen. These small drawings almost always form part of a series, of which the principal one is `Connaissance du Monde`. For many years his drawings were intended primarily for his own ethnic group.

This sub-series of ten drawings forms a discrete part of his ongoing series `Connaissance du Monde`.

Biography:

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré`s works first gained international exposure in 1989 when exhibited in `Magiciens de la Terre`, at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Since then he has participated in a number of major international exhibitions including; Documenta 11 (2002), Africa Remix (2004) and African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection (2005).

Acquired directly from the artist a private collection, Italy Click here to view Catalogue