Souleymane Keïta (Estate)

Souleymane Keïta was a multidisciplinary artist born in 1947 on the Island of Gorée in Senegal and died in 2014 in Dakar.

An artist at the crossroads of African modernity and international contemporary art, he is recognized as one of the pioneers of Senegalese creation between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, having marked and influenced the post-independence art scene.

After training at the Ecole des Arts de Dakar with artists such as Iba Ndiaye, he developed his artistic practice and experimented with different media ranging from painting, fresco and mosaic to ceramics. A major figure on this scene, Souleymane Keïta took part in several historic exhibitions, including the First Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria (1969), the Ife Festival (Ife, Nigeria, 1970), and Art Sénégalais d'aujourd'hui at the Grand Palais, Paris (France, 1974).

However, Keïta moved away from the aesthetics of the first generation of the Ecole de Dakar in the mid-1970s, with a trip to Mali, followed in 1980 by a trip to the United States, in New-York where he lived until 1985. Over the years, Keïta developed his own unique aesthetic, based on his world, his travels and his personal history, inspired as much by American abstraction as by traditional Mandinka culture.

In 1985, the artist returned to live in Gorée, from where he would never leave again. Following the Voyage au Mali series, mainly created in the United States, came the Gorée, Signes et Tourbillons, Etudes de la Sardine, Méduses et Papillons and Pleine Lune series. From the 1990s onwards, Keïta developed the major Scarifications and Chemises du chasseur series, which testify to the artist's reappropriation of his Mandinka culture and the rituals that characterize it. In particular, Keïta introduces sewn thread, pieces of fabric and sometimes objects such as amulets into his works, offering a singular way of giving life and power to the canvas.

From the 2000s onwards, Souleymane Keïta developed two other major series, Criquet and Synthèse. Although each series has its own identity, some of their characteristic elements intermingle, giving rise to off-series, untitled works or works at the frontier of several series. Keïta also explores techniques other than painting, producing numerous engravings and inks on paper, as well as ceramics and tapestries. Throughout his life, Keïta has worked on several series simultaneously, until the 2010s, when he seems to have devoted himself exclusively to the Synthèse series. As its name suggests, this series combines the artist's various works and movements.

What Souleymane Keïta's many works have in common is the obviousness of the artistic gesture that gave rise to them, and the infinite power of the worlds that can be read in them, in the manner of the universe, of nature, whose mystery Keïta seems, in the course of his work, to have penetrated with a mixture of wisdom and enthusiasm. A prolific artist during his lifetime, Souleymane Keïta has exhibited in Senegal, Mali, France, the United States and Canada. His works have been acquired by private and public collections worldwide.

Notable exhibitions (selection) : Art Sénégalais d'aujourd'hui, Grand Palais, Paris (France, 1974); Art contemporain du Sénégal, Musée du Québec, Québec (Canada, 1981); Voyage au Mali (Senegal, 1985); Souvenirs du Cap-Vert, Musée d'Art Africain et Océanie, Paris (France, 1989); Ndokale Goree / Hommage to Goree, Skoto Gallery, New York (USA, 2009); Synthèse, Musée National du Mali, Bamako (Mali, 2011).

Image : Études de la Chemise, série Chemise du Chasseur, 1999