Ernest Duku, born in 1958 in Ivory Coast, lives and works between Paris and Abidjan. He began his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It was in Paris in 1982 he has continued his graduate studies. He obtained several diplomas in the field of art, furniture design and architecture.
His interest in the establishment begins in early age by learning the language of symbols with his mother. Subsequently, the books of G. Niangoran Bouah, the "master ideograms Akan" will encourage them to further research symbols. His early paintings brought on abstraction, will be constructed from the Akan signs.
The work will then enrich the art of a continent - Egypt Ancient cave art, etc ... rope, twine as a nod to the work of the Ivorian artist Christian LATTIER appear in its creation.
The call of Africa, and openness to the world is more and more present, the signs of the first works whose evocation was more on the order of the plastic research, "aesthetics" as soon intervienent when such codes, decipher messages, location correspondence, convergence, a fresh perspective where the work is between painting and sculpture. The work and the plastic and artistic approach raises questions he gives us to see the various themes such as "Amulettissimo, Pintadattitude, Feitiço and Amaatawale" which mark his work. There are also critical issues that emerge from the titles of the works. We are dealing with the creation that opens new paths, the paths next to the complexity of the world.
The work of Ernest Duku also delivers a socio-political dimension, in fact it is rooted for the one who takes the time to scrutinize it in a very current debate that questions the religious syncretism to transcend. An art that is in the O beyond the spiers of disputes to "play" the game of life, where each of us was taken to question (what he calls with a touch of humor ) "unsaid that clutter our minds," or Feitiço problematic.
Text: Isabelle Balestrieri