Souleymane Keïta (1947 - 2014) is a Senegalese artist who spanned the second half of the 20th century, between modern and contemporary art. A leading figure in Senegalese art during this period, he was initially identified with the first generation of the Ecole de Dakar, before distancing himself from the artistic currents of his time from 1975 onwards, tracing a singular trajectory shaped by his travels (Mali, New York); his Mandigue origins; his personal place, the island of Gorée; and a quest for osmosis with nature and the universe.
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury is delighted to present his first solo exhibition in France. The representation of Souleymane Keïta's work is carried out in close collaboration with the artist's family, in order to enhance the value of this priceless heritage. This exhibition marks a turning point in the history of the gallery, which here extends its scope to modern West African art, whose history and aesthetic contributions remain undervalued and little represented.
Souleymane Keïta's work is enigmatic and full of signs. Essentially abstract, it nevertheless plays on the possibilities offered by figuration to inscribe itself in a sensitive universe. Keïta's palette seems to confront darkness only to let the light shine through, evoking the powerful reflections of the sun shining on the bottom of the water or the brilliance of the stars in a night sky. In some respects, Keïta's work seems mystical, that is to say, of a superior force that can only be approached, never translated or explained, only experienced. In fact, Keïta's works go beyond painting, most of them being composed of material elements such as keys, wood, sand, shells, stones, but above all thread and fabric sewn directly onto the canvas - a feature of almost all his work from the 1990s onwards.
The works presented in this first exhibition were produced between 1994 and 2005. Souleymane Keïta's work is essentially serial, and his major series are represented here, including Chemise du chasseur (Hunter's Shirt), Scarifications, Criquet, Gorée and Synthèse. It is nevertheless striking to see the extent to which all Keïta's canvases dialogue with one another, with certain signs, techniques or nuances creating bridges between the works and the artist's different periods.
Keïta paints presence, light, the weight of things, "messages from space, the seabed, plants and music", seeming to reach through painting the mystery of nature's physical laws. In series such as Scarification and Chemise du chasseur (Hunter's Shirt), Keïta seems to be the heir and guardian of a Mandingue tradition, evoking the ritual of scarification of the skin by sewn thread, or the traditional garment of the Mandingue hunter from northern Mali through the graphic weave and addition of small objects reminiscent of amulets, a garment that functions as an allegory whose symbolic essence alone seems to have been preserved.
The exhibition also features a number of canvases from the Cricket series, recognizable by the small, abstract flat tints on a dark background that mimic the movement of these insects, and a remarkable mastery of movement and light effects. In some ways, Souleymane Keïta's works possess a synaesthetic force, carrying with them the scent of sea spray and sun-scorched earth, the vertigo of the sun's dazzling glare, or the disquieting thud of a cricket cloud on the horizon. His works offer a carnal, sensorial, inhabited abstraction, which, paradoxically, could even be described as imagined. An abstraction that is not the opposite of the figurative, but rather its reverse, its essence, its fabric.
Souleymane Keïta's first solo exhibition is an invitation to immerse oneself in his universe, to be initiated into the symbols of Mandingue culture, to be touched by the masterful associations of form, color and materials that make his work such a singular and powerful art.
"I listen, I look, I dance, I dive, I fly. Painting is a state of mind, a stroll through the great blue depths of pastel"
Souleymane Keïta
