“Exploring the artistic soul of Souleymane Keïta”: a retrospective at Dakar’s Gallery Cécile Fakhoury

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ET JE RENAIS À LA TERRE QUI FUT MA MÈRE : GALERIE CÉCILE FAKHOURY X COLLECTION JOM - DAKAR: SOULEYMANE KEÏTA
ET JE RENAIS À LA TERRE QUI FUT MA MÈRE : GALERIE CÉCILE FAKHOURY X COLLECTION JOM - DAKAR: SOULEYMANE KEÏTA

Souleymane Keïta exhibition “Et je renais à la terre qui fut ma mère” (And I was reborn to the earth that was my mother) is in its final stages at Dakar’s gallery Cécile Fakhoury. Presented until June 08 in collaboration with the Collection Jom – Dakar, this artistic presentation is an invitation to the public to explore the creative universe of the Senegalese artist. With an unprecedented artistic journey and an equally singular art form, visitors to Dakar can rediscover Souleymane Keïta’s creative universe through an immersive visual aesthetic.

Despite his death, the Senegalese artist remains an important figure in contemporary Senegalese art. In fact, the title of this retrospective exhibition has been substituted for a poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor, a work that the late artist greatly appreciated. The title of this exhibition, which pays homage to him, is therefore an obvious choice. “Et je renais à la terre qui fut ma mère” thus transcends the limits of a simple artistic retrospective, appearing rather as an invitation to immerse oneself in Souleymane Keïta distinctive universe. With color and emotion, the public rediscovers his wide-ranging painting panels and his atypical career, which began 10 years after Senegal was proclaimed an independent state. His career was also marked by various aesthetic movements in line with the current events of the time. A fact that today allows us to admire the exceptional evolution of this African artist’s creativity in response to the challenges of his time.

Et je renais à la terre qui fut ma mère” represents a veritable temporal journey at the heart of the contemporary artist’s artistic career. The chronology of Souleymane Keïta career acts as a discreet thread running through the exhibition, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the various moments of his creativity. As a point of departure, the retrospective opens with Souleymane Keïta colorful figurative works, highlighting his link with the first generation of the Dakar School following his graduation from the institute of fine arts in the late 60s. This series of nostalgic works depicting everyday scenes marks Keïta’s debut and his artistic approach over time, in perfect harmony with Léopold Sédar Senghor’s négritude movement, which sought to develop the aesthetic tenets of African art. The year 1975 saw a change in Souleymane Keïta creative approach, with the emergence of increasingly abstract paintings such as Composition I and Composition II. This reshuffling was probably due to his first trip to Mali in 1974, after which he resettled on the island of Gorée and decided to move away from the figuration of the “Dakar style“.

The Senegalese artist’s many travels also served as a springboard for the ideas behind many of his immersive and profound works. His discovery of Mali, the land of his paternal origins, and then of New York between 1980 and 1985, where he rubbed shoulders with the Afro-American scene in the company of Bill Hutson, Melvin Edwards and Ed Clark, among others, gave rise to the incredible series of works Journey to Mali – New York, a set of paintings through which Souleymane Keïta depicts his new perspective on complex African identities.

His return to the Senegalese island of Gorée from 1985 to 1995 was marked by a transitional period in which the contemporary artist experimented with various pictorial techniques influenced by the American abstract expressionist movement and the rich natural surroundings of his island home, notably Full Moon at Gorée, Full Moon, Études des Sardines.

In 1995, Souleymane Keïta left Gorée to settle in Dakar, marking the beginning of an important artistic period. It was in Dakar that the artist fashioned some of his emblematic series, such as “Chemises du Chasseur” and “Scarifications“, gradually enriched with materials and textiles symbolically evoking the Manding culture that drives him. The last two decades of his life were dedicated to the fulfillment of his aesthetic quest for sensory abstraction, giving birth to dark, deeply powerful works that reveal the genesis of Souleymane Keïta artistic universe.

This chronological line, which guides the discovery of the retrospective exhibition “Et je renais à la terre qui fut ma mère“, facilitates a deep understanding of Souleymane Keïta work. However, the artist’s creative skill and the harmony of the works as a whole, make it possible to depart from this line of analysis without deconstructing the essence and scope of the exhibition. The discovery of the artist’s work is therefore free, depending on the canvas that first catches the eye of the Dakar public. Like an orchestra conductor from the beyond who has predicted the course of this artistic presentation, Souleymane Keïta has conceived his works in such a way that they are perfectly connected to each other and to the times, representing in itself a bewitching guide to this retrospective exhibition.

Cécile Fakhoury Editions is also taking advantage of the “Et je renais à la terre qui fut ma mère” event to launch the Dakar preview of Souleymane Keïta monograph (April 2024).

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