africanartagenda:
Ibrahim Papa Taal (Papa Ibra Tall)
Profile
Country: Senegal
Style: Surrealist, Abstract Fine Art, Modernist Art, Magical Realism
Medium: Tapestries, Pen, Ink, Oil, SIlk Screen
Fun Fact: He used to illustrate the covers of the famous negritude magazine Présence africaine , he also knew John Coltrane and Malcolm X. He was also a prominent member of the Ecole du Daka which posed challenges to the universal tenets of humanism and demanded recognition of Africa’s contributions to global modernity
Quote: At the time it was a question of creating,
for myself, an artistic language that seemed to me to belong to Africa and to Senegal. I was inspired by the theory of Negritude that back then, you must recall, was unique. Wole Soyinka didn’t yet exist and the other theoreticians of the day were economic theoreticians–Nkrumah had an economic theory, not cultural. So, those of us who wanted to create something autonomous, belonging to and reflecting just us, had little to inspire us but Negritude…. What interested me in finding a kind of authenticity was not to create pure decoration but to create a language of visual forms which defined me for myself.
Paintings:
1. Chevauchee Solaire
2. La foret aux souvenirs
3. La Solitude de l'oiseleur
4. Title Unknown
5. First Song
6. A Kilim
7. Seamstress of the stars
Contacts: http://www.biennaledakar.org/2012/spip.php?article116
Of interest to art historians: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11925
