The Pompidou with 'Paris Noir' opens up to African modernity

In Senegal, pan-Africanism took the name Negritude. In the same way as Nigeria and as in many African states, modern art in Senegal developed during the years of independence (4 April 1960). The return of Léopold Senghor, who took over as president, marked the start of numerous constitutional, economic and cultural reforms.

Senghor gave much space to the training of artists by opening or expanding new art academies and in a spirit of renewal that filled people's souls, many artists from the diaspora - among them, the well-known Iba N'Daye (1935-2015), Papa Ibra Tall (1928-2008) - returned to their homeland to teach at the academies and experiment with new forms.

"When we opened a new gallery location in Dakar in 2018, the question of Senegalese modern art immediately came up," reports gallery owner Cécile Fakhoury, who now represents the summer ofSouleymane Keita (1947-2014), an artist with Théodore Diouf (1949) among the leading exponents of the Ecole de Dakar and abstract modernism. Their works can now be found in private collections in Africa and increasingly internationally.

As the exhibition poster, 'Paris Noir' chose 'Self-Portrait', a canvas that the South African artist Gerard Sekoto painted in 1947, shortly before leaving for France where he died in 1993. 'Self-Portrait' had already been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, 'Strangers Everywhere', curated by Adriano Pedrosa. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he was already taught as a child to play the organ to accompany religious services. Sekoto loved to paint all his life, but it was thanks to his talent as a musician and composer that he managed to support himself. And today, Paris Noir restores him to us in all his greatness as a painter. Artprice reports that there were more than 800 bids for his works at auction. The top lot, a small, undated canvas 'Yellow Houses. Distric Six (Distric Six is a historic multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Cape Town), sold at Bonhams in London in 2011. Estimated at £200-300,000, it sold for £520,000.

Nike Davies-Okundaye, The palmwine tapper and ayo game, 1969-1970, Bead on board, 54 x 102

In the authoritative narrative that "Paris Noir" proposes of Pan-Africanism, it emerges how Ethiopia occupies a prominent place in Pan-African culture. This is because as early as the second half of the 19th century, when many African states were conquered by the European colonial powers, Ethiopia resisted until 1937, when it was occupied by the Italian army, two years before the outbreak of World War II. On display are several paintings by Skunder Boghossian, who was already well known in the past as he was the first Ethiopian artist whose works were acquired by two international museums, the Musée d'Art Modern in Paris in 1963 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965. While still a boy, Skunder, like other young Ethiopian students, was sent to study in London by Emperor Haile Selassie, before returning to his homeland to train future generations. Skunder did not stay long in London, he moved to Paris, where he arrived in 1957 and soon came into contact with some of the most 'branché' artists of the time.

Already living in the French capital were Gerard Sekoto, Sudanese Ibrahim El Salahi (1930) and Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982). Already well established, Lam had exhibited at MoMa and Pierre Marisse in New York and travelled from New York to Albissola to work with Lucio Fontana and Asger Jorn in ceramics. Lam strongly influenced Boghossian's work, as is evident in 'The Jiggles', sold by Bonhams in May 2021, for $62,812, with reserve estimate. The best performance for one of his canvases was achieved by 'Eternel', dated 1963, which sold at Bonhams in New York in 2020. Proposed at a maximum estimate of $50,000, it reached $120,000 at the hammer. "L'Eternel" is emblematic of his work, reflecting in fact the artist's passion for cosmologies, in which he expressed his technical ability as an artist to the fullest. The attention of Western museums for the art of 'other cultures' is now widespread.