[run the slideshow below]
Abdoulaye Konaté, 'Croix de lumière', bazin teint, 242x179cm, 2012
At first, he was influenced by Bocar Keita paintings, the only painter in his hometown, then joined the National Institute of Arts of Mali, Bamako. Mali, in this time a ’non-aligned’ country of communist influence, allows him to continue his training in Cuba, at the Institute of Fine Arts in Havana and to be influenced by Wifredo Lam paintings and other great surrealists painters. They strongly mark his drawing and painting, including his serie ’Ciwara’ and many others until today, often characterized by the representation of African stereotypes (masks, antelope, zebu horns ...).
In the 90, with large tapestries of traditional malian cotton,he worked a new creative process by looking at space and volume. Materials founding of his work, these textile sculptures reveal a deeply conscious world of economic and social challenges. It takes commitment and policy positions dealing with social, political and economic problems such as AIDS (patchwork of 6000 m2 covering the stadium during the opening ceremony of the Can 2002 in Bamako) or global crises (’Gris-gris blancs pour Israël et la Palestine’- 2006) ... in contemporary approach. But textile support is also to evoke the essence of Manding culture, with or without literal quotes to tradition with the famous serie ’Hommage aux chasseurs du Mandé’ in 1994.
Artist of the matter, Abdoulaye Konaté combines hanging, assembly, dyeing and sculpture to achieve high recall and strong presence in space. With textiles, gris-gris, bullets, used clothing or sand, he comes in the theater and the world of contemporary art through the door or spiritual or political. Reflecting a Malian, African and universal collective consciousness.
In 1996, he received the ’Grand Prix Léopold Senghor’ in Dakar Biennale. He participated in exhibitions in Belgium, France, Spain, Usa, Japan... He lives and works in Mali. Currently director of the ’Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers Multimedia’ in Bamako, Mali, he experiments new unprecedented pedagogies in Africa.
by Mariane Buchet and Jean Loup Pivin, 2012
SOLO SHOWS
(selection)
2011
'La toile d’Abdoulaye Konaté', Galerie Nationale d’Art de Dakar
2010
Retrospective, Biennale de Dakar
2009
Galerie Saro, Las Palmas, Spain
Espace forum von Kunst, Heidelberg, Germany
2001
Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc - Thouars, France
1999
Tuchbilder + Installation - Dany Keller Galerie, Munich
1998
Le plateau - Galerie GO - Abidjan, Ivory Coast
1995
Maison de la Culture - Amiens, France
1992
Musée de l’Ifan - Dakar, Senegal
1984
Galerie L - Habana, Cuba
1983
Le Petit Salon National - Habana, Cuba
Group EXhibitions
(selection)
2011
Mixités-Les chantiers de la Lune, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France
2010
Africa assume art position, Primo marella Gallery, Milan
Art Basel, Switzerland
2009
Bienal de La Habana, Cuba
Africa ? Una nuova storia, Rome, Italia
2008
Input - Colecção Sindika Dokolo, Luanda, Angola
Travesía, CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canaries Island, Spain
7th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
Artes mundi, Musée national de Cardiff, U.K.
Angaza afrika - African art now - October Gallery, London, U.K.
Biennale de Dakar, Senegal
Grey art Gallery, New York University, Usa
1st Biennale de Bruxelles, Belgium
2007
Brocken Memory, Ghana National Art Museum, Accra, Ghana
Contact Zone, Musée National du Mali - Bamako, Mali
Three Questions for Art and Its Audience, Documenta 12, Kassel
2006
Angola Pop, Triennale de Luanda, Luanda, Angola
Unhomely : Phantom Scenes in Global Society - 2e Biennale de Sevilla, Spain
2006-2004
Africa Remix, Hayward Gallery, U.K. - Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf - Mori art Museum, Tokyo - Centre Pompidou Paris - Johannesburg art Gallery, South Africa
2003
Musée du Design et des Arts Appliqués Contemporains de Lausanne, Suisse
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Belgium
1998
Biennale de Johannesbourg, South Africa
Triennale de Kleinplastik, Stuttgart, Germany
24th Biennale of São Paulo, Brazil
1997
Suites Africaines, Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris
Biennale de Venise, Italia
1996
The Other Journey, Kunst halle, Krems, Austria
1995
Setagaya Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Otro Pais, Palma de Majorque, Barcelone - Las Palmas Spain
1994
Rencontres Africaines, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
1991
Tsurumoto room co, Shibuyo Ku-tokyo, Japan
1990
Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris
1986
2ème Biennale de La Havane, La Havane, Cuba
1978
Jeunes peintres du Mali, Institut National des Arts, Bamako
Biography
- Biennale de Dakar : Pour une esthétique de la création contemporaine africaine. Tête à tête avec Yacouba Konaté et Valentin Yves Mudimbé, Paris, l’Harmattan 2009
- Martinez Nadine. Art contemporain/Art traditionnel : Aller-retour Mali-Mali. Paris, l’Harmattan 2009
- Spring Chris. Angaza Afrika: African art now. Lawrence King, 2008
- Documenta XII. Kassel : Taschen, 2007
- 2nd International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Séville: The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society. Actar, 2006
- Africa Remix. Paris : Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2005
- Fall N’Goné and Pivin Jean Loup. Anthology of African Art, the Twentyth Century. Paris, Revue Noire editions and New York: DAP, 2002
- Mali au-delà des clichés, Beaux-arts Magazine, n°212, janvier 2002
- Abdoulaye Konaté plasticien (les carnets de la création). Paris : Éditions de l’Œil, 2000
- Estaçào Oriente. Metropolitano de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1999
- Suites africaines. Couvent des Cordeliers. Revue Noire, Paris,1997
- Alain David, Abdoulaye Konaté, Jean-Sébastien Leblond-Duniach: Fondation France-Libertés et Urbis. Paris : 1996
- African art of our time : an inside story. Tokyo : the Japan Association of Museums, 1995
- Revue Noire 17 : Mali, Burkina Faso, Revue Noire,1995
- Revue Noire 19 : Les artistes africains et le Sida, Revue Noire, 1995
- Rencontres africaines. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 1994
- Revue Noire 12 : Afrique méditérranéenne-Afrique Noire, Revue Noire, 1994
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