Traditional Art
Traditional African art combines all forms of creation. Plastic arts, music and dance permeate daily life in the same way as body decoration. In fact, art, which is in reality a Western concept, remains intimately linked to religion until recently. Each work is rooted in its place of origin as well as the rites associated with it. The Diola, Peul, Malinke and Wolof cultures dominate the country. The latter have notoriously left weekly masks, a series representing each day of the week.
In this context, woodcarving plays an essential role, along with the elaboration of objects, for example in metal, textile or beads. Body painting complements the art of masks, jewelry, music, hairstyles and decorative statues. Contrary to long-held belief, the art is not anonymous, with creators adding a small distinctive mark to each piece. Fortunately, photography has made it possible to document many of these ephemeral manifestations of the imagination.
Senegalese Pop Art
Since the 19th century, painting under glass, or fixed or souwèr in Wolof, has offered a way to circumvent the prohibitions of figurative representation emanating from Islam. Typically Senegalese, these scenes of daily life are frozen on a glass matrix. The images are composed of layers superimposed in an inverted order, starting with the top. Thus the artist begins by signing, then draws the characters and finishes with the background or decor.
For a long time, these paintings have been used as cheap photographs. Gora Mbengue is one of the most popular of the traditional "souwerists". The themes changed little over time, until the rising generation, embodied by Serigne Diagne and Germaine Anta Gaye, turned to abstraction.
Coaster paintings are particularly visible in Dakar along the avenues André-Peytavin and Georges-Pompidou in the city center. These are usually copies made with tracing paper and then reproduced with Rotring on glass, but the price of quality fixtures can seem prohibitive.
Let's also mention the creation by recovering objects, raised to the rank of art in Senegal. Nowhere else will you see such a mastery of the detour of objects to reconstitute vehicles or typical characters.
Dakar School
Encouraged by President Léopold Sédar Senghor, this movement of artistic renewal flourished with independence, between 1960 and 1974. Among the leading figures of the first generation were politician Amouda Ba, painter Seydou Barry, figurative artist Alpha Walid Diallo and Seyni Awa Camara, born around 1945 in Casamance. A Senegalese sculptor and potter, Seyni remains a self-taught artist, unclassifiable and acclaimed for her terracotta figures.
In 1966, the first Festival des Arts Nègres laid the foundations for a specifically Senegalese style represented by abstract painters such as Mor Faye and Moussa Babacar Sy. Contemporary painting and sculpture soon took shape, and between 1970 and 1980, a number of names came to the fore. Among the revolutionaries were the Gorée of Souleymane Keïta and Moustapha Dimé, the giants of Ousmane Sow, with a soft spot for abstraction, Serigne Mbaye Camara, Viyé Diba, Seyni Gadiaga and Djibril Ndiaye. They are distinguished by their use of warm tones, reds, Sahelian ochres and fertile blues. This style of painting was exported to Northern Europe, seduced by the contrasts, and to the United States, where nostalgia for African forebears was in demand.
New generation
A second creative breath bounces off the heritage of the School of Dakar. The themes are more urban, the style more graphic, or resolutely abstract. This new wave is turning painting (Ndoye Douts, Soly Cissé, Modou Dieng) as well as sculpture (Ndary Lô) upside down. Let's mention Alioune Diagne, born in 1985, founder of the figuro-abstro movement which aims to "build a figurative image from abstract elements". Up close, the viewer perceives on the canvas a slew of geometric patterns while from afar, characters appear, dancers, Peul women or Parisian women.
Nowadays, painting reigns supreme in Senegal. It naturally brightens up shop fronts as well as buses or advertising posters. Naive drawings dominate the public space. Many improvise themselves as artists and not only for aesthetic reasons. It is important to know that half of the population is still affected by illiteracy and in this context, art is a means of communication accessible to all. From there, there is only one step to street art.
Land of urban art
The Senegalese capital enjoys a highly favorable climate that has allowed it to build a thriving cultural scene, particularly in the popular Medina district. It is in this underprivileged but incredibly vibrant part of the city that Docta took his first steps. A pioneer of Senegalese urban art, his murals address political, health and educational issues. According to him, the message to be transmitted comes before the visual aspect. The main thing is to communicate, while integrating the work into its environment. To do this, he begins by cleaning up the surroundings and asking the permission of the inhabitants, who are always delighted to see their walls upgraded.
Docta has come a long way since his first graffiti. In addition to his work on a mural in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the artist oversees the Festi Graff, launched with his association Doxandem Squad. Each year, the most important urban art event on the African continent brings together some 40 graffiti artists alongside dancers, slammers, DJs and creators of some 20 different nationalities.
In this masculine environment, Dieynaba Sidibé, alias Zeinixx, puts her art at the service of the Senegalese women cause. The first female graffiti artist of the country affixes her "girly blaze" on the walls of Dakar, from the Corniche to the Pikine stadium, including the facade of the U.S. embassy. Today, her fame goes beyond the borders of the African continent.
Current Trends
the public authorities are not aware of this effervescence and do not support it, unlike the many private initiatives," laments Marina Sow, head of the Maison Ousmane Sow. She did not wait for official support to transform her father's house into a museum, which was inaugurated during the 13th Dak'Art biennial. Dedicated exclusively to artists living on and off the continent, the contemporary art event was established by the State of Senegal in 1989 making it the pioneer of its kind on the continent. For a month, the fair brings together 75 artists from about thirty countries. In addition, there is the off festival, spread over 320 sites.
As everywhere, the Senegalese creation is exposed in galleries, mainly concentrated in Dakar. And to complete this panorama, it is good to give time to the National Art Gallery and the Theodore Monod Museum of African Art of IFAN. Let's salute the Cécile Fakhoury gallery, the most important in Africa, based in Abidjan, Dakar and Paris. Also the Atiss gallery, founded by Aïssa Dione, which launched the career of the eclectic Soly Cissé, now quoted internationally. But in Africa, collectors who are not used to going through an intermediary go directly to the artists' studios. Don't hesitate to knock on their door to get a feel for the contemporary art scene.
Photographic art
In Saint-Louis, the Mupho offers photographic art a venue worthy of its history on African soil. A center for archives and promotion, the museum places the city of Saint-Louis at the heart of exchanges between Europe, America and Africa.
Photography arrived in Africa with the explorers and then the European colonists, who found a way to document their discoveries on the Old Continent. Those who settled in Africa wanted to immortalize their new way of life. In the early 20th century, European studios opened in Saint-Louis. Senegalese hired as assistants were trained on the job to use the camera.
Photography really took off between the wars. The first Senegalese photographer, Meïssa Gaye, born in 1892, entered the profession in 1923 in Dakar, at the same time as other great names in Senegalese photography, such as Mama Casset and Amadou Gueye, known as "Mix Gueye". At the time, it was fashionable to have one's photograph taken at home, dressed in one's finest attire, or to go to a renowned studio to have one's portrait taken on a feast day or after a successful fishing trip. The Muslim religion, which is in the majority in Senegal, is not opposed to photographic portraiture. On the contrary, it's a good idea to be photographed while praying at the mosque.
The explosion of studios in Dakar and Saint-Louis gave the working classes access to this practice. The golden age of Senegalese portrait artists stretched from 1950 to the 1980s. People flocked to pose at Studio Diop, African Studio or Tropical Photo. Photographers built their reputation on their artistic talent, rather than on technical mastery alone. Adama Sylla was one of the first artists to venture out to document his neighborhood of Guet N'Dar in Saint-Louis or the landscapes of his region.
Younger artists are emerging as heirs to this portrait tradition. Omar Victor Diop's images tell the story of an urban and fashionable Africa. Like Elise Fitte-Duval, Antoine Tempé and Fabrice Monteiro, many foreign photographers have chosen to establish themselves in Dakar, the artistic capital of West Africa.
