CHARLES COMBES MUSEUM

From the name of Charles-Alphonse Combes, known as "Master", French painter, sculptor and writer born in 1891 in Paris and died in 1968 in Côte d'Ivoire. Great lover of the country, where he arrived in 1925, he adopted the Ivorian nationality upon independence. The works he left to posterity still decorate many public buildings in the economic capital (National Assembly, Chamber of Commerce, Ministerial Block, etc.). In 1937, he opened a private workshop of applied arts, then taught at the National School of Applied Arts of Bingerville, created in 1958. The structure became the CTAA in 1994 - Technical Center of Applied Arts -, where we now teach a dozen specialties including sculpture, batik, ceramics, stained glass, mosaic, staff, textiles and communication.
The artist's former studio now houses the Charles Combes Museum, inaugurated in honor of the artist in 1975. Built in 1905, the adorable little building with pink walls and green shutters where the master resided (the "pink house" was also used as a dormitory for the first residents of the school including Dogo Yao Celestin, former director of Fine Arts, the "pink house" was also the dormitory of the first residents of the school, among them Dogo Yao Célestin, former director of the Beaux-Arts, and the painter Samir Stenka. Within its walls, 91 works of art - mainly busts sculpted by the students of the training center from Combes' drawings - familiarize us with the different peoples, canons of beauty and traditions of the Ivory Coast and, more unusually, the antique motorcycle that Combes used to travel. All of these works, strongly influenced by the Master's style, were created between 1937 and 1968 and carved in wood (a species known as tali, more commonly known as "ironwood" and renowned for its density and strength), reconstituted stone (cement) and plaster.
Among the highlights of this sadly forgotten permanent exhibition are "The Dying Warrior" and "The Cry of the Negro". The former, co-created by three of the Master's students and dedicated to the victims of the two world wars, was offered by Combes to President Houphouët-Boigny in 1962 and still attracts some members of the family to the museum from time to time. As for the second, it is the only work of art created by Combes himself. Sculpted in cement, it is meant to evoke the suffering and humiliation suffered by the black people over the centuries. Unfortunately, this museum is not very well known or maintained, but it is worth a half-day detour.