On May 11, 2022, PIASA will hold an auction in Paris dedicated to African-related artistic scenes.
Of the many items on display, a major work by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Man on Earth, dated 1983, deserves special mention. It is the largest and earliest work ever to be auctioned. At the same time, the Ivorian master is the subject of a unique monographic exhibition at MoMA in New York, which runs until August. A similar work to the one presented here, made within days of each other, is visible in the MoMA exhibition.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
Homme sur Terre (Man's Journey on Earth), 1983
Estimate: 30 000 / 40 000 €
The auction will also be an opportunity to continue the exploration of continental arts scenes, with a focus on Portuguese and Spanish-speaking African countries, Brazil and Cuba. Wilson Tiberio, one of Brazil's first and most important black painters, with a passion for the theme of emancipation struggles, settled in Paris in the mid-1940s and travelled to Africa, notably to Dakar with the South African painter Gérard Sekoto, where he met Léopold Sédar Senghor. Two major works by this artist, never before seen on the second market, dated 1944 and coming from a private Brazilian collection, will be auctioned. Alongside them are works by the Cuban master Manuel Mendive, but also by a younger generation led by artists such as Kiluanji Kia Henda from Angola.
Wilson Tiberio
Scène de marché (Bahia), 1944
Estimate: 5 000 / 7 000 €
Last but not least, in addition to the modern Congolese arts scene, represented with an important painting by Bela Sara, exhibited during the famous exhibition Beauté Congo - Congo Kitoko, at the Fondation Cartier in 2015-2016, a focus will be dedicated to North Africa, with a significant representation of major Algerian artists such as Baya Mahieddine, Mohamed Aksouh, echoing their presence in the exhibition Algérie Mon Amour, currently on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.
Bela Sara
Untitled, ca. 1950
Estimate: 7 000 / 8 000 €
However, African artists do not only shine on their own continent. In North and South America and in Europe: a major work by the artist N'Guessan Kra, Mémoire du Temps, exhibited from 1995 in several museums in Japan, from Tokyo to Gifu, will testify to Asia's interest in the continent's most avant-garde artists by the end of the 1980s. N'Guessan Kra was a guest artist at the contemporary art exhibition held during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and is included in the collections of the MMCA National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea.
Kra N'Guessan
Mémoire du Temps (Memory of time), 1995
Estimate: 20 000 / 30 000 €
In addition to paintings, the auction will present - for the first time in a sale dedicated to African scenes - the work of two artists known for their commitment and radical formal practice: Mohamed Bourouissa, represented with Temps Mort #41, a 2008 photograph from the eponymous video on the French prison environment, which is now in important private and institutional collections such as the Pinault Collection in Paris and Venice ; and Alfredo Jaar, whose video Embrace explores the subject of the Rwandan genocide.
From Wallen Mapondera to Lawrence Lemaoana, via Abe Obedina and Marcellina Akpojotor, the young rising stars are not forgotten. A contemporary section is dedicated to them, including William Kentridge, with a preparatory drawing for his grand opera on the Flute enchantée ; Bocar Pathé Diong, master of the Dakar school, with a historic work dating from 1974 ; and Samuel Fosso, who recently had a highly praised exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.
A selection of the auction's highlights will be on display in our galleries during Art Paris and 1-54 week, from 7 to 12 April, from 11 am to 6 pm (closing on Sunday 10 April).
Lawrence Lemaoana
A Whole Broken Man, circa 2009-2010
Estimate: 10 000 / 15 000 €
