On May 11, 2022, PIASA will present its first auction of the year dedicated to African-related artistic scenes.
Bocar Pathé Diong comes from one of the first generations of artists of the Dakar School. Les hommes bleus (The men in blue), the work we present here, is dated 1974, the same year as the landmark exhibition "Contemporary Art of Senegal", organized by President Léopold Sédar Senghor at the Grand Palais in Paris. On
Bocar Pathé Diong
Les Hommes Bleus (The Men in Blue), 1974
Estimate: 8 000 / 12 000 €
This work is part of the aesthetic research carried out since the 1960s at the School of Fine Arts of Senegal, directed at the time by the painter Papa Ibra Tall: we find a stylized figurative representation of watchmen and a Tuareg figure, with his traditional indigo-dyed costume, as well as references to masks, African mythology and the ancient kingdom of Kaabu, a recurring theme in the work of Diong, which covered part of Senegal until its decline in the 19th century. The central character is magnified here by the abstract treatment of the landscape and the use of a reduced chromatic palette, which can be found in other works from the same year.
