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Afrique, Afrique, Afrique

Afrique, Afrique, Afrique

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Omar Ba

Post-coloniality, according to artist Omar Ba, is something that haunts all Africans “because we don’t want to regress and to relive what our ancestors and parent experienced.” Sometimes life appears to move in circles; although terminology and names have changed, “the system is still there and is now managed by Africans themselves.” Ba composes his images by repeating small painted strokes to emphasize the idea that “we are redoing the same things over and over socially and politically.” Painted atop a ground of black applied to corrugated card, "Afrique, Afrique, Afrique" depicts a fallen man, slightly foreshortened, with small vignettes around him, including a man with his hands on his head being held at gunpoint, a tank, and the statue of liberty bearing a sword. In the background, at the top of the composition are a number of flags arranged in a row, including that of the United Nations. These elements reinforce Ba’s belief that his message extends beyond the continent of Africa to all locations where power is consolidated and abused.
Artist
Omar Ba
(Senegalese, b. 1977)
Title
Afrique, Afrique, Afrique
Date
2014
Medium
Oil, gouache, ink, and graphite on corrugated cardboard
Dimensions
74 3/4 x 56 1/4 in. overall
Credit
Chazen Museum of Art General Endowment Fund and J. David and Laura Seefried Horsfall Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
2020.28
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Senegal

Related

2020, sold by Hales Gallery (New York, NY) to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève. "Omar Ba: la prophétie des gens de Durban / The prophecy of the people of Durban." Genève: Galerie Guy Bärtschi, 2014. 107, color illustration
  • Chazen Museum of Art. "Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection." Madison, WI: Regents to the University of Wisconsin System and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2023. pp. 28-29, cat. no. 6

  • Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection: Chazen Museum of Art, 9/5/2023–12/23/2023

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