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PE.VO.TO 3, from the series Cosmic Alphabet

PE.VO.TO 3, from the series Cosmic Alphabet

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El Loko

El Loko was a well-known African artist active from the 1970s until his death in 2016. Throughout his career, he lived and worked between his hometown of Pédakondji, Togo and Cologne, Germany. Loko was initially trained as a textile designer in Ghana, and it was there, in 1968, that German artist Joseph Beuys saw his artwork and encouraged him to study with him at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, Germany. His "Cosmic Letters" series features a symbolic, make-believe alphabet he composed as a universal language. “I have a dream,” the artist stated, “to establish one language for the entire world”–one that “would erase discrimination and racism among all people because they would feel they all belong to the same culture.”
Artist
El Loko
(Togolese, 1950 – 2016)
Title
PE.VO.TO 3, from the series Cosmic Alphabet
Date
2013
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
32 x 30 in. image
Credit
Sara Guyer and Scott Straus Contemporary African Art Initiative made possible by the Straus Family Foundation
Accession No.
2022.6.2
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Togo

Related

March 2022, sold by ARTCO Gallery (Berlin, Germany) to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • 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. 84-85, cat. no. 39

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

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