Beyond Appearances: A Comprehensive Look at African Art in Geneva
In Geneva, the RATH Museum is currently hosting an exceptional exhibition titled “Beyond Appearances.” This comprehensive showcase delves into the world of modern and contemporary art from the African continent. The exhibition features 120 artworks by 80 artists, representing a century of creativity across Africa, excluding North African countries. This marks the first time a Swiss museum has dedicated such a large-scale exhibition to this subject. According to Jean-Yves Marin, the exhibition’s curator and former director of Geneva’s Museum of Art and History, the collection truly reflects the current state of the African art scene.
A Celebration of Diversity
The primary goal of the exhibition is to introduce a unique and often unrecognized art form to a wider audience in Europe. The exhibition also aims to highlight the diversity of this art, moving beyond stereotypes and preconceived notions that have lingered due to colonial legacies and historical injustices. As Ousmane Wade, an expert and former director of the Dakar Biennale, and one of the exhibition’s supervisors, emphasized, diversity is the defining characteristic of the exhibition. The artworks are not arranged chronologically or geographically, but rather based on artistic vision and the themes explored by the artists.
Pioneers and New Voices
The exhibition, spread across two floors, begins with the pioneers who worked on the banks of the Congo River in the late 1920s. Among them is Albert Lubaki (1895-1948), known for his innovative watercolor paintings inspired by his local environment and ancient legends. His work gained international recognition and was exhibited in Paris in 1929. Lubaki collaborated with his wife, Antoinette, a pioneer in her own right, known for her expressive paintings that evoke a childlike spontaneity.
During the 1950s, other artists emerged from Congo, including Pili Pili Mulongoy (1914-2007), whose paintings were dominated by natural elements like water, fish, and birds, depicted in transparent, magical tones with sharp, clear colors and graceful lines. Political figures also played a role in fostering new talents and artistic movements. Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001), a Francophone writer and the first president of Senegal, was an early supporter of visual and performing arts. His patronage led to the establishment of an art school in Dakar in the 1960s, aimed at infusing African art with a new spirit and connecting it with Europe, thereby giving African creativity its rightful place in the global arts.
The Rise of Contemporary Art
In this context, the World Festival of Black Arts was founded in Dakar in 1966, and the Biennale, established in the early 1990s, is considered the oldest contemporary art biennale in Africa. The Senegalese artist, Soly Cissé (1947-2014), emerged in this environment, remaining true to Senghor’s ideals and embracing abstraction in his works, as seen in his Geneva exhibition, while preserving African spirituality.
From Côte d’Ivoire, the artist Aboudia (born 1983) draws inspiration from graffiti on the walls of Abidjan, particularly in the popular neighborhoods. A constantly traveling creator, he exhibits in his country and in world capitals, and is one of the artists of the Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, specializing in contemporary African art in Abidjan and Paris, which has become a reference in this field.
Beyond Painting: Photography’s Role
The exhibition also showcases photography, notably by Malian photographers Seydou Keïta (1921-2001) and Malick Sidibé (1935-2016). Keïta is considered one of the most important photographers of the second half of the 20th century due to his bold subjects, his mastery of photographic techniques, and his modern approach to light, shadow, and composition. Keïta achieved great success during his lifetime, which continues to this day, with a comprehensive retrospective exhibition held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2016. Malick Sidibé, in turn, documented the lives of young people in Mali in a poetic and elegant style, creating distinctive portraits that reinvented the characters in their celebrations and parties in playful snapshots with a strong visual language.
The “Beyond Appearances” exhibition in Geneva confirms that the African continent has produced exceptional works of art and presented a different creative framework to the world. Since the end of the 20th century, exhibitions in Western capitals have contributed to the fame of many artists and launched them in the global art market.
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