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拍品专文
Ousmane Sow est né à Dakar en 1935. Sculptant depuis son enfance, puis par la suite, tout en exerçant le métier de kinésithérapeute, c'est seulement à l'âge de cinquante ans qu'il décide de se consacrer entièrement à la sculpture.
S'attachant à représenter l'homme, il travaille par séries et s'intéresse aux ethnies d'Afrique puis d'Amérique. Puisant son inspiration aussi bien dans la photographie que dans le cinéma, l'histoire ou l'ethnologie, son art retrouve un souffle épique que l'on croyait perdu. Fondamentalement figuratives, témoignant toutefois d'un souci de vérité éloigné de tout réalisme, ses effigies plus grandes que nature sont sculptées sans modèle. Ces figures ont la force des métissages réussis entre l'art de la grande statuaire occidentale et les pratiques rituelles africaines.
Avec l'irruption de ses Nouba au milieu des années 80, Ousmane Sow replace l'âme au corps de la sculpture, et l'Afrique au coeur de l'Europe.
En passant d'un continent à l'autre, il rend hommage, dans sa création sur la bataille de Little Big Horn, aux ultimes guerriers d'un meême soleil.
Des peuplades d'Afrique aux Indiens d'Amérique, il recherche le fluide de ces hommes debout. Comme s'il s'agissait pour lui d'offrir en miroir à ces ethnies nomades, fières et esthètes, cet art sédentaire qui leur fait défaut: la sculpture.
Révélé en 1987 au Centre Culturel Français de Dakar, où il présente sa première série sur les lutteurs Nouba, l'artiste expose six ans plus tard, en 1993, à la Dokumenta de Kassel en Allemagne. Puis, en 1995, au Palazzo Grassi, à l'occasion du centenaire de la Biennale de Venise.
Son exposition sur le Pont des Arts au printemps 1999 attira plus de trois millions de visiteurs.
Depuis, son oeuvre a été exposée dans une vingtaine de lieux, dont le Whitney Museum à New York.
Ousmane Sow was born in dakar in 1935. Having sculpted from Childhood and then throughout his career as a physiotherapist, it was only at the age of 60 that he decided to devote himself entirely to sculpture.
Concentrating on representations of humans, he worked in series and focused on ethnic groups from Africa and then America. Drawing his inspiration from photography, cinema, history and ethnology, his art rediscovered an epic aspect when was thought to be lost. Fundamentally figurative, but demonstrating a desire for veracity far removed from realism, his larger-than-life figures are sculpted without using models. They have the power of works which successfully merge the Western art of large statuary and African ritual practices.
With the irruption of his Noubas in the mid 1980s, Ousmane Sow put the soul back into sculpture and placed Africa at the heart of Europe.
Switching from one continent to another, in his work examining the battle of Little Big Horn, he pays tribute to exceptional warriors who share a single sun.
From African to Native American tribes, he seeks fluidity for his standing figures. As if his aim were to reflect these nomadic, proud and beautiful peoples in the sedentary art form unable to do them justice-sculpture.
Unveiled in 1987 at the Centre Culturel Français in Dakar, where he presented his first series of Nouba wrestlers, the artist exhibited six years later, in 1993, at the Dokumenta de Kassel in germany. Then, in 1995, at the Palazzo Grassi for the 100th anniversary of the Venice Biennale.
His exhibition on the Pont des Arts in the spring of 1999 attracted three million visitors. Since then, his work has been exhibited in around 20 locations, including the Whitney Museum in New York.
Nouba: Among this endangered tribe in Southern Soudan where men live naked, fighting between wrestlers is seen as an uplifting ritual.
After the fights, women and men select their spouses. Nouba women practice tattooing and scarification for religious, ethnic and aesthetic purposes.
Maasai: Nomadic herdsmen who live in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania, the Maasai remain one of the few African warrior tribes not to have abandoned its traditions. Estimated to number 300,000 in the late 1960s, they are now becoming increasingly, settling down in increasing numbers in cities.
Young people between 14 and 30 years old are called "Morane" and wear their hair in decorative tresses.
Zulu: Farming cattle and growing cereals, the Zulus transformed themselves into a conquering army between 1816 and 1828, under the rule of King Shaka. This is how the small tribe which spoke "Nguni" came to rule other peoples and ended up forming one of the largest warrior nations in South Africa. Beaten back by colonization, the Zulus were forced to become immigrant workers in their own country.
S'attachant à représenter l'homme, il travaille par séries et s'intéresse aux ethnies d'Afrique puis d'Amérique. Puisant son inspiration aussi bien dans la photographie que dans le cinéma, l'histoire ou l'ethnologie, son art retrouve un souffle épique que l'on croyait perdu. Fondamentalement figuratives, témoignant toutefois d'un souci de vérité éloigné de tout réalisme, ses effigies plus grandes que nature sont sculptées sans modèle. Ces figures ont la force des métissages réussis entre l'art de la grande statuaire occidentale et les pratiques rituelles africaines.
Avec l'irruption de ses Nouba au milieu des années 80, Ousmane Sow replace l'âme au corps de la sculpture, et l'Afrique au coeur de l'Europe.
En passant d'un continent à l'autre, il rend hommage, dans sa création sur la bataille de Little Big Horn, aux ultimes guerriers d'un meême soleil.
Des peuplades d'Afrique aux Indiens d'Amérique, il recherche le fluide de ces hommes debout. Comme s'il s'agissait pour lui d'offrir en miroir à ces ethnies nomades, fières et esthètes, cet art sédentaire qui leur fait défaut: la sculpture.
Révélé en 1987 au Centre Culturel Français de Dakar, où il présente sa première série sur les lutteurs Nouba, l'artiste expose six ans plus tard, en 1993, à la Dokumenta de Kassel en Allemagne. Puis, en 1995, au Palazzo Grassi, à l'occasion du centenaire de la Biennale de Venise.
Son exposition sur le Pont des Arts au printemps 1999 attira plus de trois millions de visiteurs.
Depuis, son oeuvre a été exposée dans une vingtaine de lieux, dont le Whitney Museum à New York.
Ousmane Sow was born in dakar in 1935. Having sculpted from Childhood and then throughout his career as a physiotherapist, it was only at the age of 60 that he decided to devote himself entirely to sculpture.
Concentrating on representations of humans, he worked in series and focused on ethnic groups from Africa and then America. Drawing his inspiration from photography, cinema, history and ethnology, his art rediscovered an epic aspect when was thought to be lost. Fundamentally figurative, but demonstrating a desire for veracity far removed from realism, his larger-than-life figures are sculpted without using models. They have the power of works which successfully merge the Western art of large statuary and African ritual practices.
With the irruption of his Noubas in the mid 1980s, Ousmane Sow put the soul back into sculpture and placed Africa at the heart of Europe.
Switching from one continent to another, in his work examining the battle of Little Big Horn, he pays tribute to exceptional warriors who share a single sun.
From African to Native American tribes, he seeks fluidity for his standing figures. As if his aim were to reflect these nomadic, proud and beautiful peoples in the sedentary art form unable to do them justice-sculpture.
Unveiled in 1987 at the Centre Culturel Français in Dakar, where he presented his first series of Nouba wrestlers, the artist exhibited six years later, in 1993, at the Dokumenta de Kassel in germany. Then, in 1995, at the Palazzo Grassi for the 100th anniversary of the Venice Biennale.
His exhibition on the Pont des Arts in the spring of 1999 attracted three million visitors. Since then, his work has been exhibited in around 20 locations, including the Whitney Museum in New York.
Nouba: Among this endangered tribe in Southern Soudan where men live naked, fighting between wrestlers is seen as an uplifting ritual.
After the fights, women and men select their spouses. Nouba women practice tattooing and scarification for religious, ethnic and aesthetic purposes.
Maasai: Nomadic herdsmen who live in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania, the Maasai remain one of the few African warrior tribes not to have abandoned its traditions. Estimated to number 300,000 in the late 1960s, they are now becoming increasingly, settling down in increasing numbers in cities.
Young people between 14 and 30 years old are called "Morane" and wear their hair in decorative tresses.
Zulu: Farming cattle and growing cereals, the Zulus transformed themselves into a conquering army between 1816 and 1828, under the rule of King Shaka. This is how the small tribe which spoke "Nguni" came to rule other peoples and ended up forming one of the largest warrior nations in South Africa. Beaten back by colonization, the Zulus were forced to become immigrant workers in their own country.