FRÉDÉRIC BRULY BOUABRÉ (1923-2014) Le grand bâtisseur présente fièrement à la grande humanité blanche sa belle cité peinte aux couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel: series of 25 drawings

signed and dated (on reverse), titled around the margins ballpoint pen, coloured pencil, pencil on cardboard dimensions of each sheet: 19 x 15 cm Executed in 2006 Frederic Bruly Bouabré was a thinker, poet, encyclopaedist, creator, and artist. Born in Zéprégühé, in Côte d’Ivoire, Bouabré served in the French West African Navy and began his career as a government clerk in the colonial administration of French West Africa in Dakar, Senegal. In the late 1940s, he had a vision that transformed his life: he then called himself ‘Cheik Nadro the Revealer’ and dedicated his life to philosophical research into the state of Africa and the meaning of life. He worked as an informant and researcher to French ethnographers and anthropologists, collecting and archiving information about his native peoples and other West African communities. In the late 1970s, Bouabré began to draw on found cardboard, combining image and text. From the 1980s onwards, as the scope of his interests grew, he embarked on an all-encompassing project, drawing from observation almost daily. His work was presented at Venice Biennale National Pavilion, Venice Biennale International Exhibition, Istanbul Biennial, Gwangju Biennale and is part of MOMA collection. His artworks were also exhibited at Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo and the Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.