ARTS OF AFRICA, FROM TRADITIONAL ARTS TO THE CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION OF JEAN PIGOZZI
From July 16 to September 4, 2005
For the very first time, an exhibition has used traditional and contemporary masterpieces to trace 6,000 years of Art History in Africa from antiquity to the present day. It also discusses the relationship between this art and the great masters of the twentieth century such as Picasso, Derain, Léger, etc. This artistic and historical fresco showcases the talent and creativity of artists from the continent, including Nigeria, Benin, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali and Sudan. The competence of only one person would not have been sufficient to cover such a broad topic, which is why the Grimaldi Forum Monaco chose to use two Commissioners who are world-renowned when it comes to African art:
For the "Traditional Arts" section, Ezio Bassani worked together with Artificio Skira who produced the great Turin exhibition in 2004 entitled "Africa, masterpieces of a continent," which the international press considered to be one of the largest and most in-depth in the world.
The "Contemporary Art" section was covered by André Magnin, assistant curator of the renowned "Magicians of the Earth" (1987-1989) exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris and artistic director and curator of the Contemporary African Art Collection, better known as Collection Pigozzi, the richest artistic allocation in the world dedicated entirely to artists from all generations who live and work in sub-Saharan Africa.
The vast knowledge of these two curators came together within the framework of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco to affirm the creative omnipotence of Art in sub-Saharan Africa in all its forms, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installations and photography.
