Frédéric Bruly Bouabré

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, also known as Cheik Nadro (11 March 1923 – 28 January 2014), was an Ivorian artist.

Life and career Bouabré was born in Zépréguhé, Ivory Coast, and was among the first Ivorians to be educated by the French colonial government. On 11 March 1948, he received a vision, which directly influenced much of his later works. Bouabré created many of his hundreds of small drawings while working as a clerk in various government offices. These drawings depicted many different subjects, mostly drawn from local folklore; some also described his own visions. All the drawings are part of a larger cycle, titled World Knowledge. Bouabré also created a 448-letter, universal Bété syllabary, which he used to transcribe the oral tradition of his people, the Bétés. His visual language is portrayed on some 1,000 small cards using ballpoint pens and crayons, with symbolic imagery surrounded by text, each carrying a unique divinatory message and comments on life and history.

Many of Bouabré's drawings are in The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Meshac Gaba. One of his emblematic drawings is saved in the L'appartement 22 collection on the African continent: "Une divine peinture relevée sur le corps d'une mandarine jaunie", made by Bouabré in 1994 in Abidjan.

Exhibitions 2022: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2017: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré & Serge Attukwei Clottey, Burning in Water, New York 2013: Venice Biennale, Italy 2012: Inventing the world: the artist as citizen, Biennale Bénin, Cotonou, Bénin 2010–2011: Tate Modern, London, UK 2010: African Stories, Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech 2007: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK 2007: Why Africa?, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy 2006: 100% Africa, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain 2005: Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, France 2004–2007: Africa Remix, the touring show started on 24 July 2004 at the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf (Germany), and travelled to the Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. 2003: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Musée Champollion, Figeac, France 2002: Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany 2001–2002: The Short Century was an exhibition held in Munich, Berlin, Chicago and New York, organised by a team headed by Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor 1996: Neue Kunst aus Africa, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germania 1995: Galerie des Cinq Continents, Musée des arts d’Afrique et d'Océanie, Paris, France 1995: Dialogues de Paix, Palais des Nations, Geneve, Switzerland 1994: Rencontres Africaines, the touring exhibition was shown at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, Cidade do Cabo in Sud Africa, Museum Africa in Johannesburg and in Lisbon, Portugal 1994: World Envisioned, together with Alighiero Boetti, the exhibition was shown in DIA Center for the Arts in New York and American Center, Paris, France 1993: Trésor de Voyage, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 1993: Azur, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Jouy-en-Josas, France 1993: La Grande Vérité: les Astres Africains, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, France 1993: Grafolies, Biennale d’Abidjan in Abidjan, Ivory Coast 1992: A Visage Découvert, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Jouy-en-Josas, France 1992: Oh Cet Echo!, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France 1992: Out of Africa, Saatchi Collection, London 1992: L'Art dans la Cuisine, St. Gallen, Sweden 1992: Resistances, Watari-Um for Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan 1991: Africa Hoy/Africa Now, the touring exhibition has shown in Centro de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), Gröninger Museum in Groningen (Netherlands), Centro de arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City 1989: Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou and Grande halle de la Villette, Paris, France 1989: Waaah! Far African Art, Courtrai, Belgium 1986: L'Afrique e la Lettre, Centre Culturel Français, Lagos, Nigeria