Cyprien
TOKOUDAGBA (1939) [view
available works from this artist]
Cyprien Tokoudagba
was born in Abomey, Benin in 1939. Tokoudagba practiced
several activities related to painting and sculpture
simultaneously. This Beninese artist is a restorer
at the National Museum in Abomey, where he came in
contact with the very rich traditions of Benin painting,
a country that was one of the most prominent cultural
cradles of the African continent, and was chopped
up by colonial boundaries.
Tokoudagba
also works on the decorations of numerous Vodun buildings,
private or institutional temples, from the most modest
(a single wall painting, Vodun divinity, or domestic
or regional fetish...) to the most elaborate. These
wall paintings are made up of the symbolic figureheads
of political and especially religious power, and are
often a confusion of both, as well as the geometrical
cultural signs on the walls of the place of worship.
The sculptures borrow from the traditions of Beninese
sculpture, which is often anthropomorphic and very
large. Concrete, a modern substitute for traditional
materials, is worked on when it is still boxed, then
carved before it is completely dry, and finally painted.
These statues have the faces of Vodun divinities,
of which Legba is the central figure.
Without abandoning
the wall paintings that he is commissioned, Cyprien
Tokoudagba undertook 1989 some large canvasses in
which he combined, taking great liberties, the emblems
of the kings of Abomey, symbols of the divinities
(Earth, Fire, Water, Air) and various objects related
to his culture. The combination of all these faces,
objects and signs make his paintings look like a strange
rebus.
source: Contemporary
African Art Collection
Selected
Exhibitions
Cyprien
Tokoudagba GALLERY
