ABDOULAYE KONATÉ The fabric of reality
For his first exhibition at Templon in Paris, Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté, a leading figure of the contemporary African art scene, unveils a new ensemble of ten monumental, entirely hand-sewn works. Widely regarded as a “master,” Konaté continues his exploration of the major issues of our time - from religious fanaticism to social justice - through a sumptuous and enigmatic visual alphabet of forms and colors.
Created from Cameroonian fabrics and bazin offcuts - an iconic fabric of traditional West African attire - his compositions are distinguished by the organic arrangement of dyed, cut, and sewn strips that generate vibrant, shimmering surfaces. The result of extensive research and documentation, these works draw from multiple traditions: Malian craftsmanship, Tibetan art Tunisian ceramics, Berber textiles etc.
The creative process is both precise and exacting: initial sketches, first traced in marker and then refined digitally, are translated on a large scale with the help of assistants and sewing-machines, before the final work takes shape directly on the floor of the studio.
The compositions unfold in subtle gradations and infinite nuances - ranging from blue to green, yellow to red - that recall the blazing atmospheres of William Turner, the abstractions of František Kupka and Paul Klee, and the vast chromatic expanses of Mark Rothko’s Colorfield painting.
Although Konaté prefers to define himself as a humanist rather than a political artist, his textile tableaux, imbued with rare poetic intensity, confront the great tragedies of our time and the fractures born of globalization. By weaving together Western prosperity and African spirituality, his work outlines the fabric of a necessary reconciliation, carried by the beauty and power of color.
Biography
Born in 1953 in Diré, Mali, Abdoulaye Konaté lives and works in Bamako. A visual artist, he is a central figure in both the Malian and broader African art scene. After graduating from the Institut National des Arts in Bamako in 1976, he continued his studies at the Instituto Superior de Artes Plásticas in Havana, Cuba, from 1978 to 1985. From 1985 to 1997, he served as Head of the Exhibitions Division at the National Museum of Mali, before successively directing the Palais de la Culture, the Rencontres Photographiques de Bamako (1998–2002), and later the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers Multimédia “Balla Fasseké Kouyaté.”
His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Musée de l’IFAN in Senegal (1992), the National Museum of Mali in Bamako (1992), Forum für Kunst in Germany (2009), the National Gallery of Art in Dakar (2011), the Fondation Festival sur le Niger in Mali (2012), the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen (2016), the Fondation CDG in Rabat (2017), Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (2020), and the Espace Dominique Bagouet in Montpellier (2021).
He has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (2003), Documenta in Kassel (2007 and 2022), the Gwangju Biennale (2008), the Havana Biennale (2009), the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2011), the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands (2012), the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2013), the Smithsonian Institution in Washington (2013), the Norrköping Konstmuseum in Sweden (2015), the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary Art (2016), La Villette in Paris (2017), and the Venice Biennale (2017).
His works are included in numerous public collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), the Smithsonian Museum (USA), the Stedelijk Museum (Netherlands), and Dak’Art – the Biennale of Contemporary African Art (Senegal).
For more information about Abdoulaye’s artwork and his exhibition, please visit Templon’s site. The gallery can also be found on Instagram, artnet, Facebook, YouTube, and Artsy. The exhibition opened on November 15, from 5 pm to 8 pm, and closed on December 31, 20265
