Suwer by Djibril Diene
The Cardinal –Suwer– (Dakar, Senegal)
A Suwer is a painting and as such is usually sold to decorate walls or sideboards, but we have also seen them used as coasters or as signs for toilet doors, if the person portrayed is a Serer or Wolof girl or boy. Give it to the person who is open to the races and colours of the world.
The Serer, Wolof or Mandinga people prefer to write it suwer, but we have no doubt that it is an orthographic transcription of the French word sousverre, which should be translated as "under the glass" (because they are painted on the back of a piece of glass), a word that the French prefer to use, however, to refer to a sad coaster.
But let's get to the point: suwer is a colorful and vital artistic expression that was born at the beginning of the 20th century in the coastal cities of Senegal as a reaction to the lack of permissiveness shown by the French colonizers towards the dissemination of Islamizing ideas and texts. The rigid control exercised over the printing presses of Saint Louis or Dakar by the colonial administration determined that an army of street artists soon emerged who reproduced colorful Koranic scenes under pieces of glass, which were then highly appreciated by a largely illiterate population. The images starring Noah and his Ark, Ismail and Ibrahim, Omar and Ali immersed in epic battles or even unorthodox portraits of the Prophet were the favorites of artists such as Mor Gueye, Ibrahima Sall or Gora Mbengue, now rescued and raised to the altars of Art with capital letters by the gurus of Pop Art.
Later, religious motifs would be replaced by nostalgia for life in the village, by secular themes or even by the disillusionment associated with a progress that seemed to resist reaching the countries of Africa.
The Suwer that we suggest on this occasion is a work by Gibril, one of the most renowned living artists of the Set-Setal, an artistic movement that emerged in the 70s of the last century as a reaction to the disillusionment that gripped African countries for a decade. after independence.
Material: paint on glass and cardboard
Height: 24cm; Width: 32cm
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At Black Market we are not antique dealers. Nor do we intend to appropriate the different and very diverse cultures that have existed throughout Africa. At Black Market we offer, however, a selection of all the art generated by men and women that, in many cases, we admire and know personally.
Send us a photo of the room you want to decorate and we can offer you suggestions.
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