Itinerary of an artist

Despite a recent interest in Europe for the African Contemporary art, a large number of artists still remain and will remain in the background, for various reasons: isolation, misunderstanding of the networks of cultural promotion, irregular production …

The work left by Bassirou Sidy N' Diaye testifies of a very flashing route, but which regrettably ended far too early. In only few years, the artist has gone from the technics of "souwères"to the painting on canvas, through implementing various materials, in particular Indian ink and sand. His ability to learn and to reinvent constantly his technics allowed him to constitute an original universe. His approach is of the utmost interest as it illustrates not only a particular cultural context, but also main trends of the artistic creation in Senegal and Africa generally.

Creativity in movement

Bassirou Sidy N' Diaye belongs to this big family of artists in constant search of materials and technical processes which allow him to express his sensibility and to strengthen his message. The combination of industrial and natural materials gives evidence of his belonging with his contemporaries. Acrylic paintings, glass and plastic are naturally associated to mineral and vegetal elements. The plastic or graphic quality of each of the used materials is coupled with the symbolic added value by the artist. When Bass starts the series of souwères with ink and sand, he is not very far away from the other artists like Ndary Lo, who collects diverse fragments rejected by the sea on the beach of Gorée. Finally, he incorporates them into installations suggesting the traces of a collective memory.

The topic slavery is a rather common theme to numerous artists who express through it a complex feeling of empty space and dizziness. Slavery system established by the Europeans in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries has left indelible injuries. Today’s Europeans have difficulties to understand what the current generations of African really feel with regard to this drama; existential empty space, strong feeling of segments subtracted from the genealogical continuity, roots extracted from the ground. The notion of ancestors remains fundamental in today’s African societies.The continuity between the worlds of the deads and the livings is an essential issue since it contributes to the individual and collective self-fulfillment. The consequences of the slavery exceed the level of the sole historical knowledge.

Bass’s experience, as a guide on Gorée Island, has doubtless crystallized his thinking. The sand of Goree beaches has become to him an obvious and unexpected material. This material, at the same time simple and abundant, leads the artist to the spaces of plastic and symbolic research. In reality, the sand was extracted not from the edge of the beach but from much deeper under the sea. The artist sought the services of young divers to obtain an authentical pure sand, in better quality.

Quest of an African identity

This search of authentic past Bass made of the masaï ethnic group also expresses itself through the portraits. In his opinion, these portraits illustrated the depth of the African identity. Even there, his approach meets the one of other artists, such as Ousmane Sow and his noubas.

In his last years of life, Bass is impressed by the work of Nicolas de Staël which he discovers in 2003 in Paris, at the Pompidou Center. One of his last paintings is a testimony of that. He is also sensitive to the work of Rodin and even more to the one of Camille Claudel.

The rythm of his creation grows whereas he continues in parallel his constant research on technics.

The density of Bass's artistic production explains the impression of a very rich work, inspired by a traditional technique acquired thanks to the “school of life” to succeed in a fully personal creation.

Manuel Valentin, Historian of the Arts of Africa and Professor at “L’Ecole du Louvre” - 2007.