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. He 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, he 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.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1995
Cyprien Tokoudagba
Cloister Museum
Culture and People.
Tulle, France.
1995
Cyprien Tokoudagba
IFA-Gallery.
Bonn, Stuttgart, Germany.
1991
Cyprien Tokoudagba
French Cultural Center.
Cotonou, Benin
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2005
Arts of Africa
Grimaldi Forum
Monaco - France
2005
African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Museum of Fine Art Houston
Houston - USA
2004-2006 (travelling exhibition)
Africa Remix
Art contemporain d’un continent
-
24 July 2004 – 7 Nov 2004
Museum Kunst Palast
Düsseldorf - Germany -
10 Feb 2005 – 17 April 2005
Hayward Gallery
London – England -
15 May 2005 – 20 Aug 2005
Centre Georges Pompidou
Paris – France -
Feb – May 2006
Mori Art Museum
Tokyo
Transvangarde: Contemporary Art from Around the Planet
Kulturbrauerei
Berlin – Germany
1998
Africa Africa Vibrant New Art from a Dynamic Continent
Tobu Museum of Art.
Tokyo, Japan.
1997
Lumiere Noire
Tanlay Contemporary Art Center.
Tanlay, France.
1996
Sao Paulo Biennal
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1996
Neue Kunst Aus Afrika
Im Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.
Berlin, Germany.
1995
Big City
Serpentine Gallery.
London, Great-Britain.
1995
Vital : Three contemporary african artists
Tate Gallery.
Liverpool, Great-Britain.
1994
Rencontres Africaines
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
Travelling exhibitions: France, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Morocco.
1993
Sydney Biennal
Sydney, Australia.
1993
La Grande Verite, les Astres Africains
Nantes Fine Art Museum.
Nantes, France.
1992
Out of Africa
Saatchi Collection.
London, United Kindom.
1991
Africa Hoy
Atlantic Center of Modern Art.
Las Palmas Gran Canary, Spain.
Cultural Center of Contemporary Art.
Mexico City, Mexico.
1991
Africa Now
Groninger Museum.
Groningen, Netherland.
1989
Magiciens de la Terre
M.N.A.M. Georges Pompidou Center.
La Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2005
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.
2004
Africa Remix
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.
2001
Tribal Soul, Metropolitan Body.
Arte Africana Contemporanea.
L'Artiere edizionitalia.
1998
Africa Africa
Vibrant New Art from a Dynamic Continent.
Exhibition Catalogue, Japanese and English.
Tobu Museum. Tokyo, Japan.
1997
Lumiere Noire.
Exhibition Catalogue. Texts in French.
Tanlay Art Center, France.
1996
Universalis
23rd Sao Paulo International Biennal.
Exhibition catalogue.
Fundacao Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1996
Contemporary Art of Africa.
Cyprien Tokoudagba, text in English by Jacques Soulillou, p.40-43.
Edited by Andre Magnin & Jacques Soulillou.
Publisher Harry N. Abraams, New York.
1996
Neue Kunst Aus Afrika
Exhibition Catalogue.
Im Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.
Berlin, Germany.
1995-1996
VOODOO Cyprien Tokoudagba
Exhibition Catalogue.
IFA, Bonn & Stuttgart, Germany.
1995
Vital Three Contemporary African Artists.
Exhibition Catalogue.
The Link between Earth and Sky.
Tate Gallery, Liverpool.
1994
Rencontres Africaines.
Exhibition Catalogue.
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
1993
Sydney Biennal.
Exhibition Catalogue
1992
Out of Africa.
Exhibition catalogue
The Jean Pigozzi Contemporary Art Collection.
The Saatchi Gallery.
London, Great Britain.
1991
Africa Hoy.
Atlantic Center for Modern Art.
Exhibition Catalogue. Cyprien Tokoudagba p.143-149.
Las Palmas, Gran Canary Islands, Spain.
1989
Magiciens de la terre
Exhibition Catalogue.
Georges Pompidou Centre.
Paris, France.