Wednesday April 23, 2025
Abidjan, Assinie Mafia – Cรดte d’Ivoire
Report by Mariรฉtou Bรข
When Ivorian Aboudia became one of the world’s best-selling painters, a parallel was drawn with Jean-Michel Basquiat that didn’t just concern their canvases: “they found themselves on the street, alone, but knew how to make the most of it”, says art critic Mimi Errol.
โWhen I was a teenager, I wanted to paint, but my father wouldn’t let me,โ Aboudia tells AFP.
Before becoming a reference, Abdoulaye Diarrassouba first went it alone, determined to be a painter in a society that gives little consideration to artists.
At the time, it was synonymous with being โa failureโ, recalls the artist, born in 1983.
The Ivorian post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011 and its 3,000 deaths were to reveal him to the world, with canvases depicting the chaos of the โBattle of Abidjanโ.
He paints young people left to fend for themselves by war, in keeping with his own history: โstreet childrenโ.
โIt’s not their place,โ he asserts. We must, he says, โcall on parents, authorities, anyone who is aware of the cause of childhood, to get them out of thereโ.
Aboudia, who lives in Abidjan most of the time, is currently ranked 1,311th in the world’s top 5,000 best-selling artists at auction, according to art market analysis company Artprice.
In 2022, he was even the contemporary artist who had sold the most paintings (75) according to the Hiscox Top 100 ranking.
Paris, London, New York and Lagos all snatch up his works.
As a student at the Conservatoire des Arts et Mรฉtiers in Abengourou, in eastern Cรดte d’Ivoire, then at the Centre Technique des Arts in Bingerville, on the outskirts of Abidjan, โAboudia was already very attached to the world of childrenโ, recalls his former teacher Jacobleu, another renowned painter.
In the 2000s, he brought his first works to the Abidjan gallery Houkami Guyzagn.
“I don’t know how many times he came with works that we found immature, that we didn’t think were finished,” recalls critic Mimi Errol, who worked there.
โHe’d leave without a word and come back the next day,โ he says, until he found his identity and asserted his convictions.
– “Working like a child” –
From painting to painting, a way of painting characters is confirmed: figures made of lines, very dark or very colorful, always looking outdated, forsaken. They disconcert and challenge.
The artist depicts โthe world of those we can’t see (…) a life of young people who have difficulty integrating into society, who have to fight,โ comments Mr. Errol.
โYou think it’s something very basic, very simpleโ, but โit strips the man down to show him in his simplest expressionโ, he points out.
In 2022, he was even the contemporary artist who had sold the most paintings (75) according to the Hiscox Top 100 ranking.
Paris, London, New York and Lagos all snatch up his works.
As a student at the Conservatoire des Arts et Mรฉtiers in Abengourou, in eastern Cรดte d’Ivoire, then at the Centre Technique des Arts in Bingerville, on the outskirts of Abidjan, โAboudia was already very attached to the world of childrenโ, recalls his former teacher Jacobleu, another renowned painter.
In the 2000s, he brought his first works to the Abidjan gallery Houkami Guyzagn.
“I don’t know how many times he came with works that we found immature, that we didn’t think were finished,” recalls critic Mimi Errol, who worked there.
โHe’d leave without a word and come back the next day,โ he says, until he found his identity and asserted his convictions.
– “Working like a child” –
From painting to painting, a way of painting characters is confirmed: figures made of lines, very dark or very colorful, always looking outdated, forsaken. They disconcert and challenge.
The artist depicts โthe world of those we can’t see (…) a life of young people who have difficulty integrating into society, who have to fight,โ comments Mr. Errol.
โYou think it’s something very basic, very simpleโ, but โit strips the man down to show him in his simplest expressionโ, he points out.
Aboudia assures us: โWhat makes my style recognizable, I can say, is this naive side: being old but working like a childโ.
โIf you like it, you like it; if you don’t like it, too bad,โ he says without raising his voice, his voice always soft and his attitude reserved, which contrasts with the power of his works.
โIt’s true that the level he’s reached is quite surprisingโ, says Jacobleu, who believes that black African artists have little access to international success.
Their works sometimes remain stuck in โghettoizingโ exhibitions, he regrets, necessarily linked to Africa.
Today, at the head of a foundation that bears his name, Aboudia regularly passes on his art, above all to children, as a matter of course.
Humaniterreย with AFP
