ART NYC hosts one of the greatest artists of this era, the Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (1923-2014)’s solo exhibition. We display over 60 drawings include large set works.
Frédéric Brully Bouabré (1923-2014) was born in Côte d'Ivoire and stayed in this dimension for the 20th and 21st centuries before moving on to another dimension. He created a language called the alphabet bete. Bouabré began to invent pictographic characters and made the alphabet Bete (1990–91) to create the first writing system for Bete languages. The Alphabet Bete is the most extensive series of Bouabré‘s works, consisting of 449 ballpoint pens and colored pencil paintings based on everyday Bete life. Each image completed over the decades is very well combined with the monosyllabic Bete word. So his work is constantly being studied by linguists and cultural researchers. As a young man, he served as a civil servant in the French colonial government. His writing began in that period and was the basis for creating the alphabet Bete. He named himself "chik Nidro," a prophet, and left a drawing symbolizing his prophetic figure. What he wanted was communication. As an Ivorian, he learned and used French and was deeply troubled by the confusion and totality of the Bethe language spoken by his people. For Ivoryians, the language existed, but independent letters did not exist. Frédéric Burly Bouabré realized that the way to express and inform their cultural identity in a rapidly changed modern society, where primitive lives were familiar, was to make letters. And he drew a picture. Visual language! He kept observing. He created rules by finding commonalities and identifying the primitive lifestyles, cultures, and facial expressions of people around him, family members, and loved ones. This story is about how the 449 Alphabet Bete character cards were born. And he continued to look at people and nature until he moved from one dimension to another. He wanted to serve as a channel for communication to resolve conflicts and difficulties caused by the absence of communication between the French and Bete. Still, he suddenly disappeared, leaving us thousands of love letters.
Academic Symposium on Research about ‘Frédéric Bruly Bouabré’
-hieroglyphics and text- 5/12/2023
RSVP theartnyc@gmail.com
