Figure of the Senegalese artistic scene, the painter Ndoye Douts invites to a unique dive in the popular districts of Dakar. It is there, from Yoff to Gueule-Tapée, that he draws his inspiration since leaving art in 1999. “Entre terre et mer”, his new exhibition at the Art-Z Gallery in Paris, until March 27, testifies to abundant, colorful, playful work.
Dakar residents are constantly complaining about traffic jams. And they are really there, in the paintings of Ndoye Douts, these waves of vehicles paralyzing the main arteries like alleys in beaten ground. In a few strokes, like a child’s drawing. Cars that are black, blue, pink … And also “fast buses”, these antidiluvian minibuses whose variegated paintings hide the rust stains. In the middle of it all bikes. And then a canoe, fish. Finally, without any notion of depth or hierarchy, the canvas fills buildings, ever more numerous.
“I invite you to a trip to these working-class neighborhoods,” said Ndoye Douts, who attended his study in Medina – Gueule-Tapée. It’s important to me to put these people on the same level in the canoes that go fishing … or that travel for illegal immigration. In my paintings there are also mosques… and churches. The inhabitants live in the same community, and they get along well, ”emphasizes the 47-year-old painter.
«Brotherhood search»
The signs he represents have open arms, proof that “teranga”, the tradition of welcoming Senegalese, is not just a marketing argument for travel agents. On the contrary, notes Olivier Sultan, the founder of the Art-Z Gallery, “his characters’ disproportionate arms roll in all winds, open to others as well as to change in pursuit of brotherhood.”
The apparent simplicity of the line and the vividness of the colors stand out especially in the acrylic paintings on a black background. But Ndoye Douts also uses another medium that provides relief to his works … in the true sense of the term.
“I use brown kraft paper that I curl up to make folds,” explains the plastic surgeon who likes to squat on the floor of the studio. This provides a relief that the canvas cannot offer. And it also gives this ocher color that connects me to the earth ”.
“Architectural Disorder”
As far back as he can remember, Ndoye Douts has always shown this connection to the country and those who live in it. Major of the class in 1999 of the National School of Fine Arts in Senegal, his final dissertation already focused on working-class neighborhoods and their “architectural disturbance”.
The title of his paintings, whose selling prices range from 800 to 5800 euros, testifies to this intimate geography: Yoff, Diamalaye, Fann, Thiaroye … But it is Medina that he most often represents.
“It’s a neighborhood that changes very quickly,” says the painter with fine braids tied in a bun. Buildings grow like mushrooms! Social demand is very strong! My studio is on the fourth floor and I see new constructions every day. As if these buildings were to touch the sky … ”
Buildings not always up to standard. A few days ago, a balcony collapsed. Who knows if this scene will appear in a future painting by Ndoye Douts?
►Entre terre et mer, exhibition of Ndoye Douts in the Art-Z Gallery, Paris, from March 4 to April 10, 2021.
►To read also: “Kinshasa Chroniques”, the Congolese capital revealed and dreamed of its artists
►Also read: Aljoner Diagne, the “figuro-abstro” art by a Senegalese painter
►Also read: The exhibition “Anomalies” by Senegalese artist Omar Ba
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