africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

Author: Karima Boudou

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Soufiane Ababri: Bedworks

SoufianeBewdwork2017

The Bedworks are drawings made with colored pencils in a bed, so in an extended position. It was a way for me to reposition my work, putting away the studio work with all that it evokes as an imaginary of the virile artist working in a technical space. In short it is a work that wants to be domestic; it takes place in this space dedicated to women in art history.

Karima Boudou in conversation with the Moroccan artist Soufiane Ababri
Bedwork, 2016-2018, colored pencils on paper

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Beauford Delaney and Ted Joans

BeaufordDelaneyJamesBaldwin1965

In 1975, photographer Marion Kalter grabs her camera and immortalizes the very moment that would trigger the desire to write this text. The crime scene takes place in Paris in Beauford Delaney’s studio located in rue Vercingétorix, Delaney and Ted Joans standing next to each other. Both of them were painters, and Joans was also a Surrealist as well as a jazz musician and poet. When looking at this picture in the 21st century, it is almost impossible to guess the many threads and double visions related to painting and music, jazz and poetry. Unless you start digging more.

Karima Boudou digs into the relation between the African-American artists Beauford Delaney and Ted Joans
Beauford Delaney, James Baldwin, 1965, courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

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