Les Enclaves.
REMEMBERING SOULEYMANE KEITA
Senegal is mourning the death of one of the major figures of “L’école de Dakar“. The painter Souleymane Keita died on 19th July at the Clinic Casahous further to a short disease. Contemporary visual artist, Souleymane Keita was born on 17th April 1947 in Gorée. His works were strongly inspired from his home town. Considered as one of the fathers of the contemporary creation in Senegal, his paintings were exposed for the first time in 1960. After his studies at the National School of Fine Arts of Dakar under the supervision of the painter, Iba Ndiaye (1928-2008), he became in his turn a professor of ceramic and painting at the Jamaïca Arts Center in New York. The Senegalese painter was also a board member of Gorée Institute and the Scientific Council of the Biennial event of Dakar. 
Today, the works of Souleymane Keita embellish numerous museums, institutions, presidencies and embassies worldwide. Since the announcement of his death, several personalities of the arts world have been paying tribute to the memory of the artist. “I think again (…) about the talent of Souleymane Keïta. He was peculiar. His paintbrush was of light. He was of those who invented their offspring by thwarting the common grave of painters from the School of Dakar that the great Senghor inspired and shaped“, indicated the poet, Tinder Lamine Sall. 
About:
Souleymane Keita’s recent work is characterized by a carefully structured and organized rhythm of dynamic lines and organic forms, a mastery of the nuances of color and composition, a deep sensitivity to texture combined with a display of emotional intensity. Widely regarded as one of Africa’s most accomplished artist of his generation, he has consistently explored the expressive possibilities of abstraction in his encounters with history and global transformation over the past three decades, and in the process developed a completely personal and original style whose true significance lies not merely in formal arrangement but in the spiritual meaning underlying the symbols, signs and metaphors in his work, while simultaneously broadening his vision and making his belief in the human experience visible. 
Souleymane Keita’s tries to synthesize his search for creative excellence with a versatile, aesthetically potent ways of knowing and affecting the world around him. He has always worked in series: his recent one builds on recent exhibitions in Dakar (Senegal) and Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), and he pays homage to the Island of Gorée, his birth place, situated off the coast of Dakar. They possess tactile qualities that are imbued with both personal and collective meanings. Also included is Homage to Al Loving, 2007, a hung and un-stretched canvas sewn into geometrical shapes and saturated with color that makes a compelling venture in a trans-Atlantic dialogue and a fitting paean to the late African-American abstract expressionist artist Al Loving whose work also thrived on experimentation and improvisation. 
Souleymane Keita was born 1947 in Gorée Island, Senegal and studied Fine Art at the Ecole des Arts du Senegal in Dakar 1960-64 and proceeded to the Atelier de Céramique, Senegal 1964-67 for further studies. His instructors included the late Senegalese modernist painter Iba Ndiaye. He is a widely traveled artist and lived in New York in 1979-85, a period during which he further strengthened his philosophical and improvisational approach to art-making. He has exhibited extensively in Africa, Europe and the Americas. Awards include the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts, République Française, 2003, Pa Académie des Arts et lettre du Sénégal, 2003, Chevalier de l’ordre Nationale des Mérites, 2006, Membre du Conseil d’Administration de Gorée Institut, Membre du conseil scientifique de la Biennale de Dakar and Coréalisateur du drapeau de la tolérance de l’UNESCO, Paris. His work is represented in several private and public collections at home and abroad. He died in July 2014. 