First (and only) edition of this scarce artist's publication by the celebrated Ivorian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (1923-2014), a collection of images from his decades-long project: a poetic, epic catalogue of the world.
Fine.
Price: $1,100.00
"[Bouabré's] artistic career began shortly after March 11, 1948, when a life-changing vision appeared to him in Dakar, Senegal. He described the sky opening up to reveal seven variously colored suns rotating around a central star — the subject of his first drawing." — Daniel Fuller
Largely self-taught, Bouabré has long been considered one of Africa's great visionary artists. But only in recent years has he been more widely recognized in the West, due in no small part to his 2022 MOMA retrospective. KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD remains not only the first, but one of the best introductions to his work. Each of the 200 cards reproduces one of his drawings, bordered in Bouabré's taxonomic hand-lettered French, and feature people, everyday objects, animals and other creatures, folklore, and even ideas and concepts. "Published in collaboration with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) Cultural Olympiad" (colophon), KNOWLEDGE is now surprisingly uncommon in trade.
Read more: Fuller, "How Nexus Press Came to Publish the One-of-a-Kind Book Frédéric 'Bruly Bouabré: Knowledge of the World,'" ArtNews.
First printing. Atlanta: Nexus Press, 1998. 4.5'' x 6.5'' (cards), 5'' x 7'' x 3.5'' (box). Original full blue cloth box with gilt titles. Containing 200 original full-color cards. Numbered 1 through 199 on verso (though intended to be "read" in any order), plus colophon card. With original yellow ribbon. Trace rubbing to box. Else clean, sharp, and bright.
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