Africa Unite ! A solidarity auction sale
16/09/2020 - 17/09/2020A charity auction in support of contemporary African art will be organized in mid-September between Paris and Casablanca, by the two auction houses Cornette de Saint Cyr and La Marocaine des Arts. The sale event will also be streamed on Drouot Online’s website to allow the largest number of people to participate.
Initiated by the Foundation for the Development of Contemporary African Culture and the African Culture Fund, this sale is the result of a real spirit of solidarity shown by African artists, who offered their works to help the two foundations overcome the difficulties caused by the covid pandemic.
More than fifty works by thirty renowned contemporary African artists will be on display at the sale, including some artists from the pan-African travelling exhibition « Prête-moi ton Rêve » which opened its third stage at the Adama Toungara Museum in Abidjan last March.
Among them, Soly Cissé, Joana Choumali, Mohamed El Baz, William Kentridge, Siriki Ky, Abdoulaye Konaté, Mohamed Melehi, Barthélémy Toguo and Ouattara Watts.
The two auction houses (Cornette de Saint Cyr and La Marocaine des Arts) sell on a voluntary basis and do not receive commissions on transactions. The transport of the works sold will be at the expense of the buyer.
Some works that caught our attention
Lot n°1 : Mohamed Elbaz, né en 1967
Digital silkscreen on Plexiglas 160 x 110 cm
Starting price : 5 000 euros
Lot n°5 : Mohamed Melehi, né en 1936
Oil on canvas 200 x 160 cm | Starting price : 20 000 euros
Lot n°7: Aboudia, né en 1983
Acrylic on Canvas 150 x 150cm | Starting price : 12 000 euros
Lot n°16: Abdoulaye Konate, né en 1953
Textile 217 x 145 cm | Starting price : 29 000 euros
Lot n°21: Nù Barreto, Né en 1966
Mixed media on marouflaged canvas 120 x 120 cm | Starting price : 5 000 euros
Lot n°44 : Amadou Sanogo, né en 1977
Acrylic on fabric- 170 x 200 cm | Starting price : 5 000 euros
Lot n°65: Philippe Dodard, né en 1954
Acrylic on fabric 76 x 121 cm |Starting price : 7 500 euros
The event organizers
The Foundation for the Development of Contemporary Culture
In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented craze for contemporary African culture. But if this craze for African artists has continued to grow internationally, even to the point of arousing the interest of the general public, it remains confined to a handful of art lovers and collectors on the continent.
Aware of the need for Africans to (re)appropriate their culture and art, and of the importance for artists from the continent to find their local audience, the Foundation wishes to work to make contemporary creation more visible in its homeland. By working to enhance the value of the works among an African public, amateur or connoisseur, but also by participating in the dynamization of the intra-African art market.
The African Culture Fund
The African Fund for Culture is an initiative that defends a continent’s desire to write new stories and give its unique culture a legitimate place on the world stage. The sources of funding for culture remain fluctuating, uncertain and dispersed in Africa despite the efforts of African governments and financial partners in the sector.
This situation makes the activity of financing culture very complex, both for the financial partners and for the project leaders. The creation of a continental instrument for financing art and culture is therefore becoming a priority for Africa. In this context of health crisis, the African Culture Fund (ACF) has decided to launch the SOFACO project, whose objective is to strengthen the resilience capacity of artists and cultural organizations through support for the creation and reconstruction of the social fabric of the arts sector in Africa in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
