Marais, Paris
Abdoulaye Konaté
Prélude
LGDRLGDR proudly presents the exhibition Abdoulaye Konaté: Prélude. This exhibition prefaces the artist’s solo presentation at LGDR’s new headquarters at 19 East 64th Street, New York, in early 2024. Born in 1953, Konaté has garnered widespread recognition for his textile installations that explore sociopolitical and environmental issues while foregrounding his aesthetic concerns and formal language. LGDR Paris showcases five monumental works, three of which are unveiled here for the first time. Also on display are sketchbooks by the artist and other archival materials. Konaté trained as a painter at the Institut National des Arts in Bamako, Mali, and then at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, in the 1970s and ‘80s. Since turning to textiles in the ‘90s, Konaté has drawn inspiration from ceremonial and ritual clothing, invoking traditional West African practices of using textiles as commemoration and communication. His oeuvre engages a wide range of topical questions—concerning social injustice, globalization, power struggles, and environmental degradation in Mali and beyond—and subjects encountered through his travels and personal research. Utilizing traditional and local craft techniques, Konaté works with assistants to dye and sew textile ribbons into complex chromatic creations. The artist has likened his process—using each ribbon as a brushstroke in the larger composition—to painting, resulting from a rigorous investigation of abstraction and color theory. The exhibition includes the monumental Lune bleue (2019), a highlight of Konaté’s retrospective at the 2022 Dakar Biennale. Its tranquil blues and round central form relay the artist’s childhood memory of seeing the moon reflected on the waters of Lake Faguibine on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert—a lake that today is nearly dry due to a collapse of the region’s ecosystem. Combining architectural precision with the fluidity of fabric, the work encapsulates Konaté’s synesthetic translation of events and experiences into color. Konaté currently lives and works in Bamako. He has recently exhibited at the 14th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2023); the 14th Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2020); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (2020); 57th Venice Biennale, Italy (2017); and Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (2016). In 2009, Konaté was awarded the Ordre national du Mali. He has also received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France (2002) and the Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize at the Dakar Biennale (1996). His works are in the collections of major international institutions, including the Musée National du Mali, Bamako; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome. In 2004, he founded the Conservatoire des Arts et Multimédia Balla Fasséké Kouyaté (CAMM–BFK) in Bamako, a higher education institution providing artistic and professional training in the fields of visual arts, music, and dance. Additionally, Konaté is a founding member and current board member of the Fonds Africain pour la Culture (African Culture Fund), which provides support to individuals working in the creative industries and to further the professionalization of the sector.