Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (1923-2014) was an artist and poet as well as an inquisitive researcher and documentarian. His œuvre is like a personal archive of his research. From 13 March to 13 August, works created from the 1970s until the artist's death in 2014 will now be exhibited at MoMA, New York. Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound not only offers the first survey of the artist's work, but also represents the exhibition premiere of an Ivorian artist at MoMA.
Central to Bouabré's work is his preoccupation with the Bété people of West Africa, to whom he belonged. In 1957, the artist developed the first writing system of the Bété language, initially in written form, later followed by an extensive catalogue of a total of 449 pictograms: In postcard size, he produced for the one-syllable Bété words each a biro or crayon drawing. The Alphabet Bété is considered one of the highlights of the exhibition. In addition, Bouabré also began illustrating broader themes on found cardboard in the 1980s. These include everyday scenes, rituals of ethnic groups, cloud formations, women's rights, democracy and current political events.
Bouabré's extensive work was driven by a prophetic vision he had in 1948. This is the source of the didactic approach that underlies his œuvre: By collecting, preserving and passing on knowledge, Bouabré intended not only to remember the Bété people and their culture, but also saw it as a means for a better understanding of the world, related to both personal and universal experiences.
