Untitled, 2018

“Sanogo first started painting inspired by the colours and the atmosphere of the market in his hometown. His Segovian art teacher encouraged him to come at the National Institut of Arts in Bamako for studies, one of the most reputed schools of Fine Arts in West Africa. Identified by its director Abdoulaye Konaté, Sanogo refines his learning in the early 2000s. Refusing academicism, it is rather an autodidact, painting first on sheets and then on canvas of different sizes found at fabric market. He invests these different stands with unfeigned passion. He invents his own pictorial codes. He relates the history of his country, historical epics or recent events, but also his life experiences. He leads his own artistic guerrilla, with humor, faced to political stagnation, stupidity, greed and feelings banality. The apparent simplicity of execution of his paintings highlights the relevance of his comments on each of his paintings. They say a lot about the joys and horrors experienced by contemporary Malian society, between important tradition and tempting modernity. His latest works express the quest for the identity of the individual in African society.”

– Magnin-A

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