Barthélémy Toguo - by Philippe Dagen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive survey of the French Cameroonian artist's multimedia explorations of colonialism and displacement

French Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo (born 1967) uses a multidisciplinary approach to address complex subjects such as colonialism and race. He paints in a manner that is both fluid and skillfully controlled to depict genderless human profiles and abstracted creatures facing one another, awash with bright shades of cobalt and olive green, tendrils of ink streaming from their mouths. His more recent work involves engravings inspired by Cameroonian rivers and woodblock prints of timely political phrases. In addition to his works on paper, this volume includes documentation of his monumental installations, such as Road to Exile, a 2009 piece that addresses issues of migration through a life-size boat balanced atop a sea of glass bottles. Often drawing from his own life experiences and travels, Toguo endeavors to create pathways between Western and African traditions and observe the language and new identities that arise therein.