Iba N'Diaye

Estate of Raoul Lehuard (acquired directly from the artist)

Argenteuil, Olympe Encheres, ART AFRICAIN, no. 2129, 29 September 2020, Lot 135

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe, Reading the Contemporary, African Art From Theory to the Market Place, Institute of International Visual Arts, London, 1991, illustrated p. 133

V.Y Mudimbe, 'Reprendre', Enunciation and Strategies in Contemporary African Arts, Susan Vogel, Africa Explores, 20th Century African Art, Center for African Art, New York, 1991 p. 282, 285, 287

Okwui Enwezor, Assimilated, but dont' be assimilated, Iba N'diaye at the crossroads of Modern Art, New York, September 2001, p. 6-9

Marie-Hélène Boisdur de Toffol, Politique culturelle au Sénégal, in Anthologie de l’art africain du XXe siècle, Coll. Renaissance et identités, Revue Noire, Paris, 2002, illustrated p. 230

Okwui Enwezor and Franz-W. Kaiser, Iba N'diaye - painter between continents, Adam Biro, 2002, illustrated p. 27

Coll. Champs Libres, exposition en Champagne-Ardenne, Epernay 2005, illustrated

Hélène Tissières, Iba Ndiaye : Corps, lumière et embrasement ou la force du Baroque, Coll., Ehtiopiques, 3. Art : Cahier critique pour Iba Ndiaye. no. 83, Dakar, 2009

El Hadj Malick Ndiaye, Iba Ndiaye (1928-2008) : Comment interpréter la modernité avec un pinceau?, Coll., Ehtiopiques, 3. Art : Cahier critique pour Iba Ndiaye. no. 83, Dakar, 2009

Aliou Ndiaye, Création artistique et sens de l’engagement chez Iba Ndiaye : peindre la tragédie ? , Coll., Ehtiopiques, 3. Art : Cahier critique pour Iba Ndiaye. no. 83, Dakar, 2009

Massamba Mbaye, Refuser le destin du mouton, Coll., Ehtiopiques, 3. Art : Cahier critique pour Iba Ndiaye. no. 83, Dakar, 2009

Gabriele Genge and Angela Stercken, Survival of Images? Fetish and the Concept of the Image Between West Africa and Europe, Art History and Fetishism Abroad: Global Shifting in Media and Methods, Transcript, Munich, 2013, p. 49, fig. 47

Joseph L. Underwood, Parisian Echoes: Iba N'diaye and Africain Modernisms, Coll. Arrival Cities: Migrating Artists and New Metropolitan Topographies in the 20th Century, Leuven University Press, 2020, p.159-176, illustrated fig. 3

Munich, Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Iba Ndiaye, Gemälde - Lavierungen - Zeichnungen, 1987, cat. no. 9, illustrated in exhibition catalogue p.37

Nîmes, Chapelle des Jésuites, 1987, Iba Ndiaye, un peintre, un humaniste, 1987

Berg en Dal, Afrika Museum, Iba Ndiaye, 1989

Tampere, Tampere Modern Art Museum, Iba Ndiaye, maaslauksia, piirustuksia, 1990, cat. no. 33, illustrated in exhibition catalogue p. 117

New York City, Center for African Art, Africa Explores, 20th Century African Art, 1991, cat. no. 113, illustration in exhibition catalogue p. 227

Den Haag, Museum Paleis Lange Voorhout, Iba Ndiaye, 1996

Joinville, Château du Grand Jardin, Iba Ndiaye peintures, 2005

La Rochelle, Musée du Nouveau Monde, Iba Ndiaye peintures et dessins, 2007

"To say that 'Juan de Pareja Menaced by Dogs' is arresting and disturbing only gives an inkling of its formidable power, as expressed by Iba's commanding painterly language. (...) It is a truly moving picture, expressing both celebration and veneration. (...)Juan de Pareja Menaced by Dogs was Iba's way of saying that artistic modernity finds its lineage, in the case of a committed painter like him, in the very history of the medium of painting (...)"

-Okwui Enwezor, Iba N'diaye - painter between continents, Adam Biro, 2002

For his celebrated work and role in founding the École de Dakar alongside artists such as Papa Ibra Tall and Ibou Diouf, Iba N’Diaye is recognised as a father of Senegalese modern art. Throughout his career, N’Diaye remained a central figure in the burgeoning artistic movements of his time, whether in Paris as a proponent of the Negritude movement, as an architecture student at the École de Beaux-Arts at the height of the modernist era, or in Dakar as an official cultural advisor to the young nation of Senegal between the 1960s and 1980s.

The present lot, executed in 1982, marks a shift from the neo-traditionalist artwork which characterises the work of his contemporaries. It is this sense of individualism which comes to define N’Diaye’s approach to artmaking. In contrast to other Negritude works, which were concerned with introducing African subject matter and aesthetics to an audience steeped in the European tradition, Juan de Pareja Menaced by Dogs exemplifies N’Diaye’s desire to produce novel stylistic forms reflective of a singular artistic vision. The painting contends directly with the European canon, taking its subject matter from a portrait by Diego Velasquez, Juan de Pareja, which depicts the Spanish artist’s assistant, an enslaved Black man and accomplished painter, in his own right. Where Velasquez depicts Juan de Pareja as a stately figure, with a calm posture and authoritative gaze typically reserved for noblemen, N’Diaye transforms the portrait into a scene of violent angst. Under N’Diaye’s brush, a photorealistic depiction of Juan de Pareja becomes a hellish and shadowy caricature of the subject. N’Diaye’s Juan de Pareja is formless; his features only just discernible, his form giving way to the blood red background.

In a stunning departure from Velasquez’s composition, N’Diaye’s de Pareja is haunted by a hoard of wild dogs, depicted as a menacing cloud of eyes and teeth. It is this divergence from the original design that best encapsulates N’Diaye’s artistic vision. The portrait serves as a critique of Velasquez’s sympathetic depiction of a man who, ostensibly, was his slave. Echoes of this approach to the notion of blackness ring true in N’Diaye’s day, where the public display of Velasquez’s portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art following its acquisition in 1971 was lauded for its subject matter. A seventeenth century portrait of a Black man finished in such painstaking detail was proudly exhibited as a reflection of an increasingly decolonised world, providing more opportunities for people of colour. With his reproduction, N’Diaye celebrates Velasquez and other Masters like Francisco Goya, contributing to the immortalisation of the subject, Juan de Pareja. Yet, N’Diaye’s subversion of the original suggests that the artist seeks to move beyond mere reverence for the Old Masters. N’Diaye confronts Velasquez head on, openly questioning the motivations of the 17^th century Master and the agency of his assistant in posing for a portrait. This powerful and disturbing portrait exemplifies the salient qualities of Iba N’Diaye’s oeuvre in its arresting assertion of equivalence with the master works of the European canon, refusing to signpost his ‘Africanness’ in favour of projecting his personal subjectivity. In the artist’s own words: “Painting is not an art of leisure; it’s a method of combat, a way to express my understanding of the world.”