Exhibition at Ifan Museum – Wall of Portraits

Auto Portrait of Malick MBOW – Architect DPLG-F and Paintist artist © Malick MBOW

Under the patronage of former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, architect and draftsman Malick Mbow presented his works at the Theodor Monod Museum of African Art of Ifan.

This exhibition, entitled « Wall of Portraits », is a « sketch » of particular features filled with emotions and meanings. It is also an innovation thanks to the refreshing approach of the artist who uses, as a support, the Paint software.

Malick Mbow’s prowess is to « unveil » through the particular identities of sublime portraits emerging from his poetic imagination free of the adventurous « debridement » of the artist.

In the foreground: the portrait of Aminata TOURE – in the background: Coumba GAWLO SECK and El Hadj Malick SY

He creates universes of meaning, probes emotions, softens and alters traits to offer a wide range of interpretations. And the « outcome », as unexpected for itself as for those who discover these wonders, is not only the praise of beauty. He is the expression of a humanity in a space agitated but carrying founded hope.

The renowned architect, who likes to move in another cosmos of aesthetics freeing himself from the rigid formalism of purists, with deference all the same, makes the face a field of execution of his creativity. For there is no question here of trivial reproduction of forms, moments of gaiety and anxiety. Malick Mbow makes vows without giving air, raises a certain apprehension about the future of the people of the earth and, through his revolt and his admiration, rewrote the story of our long and perilous journey.

The genius of the cartoonist who animated the section « Coup de claws » in the national daily « Le Soleil », is also in his way of expressing his own feeling, to assert himself in his works that are supposed to reveal the other . He says it himself: « I affirm myself through these portraits to know what I really am »; and no doubt through this particular artistic approach that Professor Babacar Mbaye Diop, curator of the exhibition, was good enough to call « Paintisme », a neologism referring to the Paint software.

The portrait of his excellence Macky SALL and the first lady Marième SALL

About this innovative and refreshing approach, he says: « Malick Mbow has tamed the computer tool by producing, with the Paint software, its main support (its canvas and its color palette), beautiful drawings.

He replaces the brushes of the painter with a computer mouse. He thus inaugurates a new artistic approach: the interface of Paint proposes, in fact, to the designer several tools such as a brush, a pencil, an eraser, colors, etc., which allow him to create. « Malick Mbow en is the niche of tomorrow, he has created more than 3,000 « canvases » that he is able to travel everywhere on a Usb key!

Apprehension and admiration
This gallery of portraits crowning its fertility of spirit gives to see a multitude of personalities, sometimes anonymous in the image of this « Unicef Child » sinking in the darkness. As if to exorcise his anxieties, one of Malick Mbow’s works is « cohabiting » with US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, both figures of the malaise of a feverish humanity. . Beyond the grave, bin Laden silently observes. The absolute evil is, meanwhile, symbolized by a « painting » of Adolf Hitler stomping his own portrait. Other political, sports and artistic figures are also (re) presented.

These religious are also in a convenient position because the artist, guided by a conscientious imagination, seeks to convey a message: « The case of Charlie Hebdo revolted me.There are limits not to cross. We can not afford to undress a reference from an entire community.

We can, through our sketches, look at ourselves, at society without hitting. » In this, he « invites us to reflect on what we really are, on what we do not want to show of ourselves. The delicacy in the line, the clarity in the creation, the ingenuity, the exactitude in the perception, its sense of the proportions, its technicality of architect-drawer-painter, the depths, the complexity of the details give to the production of Malick Mbow has an undeniable aesthetic value and a plastic richness that is not in doubt, « enthuses Professor Babacar Mbaye Diop, also a member of the International Association of Art Critics.