Meteor Mor. By Bara Diokhane

MOR FAYE (1947-1984)

It’s history in the making! No art gallery in the US United States has ever hosted a posthumous solo exhibit of a Senegalese painter. Mor Faye will change that, It is true that Mor Faye’s work had been spotted once in New York City,  in the last century, when the Museum For African art exhibited the five West African artists whose works had been just shown at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. Ten of Mor Faye’s works on paper were part of that collective exhibit ‘Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale”. In her introduction to the catalog that accompanied the Fusion exhibit, Susan Vogel referred to Mor Faye as "arguably one of Africa's finest artists working in an international contemporary style”…"A superb colorist who relished the sensuous fluidity of paint, Mor Faye absorbed the vocabulary of a dozen modern European masters, and created work alternately idyllic, nightmarish, and whimsical, but always his own.” That New York moment wasn’t lost to New York Times writer Holland Cotter, who, in an obituary to painter Iba NDiaye , who passed in 2008, mentioned Mor Faye as a painter who graduated from the first class of art students in the new National School of Art. Iba NDiaye was a teacher at this school and trained Mor Faye.

It’s been 10 years since Mor Faye’s art was shown publicly anywhere, the last time being the 7th edition of Dak’Art Biennale in 2006. Dakar is an important place for Mor Faye,  as it is the place where he was born in 1947, and where he died in 1984. It is also the home where his art was created, hidden, sometimes burned or destroyed, often scorned, then posthumously validated by his own people. Despite the limited quantity of the collection, some of Mor Faye’s works are in the hands of collectors in Dakar, where he has earned a definitive respect and appreciation. Indeed, Mor Faye is no stranger to making history, despite his meteoric passage on planet Earth. Nicknamed “Mora” by friends and family, Mor Faye was a member of the first cohort of art students admitted to the newly built National School of Arts, under the tutelage of Paris trained Senegalese painter Iba NDiaye, called to duty by President Senghor.

The new National School of the Arts was built right immediately after Senegal obtained its formal independence from France in 1960. It proclaimed its ambition to become the launching pad of a so-called "School of Dakar”, promoted by the Catholic poet Senghor, who became the first president of mostly a predominantly Muslim Senegal. The School was split organized into two main departments. A department of Fine Arts, led by Paris trained Iba NDiaye, and attended by Mor Faye; and a department called “ Atelier de Recherches Plastiques Négres”, led, for a short period of time by Papa Ibra Tall, then by the Frenchman Pierre Lods, founder of the Poto-Poto school in Congo. Tellingly some of President Senghor’s favorite painters, Ibou Diouf, Bocar Diong and Elhadj Sy, had all attended the so-called “Atelier de Recherches Plastiques Négres” created within the National School of Art, under the tutelage of Pierre Lods, the French founder of the Poto Poto art workshop in Congo. Lods' pedagogical legacy was labeled as one of the teachers who does not teach. 

Mor Faye had won many awards for drawing and painting. He also earned a degree in art education, that allowed him later to support himself and his family- consisting of a widowed mother and a sister.

In line with the resolutions of the Congress of African Writers and Artists held in Paris in 1956, Senegal hosted the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar in 1966. 

Some artists and intellectuals tried to spearhead a movement to boycott the Festival because of the existence of political prisoners in the host country, and of the neocolonial nature of Senghor’s regime, but.  But they did not impact on the impressive success of the event. To this day, the Festival of 1966 remains the main reference in the young history of modern art in Senegal. Mor Faye , was selected and presented, along with his teacher Iba NDiaye, and other renowned artists from Africa and its Diaspora, at the exhibition "Tendances et Confrontations" that showcased the contemporary art of newly independent Africa.

Aged 19 in 1966, he was probably the youngest exhibiting artist at this global African art event, which, among other luminaries, featured writers Langston Hughes, Aime Cesaire and, Sole Soyinka, Senegalese historian and scientist Cheikh Anta Diop, jazz legend Duke Ellington, Ms.Josephine Baker, American choreographer Alvin Ailey, South African painter Gerard Sekoto, Senegalese acclaimed filmmaker Ousmane Sembéne, etc and many others. At this occasion, André Malraux, the French Minister of Culture, brought a painting by Marc Chagall as a gift to Senegal, and delivered a memorable keynote speech, stating: ”For the first time in history a Head of State holds the destiny of a whole continent in his perishable hands”

What happened to that Chagall painting by the way? No one was able to find out. To this day, nobody knows, so far. 

Mr. Senghor was  not your usual African president, even though he could share with them some authoritarian methods. He had taught French grammar to French students in…France during the mid 30mid-1930’s. He had attended the First Congress of African Writers and Artists held in Paris in 1956. He had been a member of the French government. His poem “New York” was written after his visit to the United Nations headquarters, as a French delegate. Mr Senghor was a founding father of the Negritude literary movement, along with Aime Cesaire and Leon Gontran Damas.

Iba NDiaye, who led the School’s Department of Fine Arts, and was Mor Faye’s teacher, was certainly frustrated by Lods’ growing influence, when he returned to Paris in 1967, to resume his artistic career. The tension and conflict between the two personalities and their approach, and the apparent presidential support to the teachings of Lods, are key indicators of the development of contemporary art in Senegal, especially during Senghor’s tenure between 1960 and 1980. 

Interestingly, there was a time when Mor Faye, a student of Iba NDiaye- Ibou Diouf and Bocar Diong, shared the same studio space with two students of Pierre Lods, and Senghor’s favorites, shared the same studio space in Niayes- Thioker, a working-class neighborhood in Dakar where Mor Faye’s family lived. It The location is famous for the craft of its artisans, who are able to design and make wheelchairs or furniture from recycled iron. Ibou Diouf was very supportive in the installation of the development of Mor Faye’s first retrospective in 1991, recalling with fondness how Mor Faye had drawn his interest to the work of an obscure French master of abstract art named George Mathieu. The first comprehensive exhibition of Mor Faye’s work occurred posthumously in 1991, in his hometown of Dakar, capital of Senegal, seven years after his death.

The 1991 retrospective at the Galerie 39 in Dakar lasted three weeks and was very popular and commercially successful. It was the result of an unusual teamwork between a law firm, an oil company, the French cultural center, and some artists. It was a rarity then, at the time to mount produce an exhibit without the government's  patronage. And there was included a catalog with essays by Issa Samb and Haitian scholar Jean Brierre, and there was also a poster! The exhibit almost sold out, and the proceeds allowed Mor Faye’s mother and sister to buy a new house. From his grave, a Mor Faye offered gifts present to his poor family. It was the opportunity for many local and expatriate people to see and purchase Mor Faye’s art for the first time and to fathom start understanding the economic and historical potential of art collecting. Indeed, Mor Faye’s work has been validated by his own people, albeit posthumously. His work also drew the interest of national and international collectors such as movie director Spike Lee, writer Glenn O’Brien, who reviewed the 1991 retrospective for Art Forum, singer Youssou NDour, German artist Elvira Bach, etc and others. It also brought a new perspective on the autonomy of an art world, and which brought to light the possibility of an existence outside governmental subsidies and supervision. Several new galleries opened in Dakar after the 1991 Mor Faye retrospective. The impact of that historical exhibit was also noticed overseas, as Faye’s work was later selected, along with New York-based painter Ouattara, Senegalese sculptor Moustapha Dime, Santoni from Ivory Coast, and Dia , from Mali, at the Africa Pavilion of the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. It was the first time in history that the Venice Biennale showcased the works of West African artists. For the record, Mor Faye's selection at the 45th Venice Biennale was recommended by sculptor Ousmane Sow. Secretly painting by night, using candlelight, Mor Faye could be spotted by day sitting and meditating on the shores of the Soumbedioune beach, enjoying the ritual sight of returning fishermen. Or He was also seen wandering in the streets of Dakar, donning some extravagant and provocative clothes such as a Scottish kilt skirt, a white shirt, and a colorful bowtie, in downtown Dakar!  He never made it to the shores of  America;, but his work did twenty years ago. The latest edition of the New York Armory Show was a nice tribute to the contemporary art of Africa, and a clear indication of more things to come from Africa, as Herodotus knew so well. As far as Mor Faye’s life philosophy is best described in his own words is concerned his motto has always been: ”Je cherche, et je continue á chercher.”

Bara Diokhané