The Kingdom of Dahomey was a pre-colonial African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. The kingdom fell when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by France, leading to the country being annexed into the French colonial empire. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast.
Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people.
The Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, located in Paris, France, is a museum featuring the indigenous art and cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum collection comprises more than a million objects, of which 3,500 are on display at any given time, in both permanent and temporary thematic exhibits. A selection of objects from the museum are also displayed in the Pavillon des Sessions of the Louvre.
Edouard Duval-Carrié is a Haitian-born American contemporary painter and sculptor based in Miami, Florida.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, also known as Cheik Nadro, was an Ivorian artist.
Calixte Dakpogan is a Beninese sculptor known for his installations as well as his masks made out of diverse and original found materials. A native of Pahou, he currently lives and works in Porto Novo. Much of his work is inspired by his Voudon heritage.
Magiciens de la Terre was a contemporary art exhibit at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande halle de la Villette from 18 May to 14 August 1989.
Maurice Calka was a sculptor, designer and urbanist.
Jean-Michel Othoniel is a contemporary artist born in 1964 in Saint-Etienne (France). He lives and works in Paris.
Manuel Mendive is one of the leading Afro-Cuban artists to emerge from the revolutionary period, and is considered by many to be the most important Cuban artist living today.
The Afrika-Haus Freiberg is a museum of modern African art at Freiberg am Neckar in Germany.
The Royal Palaces of Abomey are 12 palaces spread over an area of 40 hectares at the heart of the Abomey town in Benin, formerly the capital of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. The Kingdom was founded in 1625 by the Fon people who developed it into a powerful military and commercial empire, which dominated trade with European slave traders on the Slave Coast until the late 19th century, to whom they sold their prisoners of war. At its peak the palaces could accommodate for up to 8000 people. The King's palace included a two-story building known as the "cowrie house" or akuehue. Under the twelve kings who succeeded from 1625 to 1900, the kingdom established itself as one of the most powerful of the western coast of Africa.
Jean Cornu was a French sculptor, most of whose works were designed for the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.
Julien Sinzogan is a contemporary Benin painter and graphic artist whose work actively engages the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on his native Benin, one of the largest slave-trading posts of West Africa. He currently lives and works in Paris, France. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe and Africa. Sinzogan's education began studying architecture at the Art School of Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 1978-79. He studied architecture in Paris at the École Spéciale des Travaux Public, Paris, France till 1982. A year later, Sinzogan studied at Laboratoire International de Calcul et d’Informatique Appliquée (L.I.C.I.A.), Paris, France, where he ran the department of computer images before turning to painting professionally. Now as a professional artist Sinzogan's techniques and references move from areas of monochrome pen and ink into glimpses of full-color scenes.
Joël Andrianomearisoa is a Malagasy artist, born in 1977 in Antananarivo, Madagascar. He lives and works between Paris and his birthplace.
Vodun art is associated with the West African Vodun religion of Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana. The term is sometimes used more generally for art associated with related religions of West and Central Africa and of the African diaspora in Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States. Art forms include bocio, carved wooden statues that represent supernatural beings and may be activated through various ritual steps, and Asen, metal objects that attract spirits of the dead or other spirits and give them a temporary resting place. Vodun is assimilative, and has absorbed concepts and images from other parts of Africa, India, Europe and the Americas. Chromolithographs representing Indian deities have become identified with traditional Vodun deities and used as the basis for murals in Vodun temples. The Ouidah '92 festival, held in Benin in 1993, celebrated the removal of restrictions on Vodun in that country and began a revival of Vodun art.
The International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures, also known as the Ouidah Festival, was first held in Ouidah, Benin in February 1993, sponsored by UNESCO and the government of Benin. It celebrated the transatlantic Vodun religion, and was attended by priest and priestesses from Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil and the United States, as well as by government officials and tourists from Europe and the Americas. The festival was sponsored by the newly elected president of Benin, Nicéphore Soglo, who wanted to rebuild the connection with the Americas and celebrate the restoration of freedom of religion with the return to democracy. Artists from Benin, Haiti, Brazil and Cuba were given commissions to make sculptures and paintings related to Vodun and its variants in Africa and the African diaspora.
Dominique Kouas is a Béninois Vodou artist. His work is strongly influenced by traditional anonymous African artists from previous centuries. He is noted for his large metal-based works, which are on display in the International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures in Ouidah, but operates a studio in Porto Novo. Among his notable works is a sculpture of a "three-headed, three-footed, three-armed Mami Wata". Another is one which "depicts several faces bearing Fon and Yoruba scarification marks indicating their ethnic membership". The October Gallery in London is also in possession of his art. The work of the Artist achieved in the 80's and 90's is now considered as one of the most influent Beninoise contemporary visual art. His work takes part of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts collection.
Yves Apollinaire Pede is a Beninois Vodou artist. After being commissioned to reproduce reliefs for the Abomey Museum, he made sand paintings of well-known personalities such as Nelson Mandela. He gradually became oriented towards textile art, looking to Haitian and Cuban Vodou artists for inspiration. He is also noted for his large cement sculptures and bas-reliefs, and is stated to have a "special interest" in Kulito, a Fon word which literally means "the one from the path of death". He is based in Ouidah, the world centre for Vodun art, which has an annual festival.
Marie-Cécile Zinsou is a French-Beninese art historian and entrepreneur, She is president of the Fondation Zinsou, founded in 2005 in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, West Africa, which promotes contemporary art in Africa and leads cultural, educational and social initiatives. In 2014 she opened the first museum of contemporary art in Benin.
