Emile Guebehi

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Emile Guebehi (1937 - 2008) was a sculptor from Nekede, Nigeria, best known as the "Master of Nekede." [1] He worked and died in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. His artworks are part of The Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Guebehi's work has been shown in major metropolitan museums around the world, including the Hood Museum of Art and the Musée du quai Branly.

Contents

Biography

Emile Guebehi was a self-taught artist who worked a series of manual labor jobs around Nigeria before becoming a sculptor. In his thirties, he returned to his native village of Nekede where a local healer convinced him to focus on creating art, and even commissioned a wooden figurine for use in his consultations. [2] Guebehi worked with various mediums including clay and coal, and he occasionally fashioned cement figures for tombs. [3] However, he dedicated himself mostly to wood carving. He was based in the capital of the Ivory Coast, Abidjan, although as his popularity grew, the Tchaman or Ebrié people offered to settle him in the village of Songon-Dagbé [4] after the village and the village prefect were impressed with his art presentation. The Ebrié Lagoon commissioned art for age-grade ceremonies, dance groups, and for families organizing gold displays, [5] and the "Feast of Generations". He was one of the first Ivorian artists who modernized Ebrié Lagoon anthropomorphic sculptures to more realistic portrayals of unclothed African women. [6]

Guebehi introduced his brother, Nicolás Damas, to his own method of polychrome wood sculpture. [7] They often collaborated in creating large mulitcolored scenes representing the characters, animals, objects related to the daily life, the history of the population, the origin of the Ebriés and their initiation rites. [8]

Artworks

Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body

Clubs of Bamako

Masters of Sculpture from Ivory Coast

Magical Africa – Masks and Sculptures from Ivory Coast

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References

  1. ↑ https://eltrueno.com.py/2021/09/23/el-maestro-de-nekedi-costa-de-marfil/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ https://eltrueno.com.py/2021/09/23/el-maestro-de-nekedi-costa-de-marfil/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/20447735.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ "CAA CART".
  5. ↑ "JSTOR".
  6. ↑ "Taylor and Francis Online".
  7. ↑ https://eltrueno.com.py/2021/09/23/el-maestro-de-nekedi-costa-de-marfil/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ https://www.caacart.com/artiste/guebehi-nicolas-damas-emile/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ "MIT Press Direct".
  10. ↑ "Rice Gallery".
  11. ↑ "Artsy".
  12. ↑ "De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam".
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