CHANTONS LA TAKAMBA
signed F.N.Magassa 21 lower right
acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
200 x 300cm; 78 3/4 x 118in
unframed

Property from a Very Important Private Collection, UK

Exhibited
Paris, Pantin, Hotel Sahara, Les Magasins Généraux, 2021

Famakan Magassa received his BFA in 2018 from Conservatoire Arts et Metiers Multimedia Balla Fasséke Kouyaté in Bamako, Mali. The artist exhibited for the first time in 2019 with several institutional shows, including presentations at L’Institut Français du Mali, Bamako; La Fondation La Maison de l’Artiste in Assinie, Côte d’Ivoire; and Les Magasins Généraux, BETC, Paris. In 2020, he was included in L’exposition collective Jeunes Talents at the residence of the Ambassador to the European Union, Bamako, Mali and was one of the 2020 Laureates of the Cité Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris, France.

Magassa was awarded the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize in 2023 and presented his first solo institutional exhibition, Famakan Magassa: Witness of My Time at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. He has shown internationally in Paris, London, Miami, Ghana and Vienna, and his work has been featured by Artsy, Hyperallergic, Artnet, The Observer, L’Oeuil, Dyptyk and ArtsMagazine.

In this present work, Magassa expressively celebrates the musical genre of Takamba, practiced by the Tuaregs and the Songhai peoples of Mali and Niger. The dancers perform graceful and rhythmic movements, both seated and standing, where the shoulders and arms sway with the flow of the music.