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macy of patriachy It is both an ambiguous and eloquent paen to the important role of women in the shaping of African societies The obvious utility of the materials with their worn, cracked surfaces, strips the sculpture of its conceptual agility, and reintroduces into its determinacy a palpable human presence Tasmir Dia's (he currently makes his home in Ivory Coast) mixed media paintings on linen, board, and paper are painted directly onto the surfaces with bare hands The images in this group of paintings are mostly abstract representations of poverty and suffering wrought on the lives of Ivorians by a failing economy Dia's highly gestural and expressionistic paintings, hark back to the experiments in movement through paint by American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning, though they lack the violent and misogynist impulses of de Kooning's highly anthologized women series In Dia's paintings one can (dimly) sense the anguish that courses through the bodies of the abstracted figures "Mother and Children" is a classic portrayal of maternal instincts, while "Daily cares" a painting of four huddled figures, speaks more directly to Ivorian's sense of economic displacement Though Dia's novel approach to painting is laudable, he still seemed mired in a formalism that does not allow him to take his vision to the edge of true innovation Beyond its cross-breeding of elements of abstraction and repre- ;entation, his paintings seem unable to bring across forcefully, iiie impact of the turmoil he says he's speaking to Nevertheless, Tasmir Dia is a painter of talented means One definitely looks forward to his future efforts The fifth painter in this show is Gerard Santoni, born of an Ivorian mother and French father, he is credited,albeit subtly, as one of the organizers of this show Though no mention was made of this fact within the physical premises of the exhibition Of all the artists shown, his paintings seem less convincing The subject of his paintings is the distinctive indigo-hued traditional Baule textile weavings Painted in the traditional tones of indigo and white, with inflections of red and green, the paintings are ,just there, more mimetic of, than inspired by the craft of the ~;eavings The paintings do not go much beyond their resemblance to textile patterns One hopes for a sort of transformation when such influences are reprocessed into a modernist incarnation Of all five artists Santoni's contribution is the weakest, perhaps a case of one too many painters represented in this exhibition In all, Fusion provides an interesting, if not tentative, groundwork and commentary on a region that has undoubtedly eluded the understanding and appreciation of the international art world One can only hope that serious curators will in future jettison past assumptions, and enter this world with clear, thoughtful and sensitive disposition As this museum embarks full time into showcasing important art by contemporary African artists. it will be interesting to watch and see if its vision will evolve into a rigorous involvement buttressed by knowledge and scholarship in selecting and showing individual artists, rather than the current proclivity towards barely coherent group shows, which already problematises the context under which many African artists work today + I~ualon: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale was shown at Museum of1 1 kcan Art, New York,February 5 - August 7. 1994 I FRANK BOWLING: RECENT PAINTINGS AND RICHARD BAYE: RECENT SCULPTURES Carl Hazlewood Currently, many artists seeking to 'rescue' abstract painting as a viable activity, have found themselves ensnared either in the tediously stylish loop of an ironic approach, or otherwise engaged in cold, technique-based, deconstructionist exercises In contrast, Frank Bowling's recent works exude an uncommon sense of ease and conviction Quiet, yet assertive. their presence is born of a passion for the act of painting, heightened by the artist's understanding and use of all personal, intellectual and historical resources available to him For Bowling, who has comfortably made paintings more than twenty feet wide, the works in this exhibition are relatively small, with only one achieving six feet in any dimension He begins a picture methodically, building an unobstrusive underlying geometric structure which solidly anchors the more fluid improvisational aspects...

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