Artist and Sculpture Ousmane Sow

Ousmane Sow is a celebrated African artist and sculptor both in Africa and around the world, especially Europe. His hands are responsible for the most amazing sculptures capturing history or even just special events in a given moment. Most of my research of this artist is found in the power-point I converted into a video for the purposes of efficiency in this medium.

This video has been adapted from a presentation I had to do for my Spanish Art History class final project while I was studying abroad in Madrid during the Fall of 2014. We had to present about an artist that we could strongly relate to, and whose work either inspired or was inspired by the various styles of art from the 18th century in Spain or Europe. This class was key to my understanding the disconnect that existed between me and art in general. For example, I could not understand why a museum would put up a painting of solid red and blue colour and have it worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I often thought, “what is so special about this? I bet I could probably do it! Better even!” Therefore, I often thought how overrated paintings were, until I was under the tutelage of a very nice professor Curra Vericat at St. Louis University, Madrid campus. I found out it was imperative to understand the historical context of the given art because there is way more than what meets the eye.

I strongly resonated with this artist not only because he is one of few African artists of his time to have achieved so much, but also the fact that he captured history of one part of my ancestors, the Nuba people. It my father is of Nubian heritage, which has a very rich culture. In some ways, I feel that Ousmane’s art captures a moment in time, way before my time, and saves it for those like me who were not necessarily able to experience it then. The culture in itself is still quite rich, only some aspects have been dissolved largely in part due to how the collonial era reshaped the socio-economic aspect of life.

Zainab A. Hussein