The origin of all of Frédérick Bruly Bouabré’s work stems from a revelatory experience: on March 11, 1948, “the heavens opened up before my eyes and seven colorful suns described a circle of beauty around their Mother-Sun, I became Cheik Nadro: ‘He who does not forget.’” From then on he tackled every field of knowledge and collected his research in manuscripts about arts and traditions, poetry, tales, religion, esthetics, and philosophy, revealing himself to be an astonishing thinker, poet, encyclopedist, creator. Searching for a way to preserve and transmit the knowledge of the Bété people, as well as the knowledge of the entire world, he invented an alphabet of 448 monosyllabic pictograms to represent phonetic syllables. This endeavor earned Bouabré the legendary reputation of being another Champollion, in reference to the great scholar and linguist Jean-Paul Champollion (1790-1832), who discovered the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. Bouabré’s alphabet, which can transcribe all human sounds, reflects the essence of his thought: to achieve universality and to unite mankind.

In the 1970s, he started to transfer his thoughts to hundreds of small drawings in postcard format, using a ballpoint pen and colour crayons. These drawings, gathered under the title of Connaissance du Monde (World Knowledge), form an encyclopedia of universal knowledge and experience. Other projects, such as Readings from Signs Observed in Oranges (1988), serve as visionary records of divination. For Bouabré, his drawings are representation of everything that is revealed or concealed—signs, divine thoughts, dreams, myths, the sciences, traditions—and he views his role as an artist as a redemptive calling. He has stated: “Now that we are recognized as artists, our duty is to organize into a society, and in such a way to create a framework for discussion and exchange among those who acquire and those who create. From that could arise a felicitous world civilisation.”

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2003
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
Musée Champollion
Figeac – France

2002
Dany Keller Galerie
Munich - Allemagne

1995
Mondes - Frédéric Bruly Bouabré & Alighiero e Boetti
American Center, Paris.

1995-1994
World Envisionned -Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE & Alighiero e BOETTI
Dia Center for the Arts.
New-York, United States

1993
Portikus. Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE
Kunsthalle Francfort, Germany.
Bern, Switzerland.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany.
Ludwig Museum.
Aachen, Germany.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005
Arts of Africa
Grimaldi Forum
Monaco - France

2005
African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Museum of Fine Art Houston
Houston - USA

2004 (travelling exhibition)
Africa Remix
Art contemporain d’un continent

• 24 July 2004 – 7 Nov 2004
  Museum Kunst Palast
  Düsseldorf - Germany
• 10 Feb 2005 – 17 April 2005
  Hayward Gallery
  London – England
• 15 May 2005 – 20 Aug 2005
  Centre Georges Pompidou
  Paris – France
• Feb – May 2006
  Mori Art Museum
  Tokyo
  

2004
Je m’installeaux abattoirs !
La collection d’art contemporain d’agnès b.
Les Abattoirs
Toulouse - France

2003 – 2004
L’Invention du Monde
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France

2003
Transferts
Palais des Beaux Arts
Brussels – Belgium

2003
Correspondances Afriques
Iwalewa-Haus
Afrikanzentrum der Universität Bayreuth
Bayreuth - Germany

2002
Inauguration du Plateau
Le plateau
Paris, France

2001
Egofugal
Istanbul 7th Biennal, Turkey.

2000-2001
Voici - 100 Years of Contemporary Art
Bruxelles Fine Art Palace
Bruxelles, Belgium.

1999-2000
Zeitwenden
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Bonn, Germany.

1999-2000
Art-Worlds in Dialogue
Ludwig Museum
Cologne, Germany.

1999-2000
Art Visionnaire/Visionary Art
Halle Saint Pierre
Paris, France.

1997-1998
Johannesburg 2nd Biennal
Johannesburg, South Africa.

1997
Kwangju Biennal.
Kwangju, Korea.

1996
Sydney Biennal
The Gunnery
Sydney, Australia.

1995-1996
Féminin/Masculin. Le sexe de l'art.
Modern Art National Museum, Georges Pompidou Center.
Paris, France.

1995
Big City
Serpentine Gallery,
London, Great-Britain.

1995
Gallery of 5th Continents
Oceanian and African Art Museum.
Paris, France.

1995
Dialogues de Paix/ Dialogues of Peace
Palace of United Nations
Geneva, Switzerland.

1994
Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE
Ginza Art Space
Shiseido Co Ltd.
Tokyo, Japan.

1994
Rencontres Africaines
Arabic World Institute.
Paris, France.

1993
Grapholies
Abidjan Biennal.
Ivory Coast.

1993
La Grande Vérité, les Astres Africains
Contemporary African Art Collection
Fine Art Museum -Nantes, France.

1993
Art Against AIDS
Venice Biennal.
Guggenheim Museum. Venice, Italy.

1993
Trésors de voyage/ Travel Treasures
Venice Biennal.
Venice, Italy.

1992
Resistances
The Watari-Um Foundation for Contemporary Art,
Tokyo, Japan.

1992
Out of Africa
Saatchi Collection,
London, Great Britain.

1991-1992
Africa Hoy - Africa Now
Atlantic Center of Modern Art
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherland.
Contemporary Art Cultural Center.
Mexico City, Mexico.

1989
Magiciens de la Terre
National Museum of Modern Arts -M.N.A.M.
Georges Pompidou Center, Grande Halle de la Villette.
Paris, France.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2005
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2004
Africa Remix
Catalogue d’exposition. Published by Hatje Cantz.

2003
Gagarin, seventh edition
Livre exclusivement sur des textes originaux des artistes. Pour moi, « l’art », c’est de savoir faire des sublimes œuvres innocentes !, pg 4. Editions GAGAvzw pour le « Municipal Academy of Fine Arts of Waasmunster »

2003
Transferts
Exhibition catalogue. Edited by Africalia.

2003
FILM
« L’alphabet de Bruly Bouabré »
Un film de Nurith Aviv. Production Swan Productions, ZDF/ARTE
Durée : 17'.

2002
Documenta 11
Exhibition catalogue
Text by André Magnin, in German.
Kassel, Germany.

2000
Zeitwenden
Exhibition catalogue, text by André Magnin, in German.
Global Art Rheinland Edition : Dumont. France.

1999
Global Conceptualism : Points of origin, 1950s-1980s
Signs and Systems : Frédéric Bruly Bouabre, text in English.
Exhibition catalogue Edited by The Queens Museum of Art, New York.

1996
Contemporary Art of Africa
Text in English by Alighiero e Boetti.
Edited by André Magnin and Jacques Soulillou.
Published by Harry N. Abraams.

1996
Sao-Paulo 23rd Biennal
Interview by Etienne Féau. Text in English.
Exhibition catalogue.

1995
MAAO
ITW Frédéric Bruly Bouabre by Etienne Féau, text in French
The 5th Continents Gallery, Paris.

1995
Worlds Envisioned
Lynne COOKE, André MAGNIN.
Exhibition catalogue.
DIA Center for the Arts, New-York.

1994
Book›: La Légende de Domin et Zézê
Introduction by Denis Escudier, texts in French, 200 pages.
Ed. Hazan - Revue Noire, Paris.

1993
Book›: Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE
Texts in German, 200 pages.
Curator: André MAGNIN, Kasper KONIG, Ulrich LOOCK, Wolfger POHLMANN
Editions BRAUS, Heidelberg, Germany.

1993
Retrospective of Frédéric Bruly Bouabre, exhibition catalogue.
Frankfurt, Bern, Berlin & Aachen, Germany.

1991
Der öffentliche Blick
" L'art ou l'Esthetique " by Frédéric Bruly Bouabre, text in French p.75-91.
Verlag Silke Schreiber, Munchen und die Autoren.

1989
Magiciens de la Terre
Curators: Jean-Hubert MARTIN, Mark FRANCIS, Aline LUQUE, André MAGNIN
Exhibition catalogue, text in French p. 108 & 109.

1989
On ne compte pas les étoiles
By Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE
Georges Pompidou Center
Exhibition catalogue.

1989
Frédéric Bruly BOUABRE
Auto-biographical book
Inroduction by Denis ESCUDIER
Editions Bordessoules.
Saint-Jean d'Angély, France.

1986
Africa and the Written word
The Strange case of the Bété script. Bilingual texte French-English.
French Cultural Center, Lagos.
Introduction by Jacques Soulillou. Editions Karthala, Paris