Financial Times | African modernists have been unjustly overlooked - until now

by Emma Crichton-Miller

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Adeyinka is not the only gallerist choosing Tefaf as a platform for renewed focus. New York’s Aicon has historically specialised in artists from South Asia, but has begun showing the work of African and Middle Eastern modern artists. It will be bringing three works by the Martinique-born Serge Hélénon (born in 1934), who has lived and worked mostly in France and West Africa. Hélénon has developed a personal style, which he calls “une figuration Autre”: a form of abstraction in which detritus is mixed with paint and glue to create textured surfaces. The art of Hélénon, included in the Pompidou’s show, gallery director Harry Hutchison suggests, “is deeply rooted in postcolonial thought and diasporic identity, engaging with modernism while asserting a uniquely Caribbean and African diasporic perspective”. He adds, more generally, this “is a rich overlooked section of the market so there is plenty of room to grow. After the institutions show works and collect themselves the market will really come alive.”