Artist 101

1.

Early Life

Aboudia was born in 1983 in Abengourou, a small city in the Ivory Coast that lies 200 kilometres away from the country’s financial capital, Abidjan.

Interested in art from a very young age, Aboudia won a competition called Draw Me Your Dream at the tender age of 15; emboldened by this endorsement, he decided to pursue his dream to study art despite his father’s firm opposition. Facing financial straits after being cast out of the family home, Aboudia remained determined to fulfil his artistic potential and enrolled at the School of Applied Arts in Bingerville in 2003 to hone his skills in mural painting. In 2005, he graduated from the Institut des Arts in Abidjan.

2.

Rise to Fame

The years following his graduation were difficult for Aboudia, as his work received a lukewarm reception and he struggled to find a gallery to show his paintings. However, it was the young artist’s brave and unflinching depiction of the violence rocking Abidjan that captured the interest of the art world, giving Aboudia his first taste of international fame.

Civil war had first broken out in 2002, when rebel soldiers seized control of the Muslim-majority north. A second civil war broke out in March 2011, following the dispute between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, president of Ivory Coast since 2000, and supporters of the president-elect Alassane Ouattara.

Many citizens fled from the brutal military warfare, but Aboudia chose to stay and observe the conflict raging near his underground studio. Moved by what he witnessed, he decided to create a record of such violence and devastation on 21 large scale canvases. The extremely evocative works, depicting human figures strewn among guns, skulls and razed buildings, gave the rest of the world a powerful image of the ongoing conflicts happening on the ivory coast. As a result, they were often used by the Western media as part of their coverage of the war.

Since this global exposure of his work, interest in Aboudia’s work accelerated on an international scale. His first solo show in the UK took place in 2011 at Jack Bell Gallery, whilst his US debut was hosted by New York’s Ethan Cohen Gallery in 2014. That year he was also part of the acclaimed group show Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America at Saatchi Gallery in London, which proclaimed that: 'we are now experiencing an important shift as [Western] artists and collectors seek to explore new art in regions outside their immediate geographical and historic context for inspiration'. Echoing this statement, it was around this time that Aboudia’s work started to be bought by some of the top international art collectors, exploding onto the international art stage.

Now one of the biggest names in contemporary African art, Aboudia's work has been exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Nevada Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Show in London, among many other shows.

3.

Style

Aboudia's distinctive style, which has drawn comparisons with the iconic work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, finds inspiration in the collision of the graffiti culture of Abidjan and the traditional wood carvings of West Africa. Aboudia calls this style 'nouchi', a reference to the slang spoken in the streets of Abidjan which is a hybrid of Ivorian and French vocabulary.

Despite the particular body of work that catapulted him into fame, Aboudia rejects the label of 'war artist'. Yet derelict urban landscapes remain a fundamental motif in his work, which are often populated by children striving to survive amongst violence and devastation. Aboudia is particularly interested in the link between children in marginalised areas and graffiti as a mode of communication. As Aboudia has stated, graffiti is a means for 'these kids to express what [is] deep within them. Because I had also been there, it occurred to me to try to transmit their message by portraying their pictures on canvas'.

Aboudia's stylistic similarities with the art-market-darling Jean-Michel Basquiat are often cited, but the artist hadn't encountered Basquiat’s work when he began developing his visual language. Now, however, Aboudia - perhaps ironically - plays with the comparison and has even begun introducing crowns in his works, a signature motif in the American artist’s visual lexicon.

But while contemporary art and commentary is undoubtedly key to understanding Aboudia’s artistic universe, he also casts his glance to the artistic past of his homeland, often drawing inspiration from the traditional African Nok and Grebo masks as models for his human figures.

4.

Materials

The materials that Aboudia employs in his works are a significant feature of his practice, with the majority of his works featuring heavy layers of mixed media. Whilst the figurative elements of Aboudia's work are inspired by street graffiti, his materials are often taken directly from the street itself. The artist often employs discarded materials found outside and in bins, such as cardboard, coal, torn pages of newspapers and magazines, and incorporates them into his acrylic paintings.

5.

On the Market

Aboudia first appeared on the auction scene in May 2013, when Bonhams London sold two of his canvases in its Modern & Contemporary African sale. His paintings Nigga and Children both sold for £5,250 each.

Yet his market has well and truly exploded in the last couple of years. According to Artnet, 'in 2021, compositions by the artist sold for a 75 percent higher value than their mean estimate, while 100 percent of works have outsold their high estimate.' Indeed, Aboudia’s works have been bought by some of the world’s most established collectors, including Jean Pigozzi, Frank Cohen and Charles Saatchi, who featured Aboudia’s works in the Pangaea exhibition in 2014.

In March 2022, Aboudia's Untitled, 2016 sold for £237,750 at the Bonhams London Modern & Contemporary African sale, whilst his Sans titre, 2014 fetched €239,775 that same year in our dedicated auctions of Modern & Contemporary African Art in Paris. In the upcoming auction at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr on 30 November, estimates range from €1,000 to €70,000.

A selection of Aboudia artworks will be on offer in our next auction on 30 November in Paris. Browse the auction to find out more.