Aboudia (B. 1983)

Stretching four metres in width, Cache Cache d’enfants (2013) is a monumental work by Ivorian painter Aboudia. Invoking the raw drama of artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Pablo Picasso, he draws on the political upheaval of his native country to conjure animatedly phantasmagorical visions in paint and crayon, invigorated with life and intensity. The crazed expressions and frenzied brushstrokes of the present work capture a sense of strife, chaos and conflict. Striving to give a crucial voice to inhabitants suppressed by war and revolution, Aboudia has proclaimed, ‘I’m an ambassador of the children – they do writings on the wall, their wishes, their fears, I’m doing the same on my canvas. I’m like a megaphone for these children.’