The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Untitled

Untitled

c.1988–93
(Ivorian, 1943–2008)
Overall: 89.5 x 125.7 cm (35 1/4 x 49 1/2 in.)
© Gérard Santoni
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

A painting by Santoni with a similar color palette of white, blue, and red appears on a 1987 stamp from Côte d'Ivoire.

Description

Gérard Santoni drew inspiration from the strip-woven Baule textiles he grew up around in Côte d’Ivoire. Meant for wearing, these textiles were woven on narrow-band heddle looms. In contrast, Santoni used a wide Gobelin-style (French tapestry) loom to make this wall hanging, reflecting his art school training in Paris and Nice. He handcrafted some threads from bark cloth, and dyed cotton ones with indigo. In this serene abstract landscape, those latter threads recall Baule textiles and Ivorian waterways. The diagonal red dash echoes similar markings on Baule textiles, highlighting Santoni’s interest in color rather than symbolic or cultural meanings. He once said that “I break down the traditional weavings, ‘decompose’ them, and find something personal in their decomposition.”
  • Gérard Santoni, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, sold to Robert Soppelsa
    ?-2018
    Robert and Elizabeth Soppelsa, Washington DC, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • McEvilley, Thomas. Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale. New York: Museum for African Art; Munich: Prestel, 1993. ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
    Oguibe, Olu. The Culture Game. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. 23-24 faculty.risd.edu
    Milbourne, Karen. “National Museum of African Art Curator Karen Milbourne talks about the power of water on this #EarthDay2018.” Smithsonian Museum of African Art. africa.si.edu
    Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Threads across Time: African Textiles, 500-1993.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 13. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 13.
  • Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=Gérard Santoni|year=c.1988–93|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.307