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to  a  crisp  b\ 

If painting, as Peter Sclijcldahl  rcccntl\  inti-
mated,  was 
the
phcnomenolugical  stare.'  then  OK  aw
cqualls  assume that the pictorial dilettantism
that overhangs  the  New  York  art  world  like
smog,  does  nothing  to assuage  the  H u s t-
ings of man]  gallen  goers o va  the state ol
painting  And as pamtingsdeath knell eease-
lessh  tolls, the new s that it no longer salisi ,es
as it used  lo gets  older and  older.

OKWl  I ENWKZOR

How eould it not. when the paintings  lornul
precepts remain  so much at odds « hi) the Iin
tic siecle's troubled multiculiui al mood. Vet
despite  this  multicultural  mood  one  Imd- n
disturbing  that  it  remains  a  truism  thai  ik
contemporaiA  art  world.  especialK  m  few
^ ork.  ,s not quite  as rc.eptixe  10 a niultipL

view of the medium of painting as it should.
These thoughts come to me as I stand staring
in awe and wonder at the aggressive  monu-
ments  that  Ouattara,  an  artist  from  Ivory
Coast, has installed at the Gagosian gallery at
65 Thompson.

meanings.  The  awkwardness  of  the  long,
narrow gallery was not particularly advanta-
geous to the task the artist might have wished
for  his  works  to  perform.  Yet  their  com-
pressed  energy  make  their  aura  even  more
palpably  evident.

slave  ship's  interior  packed  with  massed
shadowy, dark brown figures. A coffee  bean
sack attached  to the upper left  corner of the
painting  vividly  delineates  the  boundaries
between capital, labour and commodity (hu-
man and otherwise).

Constructed to be experienced panoramically,
from  left  to right  and  vice  versa the mural-
sized paintings bear a mark of tension in the
way images of violence, consumerism, pop-
culture  history,  religion  and  politics  have
been  mobilised.

Dark Star (1994), a painting consisting  en-
tirety  of  footprints  and  handprints  occa-

sionally  punctuated  by  Nike

Yes, painting can  still  satisfy,  even  for  this
writer who finds its quarrels with form, tech-
nique  and  the  picture  plane  too  boring  to
bear.  What  distinguishes  Ouattara  though
from many of his contemporaries (Francesco
Clemente,  El  Hadji  Sy
or  Julian  Schnabel  for  *
example)  is  his  wildly
idiosyncratic 
style.
Whereas the work of the
artists  mentioned
above seem fully an-
chored  in a calm  sea
of  recognisable  aes-
thetic 
devices,
Ouattara's  totemic
figures and  accumu-
lations of varied cul-
tural  symbols  under-
mine these devices in
a  manner  that  places
his work at the edge of
true  innovation.

In his current series of
paintings 
what
Ouattara  has  initiated
is a thoroughly revised
contemporary  attitude
towards  representa-
tion.  His  disquieting
paintings  and  assem-
blages are not so much
paintings  as  much  as
they  are  performative
sites where ritualistic in-
tent, technique and form
are  seamlessly  worked
to create  a charged  dis-
cursive,  aesthetic,  and
spiritual  mood.

Cumulatively  looked  at,
Ouattara's  work at a dis-
tance evinces the attitude
of  eighties'  neo-expres-
sionism  laden  with  sweeping  macho  ges-
tures,  size  and  lots  of  lumpy  paint  to  con-
vince  viewers  of  its  presence  and  impor-
tance. But here, something else is at work. I
am inclined to see his outsized frames less as
paintings, and more as painted objects; rough
hewn carriers of multiple cultural signs (Nok,
Dogon,  Amharic,  Egyptian,  Senufo)  relo-
cated  from  their  original  domicile  to  this
almost  incongruous  space  to  produce  new

sneaker logo prints, is a frenzied act of joie de
vivre  that suggests more a mood of anxiety
than joy. The sly marriage of consumer cul-
ture with images of death (an olive skeleton
beating on a drum and skulls floating on the
painting's surface  ) is no happy  accident.

Unfitted (1993-94) an unsettling work painted
a vivid lemony yellow, employs as its central
character  an elliptical-shaped  diagram  of  a

But just as it seemed that the exhibition might
veer  off  kilter  into  the  kind  of  didacticism
that have come to unsettle viewers, Ouattara
balances his grave ruminations on the condi-
tion of our body politic with a celebration of
Narrativity  belies  Hip-Hop,
1  t
Jazz,  Makoussa's  schematic
emotional pull, which will duly
satisfy  those  who share  in the
pop-cultural emblems that cel-
ebrate the vivacity of the cross-
Atlantic exchanges between Af-
rican diasporic populations and
the continent; from Kingston to
Brixton, Harlem to Lagos, Paris
to Dakar. Placing end to end in
two  horizontal  bands  album
covers by
F  e  I a  ,
B ob
Marley,
A r e t ha
Franklin,
M  a  n  u
D i b a n g o,
Salif  Keita,
Q u e en

Latifa.  The  Rolling  Stones,
John  Coltrane,  etc.  Hip  Hop,
Jazz,  Makoussa  is  a  veritable
precis  of  twentieth  century
popular  music  and  youth  cul-
ture, hipness as we have come
to know it.

Exchange obviously, carries the
normative value of some  form
of  transaction.  In  the  works
shown here, its currency is that
of an African cosmology. They
come in the form of quotations
taken  from  Amharic  text,
Egyptian Ankhs, colonial pho-
tography and architectural frag-
ments: adobe  walls and  steles
found  on 
the  facades  of
Mosques  and  granaries  throughout  Africa.
The insistent pressure of political content (a
new direction, I imagine in Ouattara's formi-
dable Oeuvre) rather than repel draws view-
ers closer to the paintings, whereupon subtle
incidents and quotidian  elements reveal  the
artist's  wry  humour.  Though  Ouattara  has
been absent on the New York Gallery scene
for almost five years, his return shows him a
really fine form.  GR

71