DOMINIQUE ZINKPÈ (B. 1969)
DOMINIQUE ZINKPÈ (B. 1969)
DOMINIQUE ZINKPÈ (B. 1969)
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This lot will be removed to our storage facility a… Read more
DOMINIQUE ZINKPÈ (B. 1969)

Minuit à Abomey (Midnight in Abomey)

Details
DOMINIQUE ZINKPÈ (B. 1969)
Minuit à Abomey (Midnight in Abomey)
inscribed and dated 'Abomey 11/5' (upper centre); signed and dated 'ZINKpe 09' (lower right); signed, titled and dated 'Minuit Abomey ZINKPE 09' (on the reverse)
oil and acrylic on canvas
59 1/4 x 70 3/4in. (150.4 x 179.8cm.)
Executed in 2009
Provenance
Ed Cross Fine Art, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009.
Exhibited
Edinburgh, The English Speaking Union, Witness: The Spectre of Memory in Contemporary African Art, 2010.
Cambridge, Heong Gallery at Downing College, When The Heavens Meet The Earth, 2017, pp. 102 & 105 (illustrated in colour, p. 102; detail illustrated in colour, p. 103).
Special notice
This lot will be removed to our storage facility at Momart. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Momart. All collections from Momart will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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Lot Essay

Dominique Zinkpè’s practice stretches across painting and sculpture. His canvases are populated by ethereal, ghostly figures who float and glide across the picture plane. Zinkpè’s influences range between the indigenous mythological folklore of Benin to the more recent introduction of Catholicism. His preoccupation as an artist is with the metaphysical and with spirituality, without belonging to a single organised religion: in this way the work engages with hybridisation and the crossover and interplay between cultures. Dance and fertility are consistent motifs evoking themes of desire, and the unconscious mind.
Minuit à Abomey is a quintessential example of Zinkpè’s practice. Signature ghostly figures either drift or sit statically, three of them seem to address the viewer directly from the confines of their spiritual realm. The silhouette of a malevolent rooster looms large at the centre of the canvas, another figure with electrified hair, yellow teeth and sagging breasts hovers above. Zinkpè’s spirit world is a menagerie of the grotesque.
Zinkpè was awarded the Prix Jeune Talent Africain (Young African Talent) Award at the Grapholie in Abidjan in 1993. In 2002 he received the UEMOA Prize at the Dakar Biennale. Recent exhibitions include Growbox Art Project at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, in 2019, and Divines Masquerades at the Fondation Montresso, Casablanca in 2018.

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