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Dalloul Art Foundation
HASSAN MUSA HASSAN MUSA

HASSAN MUSA, Sudan (1951)

Bio

Born in 1951 in El Nuhud, Sudan, Hassan Musa is a contemporary artist and, more importantly, an image creator. He is a painter, calligrapher, designer, and craftsman. In 1974 Musa graduated from...

Born in 1951 in El Nuhud, Sudan, Hassan Musa is a contemporary artist and, more importantly, an image creator. He is a painter, calligrapher, designer, and craftsman. In 1974 Musa graduated from the  College of Fine and Applied Art, Khartoum Polytechnic, in Sudan. In 1978, he moved to France, and in 1989 he obtained a Ph.D. in Fine Arts and Art History from Montpellier University, France. Musa was trained in academic European art traditions. He was introduced to the masters of European renaissance and modern art and was taught to appreciate academic art through the reproduction of their work. Musa explains that he has “ a bricoleurʼs relationship with an image." For him, mastering the making of a painting is as much a thrill as the end result.

Musa bases his work on the concept of re-appropriation and repair to address themes such as colonialism, pan-Africanism, and globalization. He relies on familiar images in European art history, and current social and political events as a point of departure to unravel seemingly-vague realities that are glaring right in front of us. His work borders on the political, historical, and aesthetical European art history. As such, he is always able to run from and return to the notion of identity and traditions. Through the complexity of his questions, Musa invites his viewers to look beyond appearances and prejudice.

Musa uses an assemblage of printed textiles as a surface to apply his intervention of vibrant paint and decorative items. Also, the artist adds embroidery, which he personally sews inspired by his Sudanese cultural heritage. Musa draws visual references from European art masters such as Eugène De Lacroix and Jacques Louis David, amongst others appropriating iconography from famous religious and political figures like St. Sebastian, Che Guevara, and Osama Bin Laden, or activist-entertainers as Josephine Baker. In his evocative loose painting on textile, I Love You with My I Phone, 2011 inspired by Jacques Louis David's La mort di Marat, 1793, Musa shows, almost brutally, the assassination of Bin Laden with his cell phone in hand! - criticizing the forged consumer society and the absurdity of adopting life in the middle ages and yet using mobile technology.

Experimenting with a myriad of mediums, Musa also deploys Chinese watercolor on paper to produce figurative illustrations adopting traditional Arabic calligraphy. He applies diluted paint in swashed repetitive undulated gestural strokes to attain his desired formation. Musa currently Lives and works in Domessargues, France.

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022

Le Passeur tranquille, Galerie Maïa Muller, Paris, France

2021

I love you, Galerie Maïa Muller, Paris, France

2019

STEAL LIFES, Galerie Maïa Muller, Paris, France
Hassan Musa: The Chicken Conspiracy – Painting and Calligraphy, Gallery of African Art, London, United Kingdom 

2015

Yo Mama, Maïa Muller Gallery, Paris, France

2013

Eye for an Eye, Image for an Image, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium
Contemporary Calligraphy, Gallery of African Art (GAFRA), London, United Kingdom

2012

Fondation Blachère, Apt, France

2011

Le Palace Performing Arts Theatre, Ath, Belgium

2009

Hassan Musa, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium
No(s) Frontière(s), L’Art à la Pointe, Saint-Raymond, Audierne, France

2007

Atassi Gallery, Damascus, Syria
School of Art and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
NKA Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2006

Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nîmes, France
Agial Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon

1993

Pierre-André Benoît Museum, Alès, France

1992

Savannah Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1985

Fine Art Academy, Budapest, Hungary

1981

The British Council in Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022

Hassan Musa: Allégorie À La Banane, Maïa Muller Gallery, Paris, France

2018

Un œil ouvert sur le monde arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

2017

The Black Sphinx – From Morocco to Madagascar, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy

2015

The Divine Comedy, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
The Divine Comedy, Museo Correr, San Marco, Venezia

2014

The Divine Comedy, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
The Divine Comedy, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, United States of America
Couleur Café, Tour et Taxis, Brussels, Belgium
Imaginations, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium

2013

Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium

2012

New Premises: Three Decades at the Museum of Art, Museum for African Art, New York, United States of America
Lines of Control, The Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
African Contemporary Art, Mercedes House, Brussels, Belgium
First vision, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium

2011

Triennale de la Tapisserie, Fondation de la Tapisserie, Tournai, Belgium
Musée des beaux-Arts de Tournai, Tournai, Belgium
Festival Couleur Café, Brussels, Belgium
An Art Path, Galerie pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium
Festival of Literature 2011, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2010

Hugiene & (national) Identity, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium
Afrique sale & exhibition, Artcurial, Paris, France

2009

Ingres et les modernes, Musée Ingres de Montauban, Montauban, France
TYPISCH! Klischees von Juden une Anderen, Jüdisches museum, Berlin, Germany
TYPISCH! Klischees von Juden une Anderen, Jüdisches museum, Wien, Austria
BANG, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium
Le Marché Se Porte Bien, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels, Belgium

2008

Black Paris, Black Bruxelles, Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
L’Homme est un mystère #3, Musée de Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Brieuc, France
BLACK WOMANHOOD: Images, Icons and ideologies of the African body, travelling exhibit: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Qellesley College, San Diego Museum of Art, United States of America
BLACK WOMANHOOD: Images, Icons and ideologies of the African body, Knokke, Belgium

2005

L’Occident vu par l’Orient, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

2003

Illustrateur Arabes de Livres pour Enfants (Illustrators of Children’s Books from the Arab World), Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

1999

Amabhuku: Illustrations d’Afrique (Amabhuku: Illustrations from Africa), Fiera de Libro per Regazzi, Bologna, Italy
Ateliers Arabes, Agial Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Atassi Gallery, Damascus, Syria

1997

Modernities and Memories - The 47thVenice Biennale, Venice, Italy

1995

Seven stories about African art, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1993

The 1stSharjah International Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Collections

Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, United States of America
Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt, Germany
Matthias and Gervanne Léridon Collection, France

HASSAN MUSA Artwork

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