Ouattara Watts was born on May 27,1957 and is an Ivory Coast-born American visual artist, known for his multimedia paintings that incorporate African and Western aesthetics and depict themes of spirituality and modernity.
17 Facts About Ouattara Watts
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Ouattara Watts was born on May 27,1957 in Abidjan on the Ivory Coast.
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Ouattara Watts was given the name Bakari Ouattara at birth but later switched his name to Ouattara Watts when he moved to New York.
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Ouattara Watts was raised in a household that practiced a syncretic religion, which combined beliefs from several religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and their native West African spirituality.
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Ouattara Watts's father was a surgeon and an African spiritual healer.
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At age seven, Ouattara Watts began painting and drew images for his spiritual initiation ceremony.
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When Ouattara Watts was sixteen, he dropped out of school and began studying art with books he found at Abidjan's French Cultural Center, and took an interest to modern art, including works by Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani.
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Ouattara Watts took classes in Paris with Jacques Yankel, a French painter who mentored students from Abibjan.
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Ouattara Watts spent the next several years working in Paris and reflecting on the material he had learned.
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In January of 1988, Ouattara Watts met Jean-Michel Basquiat at an exhibition at the Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris.
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Ouattara Watts has become a central figure in the rise of African American art, pioneering new ideas within the discipline.
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Ouattara Watts's works have been exhibited at the reputable Museum of Modern Arts as well as the Whitney Museum, and sold for up to a staggering 781,200 USD in auction at Christie's.
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Ouattara Watts is classified by Christie's as a "Top Artist" and is featured in numerous prominent private collections.
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Strongly influenced by his West African spiritual upbringing and lived experiences, Ouattara Watts explores his multicultural identity through his work.
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Ouattara Watts depicts themes of spirituality, Pan-Africanism, and modernism in his large scale, abstract compositions.
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Ouattara Watts uses a variety of mediums, including found objects, materials, photographs, and paint, to incorporate African and Western aesthetics into his work.
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Ouattara Watts's works are embedded with a visual language that he creates using signs, numerical equations, and photographs of West African spiritual symbols and pop culture icons.