Romuald Hazoumè valuation
Beninese artist of masks made from discarded plastic petrol cans and installations about trade, waste and the slave trade.
Romuald Hazoumè was born in Porto-Novo, in what was then Dahomey and is now Benin, in 1962, and he lives and works in Porto-Novo and Cotonou.
What a work by Romuald Hazoumè is worth
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Bio
Romuald Hazoumè was born in Porto-Novo, in what was then Dahomey and is now Benin, in 1962, and he lives and works in Porto-Novo and Cotonou. A Yoruba artist, he works only with recycled materials. Since the mid-1980s he has made masks from discarded petrol cans that resemble those used in traditional African ceremonies, and he has described them as sending back to the West the refuse of consumer society that invades Africa every day. His best-known work, La Bouche du Roi, reworks the 1789 image of the slave ship Brookes. It was shown at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris in 2006, and in 2007, presented with October Gallery, at the British Museum in London, as part of the remembrance of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. In 2007 he received the Arnold Bode Prize at documenta 12. October Gallery gave him his first solo show there in 2005, and he has since shown with Gagosian in New York and Paris and at the Neuberger Museum of Art, which presented the Fâ Series in 2023. His work is in the Contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi.
His masks and sculptures are assembled from found plastic, metal and other materials, which can be fragile, so check for loose or missing parts and keep a work away from heat and strong light. The title, date and gallery invoice should stay with it.
At a glance
- Born
- 1962, Porto-Novo
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