See behind the scenes of the making of Diocco, an original mural painted for the Phillips by Senegalese artists Muhsana Ali, Fodé Camara, Viyé Diba, and Piniang (Ibrahima Niang). Of the process, Muhsana Ali says, “we started feeding off of each other’s ideas and energy, and the idea of this collaboration between—or relationship between—the United States and Africa started coming through in many different ways.”
Artist Piniang (Ibrahima Niang) on day one of the five day mural painting process. Note the smaller-scale diagram of the finished mural at bottom left; the artists used a grid system to transfer an outline onto the wall. All photos courtesy The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Four mural artists completed an original work on the back courtyard wall of The Phillips Collection in late October. Muhsana Ali, Fodé Camara, Viyé Diba, and Piniang (Ibrahima Niang) were part of a larger group of painters that created a mural at the US Embassy in Dakar in May 2014. The Senegalese artists traveled here as part of a cultural exchange organized by the State Department’s ART in Embassies program. Huge thanks to generous supporters Toni A. Ritzenberg, Millennium Arts Salon, CulturalDC, International Arts and Artists, and the Cameroon American Council.
Hard at work on days one and two of painting.
About halfway done on day 3!
Lots of paint from Farrow & Ball.
The completed mural.
The artists in front of their completed work. Left to right: Fodé Camara, Muhsana Ali, Viyé Diba, and Piniang (Ibrahima Niang)
Phillips Collection staff members view Augustus Vincent Tack's mural, Time and Timelessness (Spirit of Creation), 1944, at Lisner Auditorium. Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender
Thanks to PhD student Jennifer Stettler Parsons, a few Phillips employees took a field trip on April 13 to George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium to see the last abstract painting of Augustus Vincent Tack in a most unexpected form.
