Escape I

Artist Viyé Diba Senegalese, born 1954

Date1999

MediumPaint, sand, wood, sawdust, metal, cotton strip-woven cloth

Dimensions66 x 56 in. (167.6 x 142.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds provided by the Friends of African and African American Art

Object number2016.12

On View

On view

Label TextAbstract human or flag-like forms emerge from the highly layered blue ground of the painted surface and from the hand-built frame. According to Diba, blue is the symbol of space and liberty. Created from cotton strip–woven cloth and recycled wood, the figures and flags allude to freedom and escape from physical bondage. This references the role of Dakar as a transit point in the slave trade.

By placing abstract figures both within and outside the blue ground, Diba both represents a conceptual rupture from the constraints of the picture plane and the existence of bodies both within and outside the benefits of freedom.
[A. Maples, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Senegal, 1999; collection of the artist; [Bill Karg Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2016.

Published ReferencesAllan F. Roberts and Mary Nooter Roberts, A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal (Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Art, 2003), 199.
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, CA, Fowler Museum of Art, UCLA, February 9–July 27, 2003.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–October 16, 2023.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," December 1, 2025-present. Object Rights Statement

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