Samba Diallo explains in his powerful voice, Color is life, in the middle of some twenty or more canvases in the “Soleil d’Afrique” exhibition held in December 2017 in Dakar. The basketball player physique of the self-taught and asserted artist is proportional to the size of his canvases.
Coming into the world 2 years before 1968, a period of youth protests in Senegal and France, two countries in which the artist has part of his family, Samba Diallo received the gift of drawing. The native of the Medina, not far from the administrative center of Dakar in Senegal says he has always drawn, only the mediums have changed.
Samba Diallo has remained constant in his love of art despite the lack of optimism from part of his family. Today, the artist enjoys the road travelled. He has been helping young artists for 10 years and wishes to pass on an artistic legacy to his youngest son with whom Samba shares the love of brushes and basketball.
The Childhood of an Illustrator and Basketball player, then Wonder in St Louis
During his childhood, long before selling his paintings in France and Senegal, Samba Diallo was a volunteer drawer. Students came from all over his native Medina and the ‘Liberté 6’ neighborhood where he grew up entrusted to decorate notebooks. These are required of candidates for the entrance examination for the 6th year and for the Certificate of End of Elementary Studies (CFEE [French acronym]).
This fervent disciple of the influential Mouride brotherhood did not learn to paint with a master. “In my family, it is said that an uncle I did not know was a painter,” says Samba who educated himself by observing other paintings and especially by taking inspiration from the most beautiful work: divine creation. “Colors are life, I like colors like I love the sun, this visual and spiritual symbol.”
Samba Diallo remembers his first paintings, finally, his first drawings made on plywood! “I was convinced that I was making masterpieces, but it was work done with more passion than technique”, he says irrevocably with a calm look sheltered behind eyeglasses.
Slavery was one of the themes of two pieces that Samba transported over 260 kilometers between Dakar and Saint Louis of Senegal to present them to Jacob Yacouba. It was in 1985. “When I entered his studio, I was, more than ever, solidified in my desire to be a painter! It was a magnificent, vast and impressive room! There were large paintings of 2m, hectoliters of real painting, and above all beautiful canvases.”
Jacob Yacouba took the time to observe young Samba Diallo’s drawings, gave the young man several technical advices and concluded with an injunction that the artist always applies: work more!
Besides drawing, Samba Diallo loves basketball. He plays at SICAP Liberté 5. He pursues his career playing at ‘Collège Jeanne d’Arc’, an establishment joined after a failure at the CFEE in public education. The young man followed this sport-studies curriculum, playing in junior, cadets, seniors, learning building design in passing and often taking out his markers to draw his friends and classmates.
30 years to find his artistic style
Portraits, abstract, semi-figurative, semi-abstract, coffee painting and many other artistic styles, Samba Diallo tried everything in his youth. “When I liked an art piece, mentally I was convinced that I could do better, I tried and I think I often managed to understand the technique, even if I destroyed some paintings, props, and wasted a lot of time and paint during my self-education. “
In a iteral and figurative sense, art is taking more and more place in Samba Diallo’s life. The paintings accumulate in the family home where priority is preferably given to the study of science. Within the siblings of 8 children: 3 boys and 5 girls, one disapproves of the artistic orientation without losing hope that Samba will move on to something else while growing up.
This hope was shattered when the young schoolboy stopped studying to devote himself to painting. He announced the decision shortly before his first collective exhibition in 1987 at the Blaise Senghor Cultural Center.
This first real leap into the professional artistic world leaves Samba a mixed feeling: “several visitors at the exhibition appreciated my work, but I did not sell any paintings.”
Two years afterwards, works by Samba Diallo were selected by UNICEF. Meanwhile, his older sister leaves the family home to join her spouse. She took away two paintings.
TV5 the great opportunity
These two paintings were noticed by Mactar Sylla, then director of TV5 Afrique. The media man discovers the artist’s potential and contacts him. “One Sunday morning, I see TV5 cameras arriving at the family home to interview me,” said Samba Diallo who remembers being happy to feel his work recognized.
Mactar Sylla buys 2 paintings. “One was not finished, but Mactar paid in cash and told me to deliver it to him after having finished it.”
The story with TV5 would continue because a few months after the television report, still in 1995, cards painted by Samba are acquired by Mactar Sylla for TV5. “I saw my family’s outlook change, they finally understood that art could bring money and notoriety.”
Gaining in confidence, Samba continues to learn and to perfect his technique by making reliefs and mosaics on his paintings. “I painted everything that came to my mind. I was a little rebellious. Some were trying to reframe me, I did not obey them, fiercely attached to my freedom of expression, I did what I wanted to do.”
At that time, Samba Diallo was so immersed in his art that he had “reflux of images” during his sleep. “I thought I was going crazy!,” he adds when he remembers this singular period. He exhibited at the Canadian Embassy. In 2002, he made his first solo exhibition at the Blaise Senghor Cultural Center. In 2004, his younger brother living in France came to Dakar for the holidays and went back with canvases. The work appealed to Europeans who advised Samba’s brother to come to France.
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Hexagon: big success and little hassles
In 2006, having obtained a visa to go to the Cergy Fair, Samba Diallo left Dakar. During this event, he sold about twenty paintings. “It was unheard of! My works were wildly successful, as soon as I finished a canvas, it was purchased.”
After the fair in May, Samba Diallo’s works seduce Christian Pierret, former minister and former mayor. Following more than twenty exhibitions, Samba was invited to the international hagiography festival at the Pierre Noel Museum.
Samba’s works travel according to the exhibitions: Paris, Biaritz, Dax, Vittel, Brussels. On December 15, 2015, Samba Diallo returned to Senegal, the artist exhibited 22 paintings at the national gallery. The theme is all found: « retour aux sources » (“Back to the Basics”).
Day by day two years after, Samba Diallo presents twenty paintings at the Kemboury Gallery. Theme of the exhibition: « soleil d’Afrique » (“African Sun”).
One of the traumas the artist remembers takes place in 2016. Samba Diallo learns that his work has attracted other French art lovers, everything goes well until the patron who wants to exhibit it discovers that the artist is a black man. “I needed a visa to go to France. First, I felt the enthusiasm of this patron decrease, then following my calls it became downright cutting, finally he ceased all contact after having clearly specified his thought, he didn’t want to show me because I was black!”
Future projects: training, transmission and traveling exhibition
Samba Diallo began to transmit his passion during the whole period when his studio was at the socio-cultural center of SICAP Liberté 5. The artist supervised the youngest, offered them easels, canvases, painting and sometimes contacts so that they could exhibit their works.
Since his return to Senegal, the artist’s main studio has been in his home in the Sacré-Coeur district. “In general, I have friends at home every evening, but I sometimes leave them in the living room to go paint,” he explains.
Doing a large traveling exhibition on peace remains one of his projects, but Samba Diallo avoids giving too many details, he just said that it will be a question of showing how on several continents, famous men have worked for universal harmony by resisting hatred wherever it comes from.
Samba is not exclusively a painter in France. He made sculpture from salvage. The artist wishes to switch to iron sculpture, in a style that allows him to stand out.
By Thomas Ayissi.