Since the avant-garde fine arts has distinguished itself from the other cultural sectors mainly by this aspect: in most cases the work is presented accompanied by a text. More than in theater, films, music or literature there seems to be a great need for explanation and commentary.

For quite some time already Moussa Kone tried to reflect the love-hate relationship between art and criticism via his drawings and paintings. Frequently a naked figure stands for art, while another figure wearing a suit represents art criticism and very often the artist adds art-historical references: so for instance Manet’s „breakfast on the grass“ becomes a pretext to ponder about the relationship between master and servant. Moussa Kone’s faceless creatures do not necessarily have to stand for these two professions only, they can also be understood in a more general way representing the contrasting duo emotion and intellect. In his diptychon „Opfer“ (victims) for instance he shows three severed heads and three rotating bodies wearing suits: the ideas and concepts survive even without their originators.

Already in his first larger individual exhibition Moussa Kone displayed figures wearing suits bent over a naked body lying in a tiled room – their ties hanging dramatically close down over the carcass. Later on he resumed this „jury(section)“ in a series of ink drawings, in their course the number of jury members multiplied – in the end 23 figures wearing suits are gathered around the artist’s strained corpse.

Moussa Kone is interested in dichotomies also on a formal level: for instance in the one between writing and images. He increasingly focuses on ink – this comes closest to writing. He covers wide surfaces with closely set ink strokes and thus replaces the painting by the drawing. Also in his work „dragon_fly“, combining a rider with an ornament taken from a book illustration, he follows the same pattern.

Likewise two figures are about to disappear as they are placed in front and behind a drastically shortened wall and caught while spying on Suzanne bathing – the classical scene from the Old Testament. In Kone’s version the massive black rock turns into the dominating element of the scene.

By creating this striking composition of contrasts Moussa Kone manages to transcend and to diffuse obvious antagonisms.

Nina Schedlmayer

Originally published in: Krejs, Christiane; Jing, Zuo: "Potential Dialogue". RCM Art Museum Beijing, 2006. (exhibition catalogue)