Lithograph, 1978

Edition : 200

Publisher : Editions Regards

Printer : Atelier Bellini

43.50 cm. x 33.00 cm. | 17.13 in. x 12.99 in. (paper)

Part of the collection of six elegies by Léopold Sédar Senghor entitled "Les Élégies majeures
Unnumbered lithograph from one of the 35 first copies of "Élégie pour Georges Pompidou"

Poet, essayist and President of Senegal (from 1960 to 1980), Léopold Sédar Senghor (1909-2001) also created many institutions for the defense of the arts from his African contemporaries: theater, art or dance school, festivals. He collaborated with great names of modern art to illustrate his texts, in particular with Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. He asked her to illustrate the Elegy of Philippe Maguilen Senghor, a funeral poem he wrote to his deceased son.

In this lithograph, Vieira da Silva illustrates Senghor's elegy to Georges Pompidou, the first stanza of which initiates an exploration of India and an ode to friendship: "In the Tamil night, I think of you, my more-than-brother. The aesthetics of the poet and the series of four lithographs by Vieira da Silva draws its strength from the sacredness of signs and more specifically that of death.

We find mosaics reflecting Vieira da Silva's cubist training. His geometric approach to abstraction mixes vertical constructions and stretched perspectives. The fineness of his strokes accentuates the impression of architectural grandeur of his compositions. The darkness of the work is punctuated with blue, ochre and purple. These few touches of color are enough to sculpt the tones of gray and black, reminiscent of the great and sublime Taj Mahal, unmatched by the love that the painter has for his friend.

Thus, through the reflection on the death of a loved one, the artist materializes the intention of the poem, i.e. the elevation of man through his encounter with the sacred, as if to allow him to remain present through the arts.

Very good condition
Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Certificate of authenticity

Ref : LCD5584