Frédéric Bruly Bouabré

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Côte d’Ivoire, 1923–2014) was an artist, thinker, and self-taught intellectual who devoted much of his life to a vast project of universal knowledge through drawing. In 1948, he claimed to have experienced a divine vision that guided his artistic and intellectual practice. He produced thousands of small-format drawings on cards, combining image and text to document forms of knowledge, stories, and observations about the world. One of his best-known projects is the Bété Alphabet, a writing system he created for his people's language. His work addresses themes such as language, memory, spirituality, and the transmission of knowledge, and has been widely recognized internationally, with presentations in major museums and biennials.

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