6 collagraphs on paper, mounted on canvas
Tate Modern
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/belkis-ayon-27160" aria-label="More by Belkis Ayón" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Belkis Ayón</a>
Supper
Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee and The Cowles Charitable Trust 2022
<p><span>The Supper</span> 1991 is a large six-part collagraphic print on paper that is over three metres in width. The six sheets abut and combine to make one image that depicts, in white in the centre, the figure of Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Sikán is shown alongside three androgynous figures seated at a table that takes up the entire width of the composition; six other figures stand in the background. Each figure is delineated by a different decorative pattern that is applied across their entire body so that they appear as flat two-dimensional forms with almond-shaped eyes as their only facial feature. While the gender of each figure is ambiguous, the artist has identified the central character as Sikán and suggested that the two figures with dark black faces are male. One of these is Mokongo, Sikán’s boyfriend, who is also depicted in Ayón’s print <span>Mokongo </span>1991 (Tate T15906). The composition of <span>The Supper </span>imagines the initiation banquet of Abakuá while also referencing Christian imagery of the Last Supper. The plates of fish placed on the table likely refer to a central narrative of the Abakuá group: that of a secret told to Sikán by a sacred fish, which gave her tribe, the Efo, power over their rivals, the Efik. Background patterns of crosses and circles reference the two tribes, and are based upon a version of the <span>nsibidi</span> system of symbols that originated in Nigeria. Ayón had originally depicted this scene using a range of vibrant colours, but for this version changed them to tones of black, grey and white to emphasise Sikán’s central role in the story as well as her isolation. <span>The Supper</span> is one of Ayón’s most iconic works and marks a shift in her practice from colour to the black-and-white that would come to define her mature style (see also <span>Sikán</span> 1991, [Tate T15907]).Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘ I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:</p>
paper unique 6 collagraphs mounted canvas
18 November 2020 – 28 November 2021
2021-11-28
18 November 2020 – 28 November 2021
2021-11-28
2020-11-18
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2020-11-18
Whose Tradition?
Collection based display
8 April 2024
8 April 2024
2024-04-08
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2024-04-08
Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Collection based display
The Supper
support: 1390 × 3003 mm
Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee and The Cowles Charitable Trust 2022
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<p>
<i>The Supper</i> 1991 is a large six-part collagraphic print on paper that is over three metres in width. The six sheets abut and combine to make one image that depicts, in white in the centre, the figure of Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Sikán is shown alongside three androgynous figures seated at a table that takes up the entire width of the composition; six other figures stand in the background. Each figure is delineated by a different decorative pattern that is applied across their entire body so that they appear as flat two-dimensional forms with almond-shaped eyes as their only facial feature. While the gender of each figure is ambiguous, the artist has identified the central character as Sikán and suggested that the two figures with dark black faces are male. One of these is Mokongo, Sikán’s boyfriend, who is also depicted in Ayón’s print <i>Mokongo </i>1991 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ayon-mokongo-t15906" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T15906</span></a>). The composition of <i>The Supper </i>imagines the initiation banquet of Abakuá while also referencing Christian imagery of the Last Supper. The plates of fish placed on the table likely refer to a central narrative of the Abakuá group: that of a secret told to Sikán by a sacred fish, which gave her tribe, the Efo, power over their rivals, the Efik. Background patterns of crosses and circles reference the two tribes, and are based upon a version of the <i>nsibidi</i> system of symbols that originated in Nigeria. Ayón had originally depicted this scene using a range of vibrant colours, but for this version changed them to tones of black, grey and white to emphasise Sikán’s central role in the story as well as her isolation. <i>The Supper</i> is one of Ayón’s most iconic works and marks a shift in her practice from colour to the black-and-white that would come to define her mature style (see also <i>Sikán</i> 1991, [Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ayon-sikan-t15907" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T15907</span></a>]).<br/>Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘   I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)<br/>Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:</p>
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<div class="right-block">Although my work deals with a theme as specific as the beliefs, rituals and myths of the Abakuá Secret Society, this does not mean that it is devoted solely to the population that practices and professes this faith. Above all, I am interested in questioning human nature – that fleeting feeling, spirituality, by which my art can be appreciated by a universal public, though it is very difficult at first sight to escape from the impression, the forms, the image.<br/>(Ayón, quoted in Lázara Menéndez, ‘Banishing Fear’, in Ayón and Vives 2010, p.281.)</div>
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<p>The use of the collograph technique and monochromatic palette characterise Ayón’s printmaking. She would collage together different materials on to a cardboard matrix that was run through a printing press with paper. Due to the varying absorption levels of the materials, which could be anything from sandpaper to vegetable peelings, it was a painstaking and technically difficult process to create images as intricate hers. Ayón produced <i>The Supper </i>in an edition of three, plus one artist’s proof, in 1991; Tate’s copy is number two from this edition. She also produced the print in a second edition of four in 1993. Prints of <i>The Supper </i>can be found in the Daros Latinamerica Collection in Zurich, Switzerland; the Galería Nacional in Yakarta, Indonesia; and the collections of Eileen and Peter Norton in Santa Monica, California, and Diane and Robert Moss, New York.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Flora María González Mandri, <i>Guarding Cultural Memory: Afro-Cuban Women in Literature and the Arts</i>, Virginia 2006.<br/>Katia Ayón and Cristina Vives (eds.), <i>NKAME: Belkis Ayón</i>, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonné, Tennessee 2010, pp.188–9.<br/>Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda, ‘Transcendent Belkis Ayón’, in Alejandro de la Fuente (ed.), <i>Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art</i>, exhibition catalogue, Mattress Factory, Pennsylvania 2010, pp.90–6.</p>
<p>Michael Wellen and Fiontán Moran<br/>November 2017</p>
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Summary
2023-09-29T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT