On what artworks tell and don’t tell: Contemporary paintings in Mauritania

Abstract

Artworks and artistic practices have become precious sources of information and unique mediums of knowledge for the societies that produce them. In fact, artistic expression has enabled us to gain specific knowledge of the social contexts of their creation and circulation with regard to their involvement in and generation of social relations, actions and reactions between people. After a brief introduction on the analysis of what I feel to be the biggest contributions to this issue, I will present contemporary painting in Mauritania. I am particularly interested in laying emphasis on the reasons that form the basis of the omnipresence of certain themes and the systematic absence of others.