No Colour is More Joyous Than the Colour Yellow
Uncover the magic of yellow with the Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo art collective
Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo is an art collective formed in 2018. It investigates West African hand-painted commercial sign culture through portrait paintings executed in the style of beauty parlour advertisements. Currently the collective’s permanent members are Louis Houenoude (painter), Juliette Sossou (producer) and Riiko Sakkinen (artistic director).
Beninese Style (2020) by Salon de Peinture Grand-PopoDesign Indaba
Why the color yellow?
In the painting Joyful Yellow, painted by Houenoude, the collective wanted to celebrate the stregnth of African women. For them the color yellow symbolised the stregnth, joy and resilience of African women.
What does yellow mean to Louis, Juliette and Rikko?
''No color is more joyful than yellow. The color of the sun, celebration and joy. It brightens up the universe and makes it shine. Just like the sun, whose rays support life on earth, yellow is the color of life and movement.''
''Yellow is associated with power, the power embodied by the African woman. We remember above all that yellow represents the color of openness and social contact: it is associated with friendship and fraternity as well as knowledge.''
But yellow isn't the only powerful color
The painting also features a lot of black and for the artists it represents ''elegance; timeless in fashion, illustration or packaging.''
''Still, alongside this elegance, black can quickly echo emptiness and sadness. Clearly this painted African woman, with her dazzling smile, responds to both yellowness and blackness.''
What it all means
By painting a striking and strong woman against a deeply meaningful background of black and yellow Louis, Rikko and Juliette are able to visually express the complexities and stregnth of African women.
