Das Bett 16

Barthelemy Toguo’s Das Bett series is an intimate exploration of artistic solitude and personal isolation, which the artist developed over a period of two years. Thousands of miles from his family home in Cameroon, in a small room at the University of Dusseldorf, the series captures ‘all kinds of wandering phantasms of the sort one has in the solitude of a room’ (Art absolument, Barthélémy Toguo’s drawing, 2005). Engrossed by his ‘close relationship with the dimension of the paper’ (Art absolument, Barthélémy Toguo’s drawing, 2005), the artist studies mundane objects, rendering them in rigorous detail and transforming them into vehicles for personal contemplation. An intricate composition of furniture, clothing and human anatomy, Das Bett 16 is beautifully rendered in earthy hues with graphite, pen and gouache; others from the series are in the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris. The work dissects Toguo’s daily life and unveils it to the viewer through scrutinising, autobiographical draftsmanship.