THE NEW YORK TIMES
By William Grimes
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| Ousmane Sow on the Pont des Arts in Paris in 1999 with his works that were exhibited there. Credit Raphael Gaillarde/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images
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SENGEGAL---
Ousmane Sow, often called the Auguste Rodin of Senegal, who earned an international reputation for his expressive sculptures of the Nuba, Masai and other African peoples, died on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal. He was 81. Mr. Sow (pronounced So) spent much of his life as a physical therapist but in his 50s became a full-time sculptor. After seeing the German photographer
Leni Riefenstahl’s book on the Nuba people of southern Sudan, he executed a series of larger-than-life-size sculptures of Nuba wrestlers. Exhibited outside the French Cultural Center in Dakar in 1987, the Nuba series marked
Mr. Sow as a talent of the first order. [
link]
