VARIOUS AFRICAN PAINTERS
BIKOK T. PIERRE
20 hairdressingstyles, Cameroon, 1940
Acryl on panel, 113 x 79 cm

Biography Bikok T. Pierre:

Bikok was born in 1940 in Sakbayémé in Cameroon. In the Seventees he went for economic reasons to Gabon which had become a rather rich country on basis of its oil sources. He settle in the capital Libreville where he built up a reputation as an artist-painter. In this period Libreville showed a development in hairfashion which was unequalled in Africa. The town counted about 100 hairdressingsaloons and some 10 barbershops. In 1976, Mrs Jessica Osakwe, one of the most successfull hairdressers opened a saloon specialized on pigtails. To commercialize this brandnew product she asked Bikok to paint a panel with the variety of styles from which her clients could make a choice. Bikok’s panel proved so effective that hereafter he received a lot of orders from other hairdressers and barbershops. Although Bikok had many successors in different African countries he reigned as the absolute master in this field of art during more than 20 years.