Nakunte Diarra

Nakunte Diarra (born c. 1941, died May 7, 2020)[1] was a Malian textile artist, a creator of bògòlanfini.

A member of the Bamana ethnolinguistic group, Diarra learned the basics of creating bògòlanfini from her grandmother when she was four years old.[1] She was based in Kolokani for much of her career,[2] but traveled twice to the US to give workshops and demonstrations of her technique.[3] In 1993, 30 of her works were displayed in a single-artist exhibition organized by the Indiana University Art Museum that also traveled to the Fashion Institute of Technology and beyond. In 1994, she was hosted in the Ohio home of Dr. Barbara G. Hoffman for a five-week residency at Cleveland State University[4] in conjunction with the exhibition of her work there and at the Cleveland Museum of Art. From Cleveland, the exhibition traveled to the Indianapolis Art Museum. Nine years later, she was a member of the artistic delegation sent by the Malian government to represent the art of bògòlanfini at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2003.[5][1] Her art was the subject of an article, "Nakunte Diarra: Bogolanfini Artist of the Bélédougou", published in the journal African Arts in 1994,[6] and of a DVD produced by Dr.Barbara G. Hoffman in 2005.[7] Two pieces by Diarra were commissioned for the collection of the Indiana University Art Museum,[8] while other cloths are in the collections of the National Museum of African Art,[9] the National Museum of Natural History,[10] the Cleveland Museum of Art,[11] the Newark Museum of Art and the National Museum of Mali.[5] Diarra's work was represented in the exhibition, "Earth Matters," at the National Museum of African Art in 2014.[12] Diarra was the subject of My Baby,[13] a children's book by Jeanette Winter, featuring a fictional account of the Malian artist as she created mudcloth during her pregnancy for her own child.[14]