The family of Ousmane Sow, a Senegalese sculptor on Thursday announced his death.
Ousmane, 81-year-old, left a career in physiotherapy for art.
Born in Dakar in 1935, Sow held his first exhibition in 1987 in the Senegalese capital – his hometown – organized by the French cultural center.
For more than 20 years, he worked as a physiotherapist in and around Paris and Dakar before changing his career in the 1980s.
Senegal’s Culture Minister Mbagnick Ndiaye told the AFP news agency that his death was a big loss for Senegalese as well as African sculpture.
In 2003, he became the first African to be elected a member of France’s renowned Academie des Beaux-Arts.
Sow captured the world’s attention in 1999 when his larger-than-life wrestler sculptures were exhibited in Paris.
May his soul rest in
perfect peace