Cosmic Alphabet (Cosmic Letters)
ArtistEL Loko (Edoh Lucien Loko), 1950–2016
StyleContemporary African Art / Pan-African Symbolism
Year2016
MuseumZeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa — Cape Town, South Africa
Interesting Fact
EL Loko, a Togolese painter trained under Joseph Beuys in Düsseldorf, spent decades developing a symbolic "Cosmic Alphabet" meant to belong to no single culture — a universal language anyone could read into freely. He rendered it across nine laminated glass discs that form both the ceiling of Zeitz MOCAA's galleries and the floor of its rooftop sculpture garden. Loko died in his home village in Togo in 2016, just after completing the installation, making it his final major work.