A vision of 7 suns led a self-taught Ivoirian artist to draw the everyday and the holy

Vision divine du 11 Mars 1948, is a series of eight drawings by Ivoirian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. They depict a vision that Bouabré said he experienced that year: "seven colored suns" creating a "circle of beauty around their 'mother-sun.' " This piece and other works from Bouabré are part of an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art. (The Museum of Modern Art)

In 1948, the late Ivoirian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré had a vision that would change his life. On his way to work as a civil servant in the colonial navy in Dakar, then the capital of French West Africa, he said he saw "seven colored suns" creating a "circle of beauty around their 'mother-sun.' "

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré de l'Homme in Paris, 1993. (Philippe Bordas/The Museum of Modern Art)