Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko is being presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with André Magnin, Chief Curator.
Above: Jean Depara, Untitled, c. 1955-1965. Collection Revue Noire, Paris © Jean Depara
Modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s
Taking as its point of departure the birth of modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s, this ambitious exhibition will trace almost a century of the country’s artistic production. While specifically focusing on painting, it will also include music, sculpture, photography, and comics, providing the public with the unique opportunity to discover the diverse and vibrant art scene of the region.
Above: Moke, Kin Oyé, 1983. Collection privée, Paris , Paris © Moke
Above: Steve Bandoma, Je suis jeune, série Cassius Clay, 2014. Collection de l’artiste © Steve Bandoma
Above: 46×57, Calendrier lunaire, un père explique à son fils le calendrier lunaire, aimait expliquer sa peinture, exposé japon, mons, paris
Precursors
As early as the mid-1920s, when the Congo was still a Belgian colony, precursors such as Albert and Antoinette Lubaki and Djilatendo painted the first known Congolese works on paper, anticipating the development of modern and contemporary art. Figurative or geometric in style, their works represent village life, the natural world, dreams and legends with great poetry and imagination.
Above: Moke, Untitled (Match Ali-Foreman, Kinshasa), 1974. Collection privée © Moke
Following World War II, the French painter Pierre Romain-Desfossés moved to the Congo and founded an art workshop called the Atelier du Hangar. In this workshop, active until the death of Desfossés in 1954, painters such as Bela Sara, Mwenze Kibwanga and Pili Pili Mulongoy learned to freely exercize their imaginations, creating colorful and enchanting works in their own highly inventive and distinctive styles.
Above: Monsengo Shula, Ata Ndele Mokili Ekobaluka (Tôt ou tard le monde changera), 2014. Collection privée © Monsengo Shula
Popular painters
Twenty years later, the exhibition Art Partout, presented in Kinshasa in 1978, revealed to the public the painters Chéri Samba, Chéri Chérin, and Moke and other artists, many of whom are still active today. Fascinated by their urban environment and collective memory, they would call themselves “popular painters.” They developed a new approach to figurative painting, inspired by daily, political or social events that were easily recognizable by their fellow citizens.
Above: JP Mika, Kiese na kiese (Le Bonheur et la Joie), 2014. Pas-Chaudoir Collection, Belgique © JP Mika
Above: Jean Depara, Untitled (Moziki), c. 1955-1965. CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection, Genève © Jean Depara
Above: Kiripi Katembo, Subir, série Un Regard, 2011. Collection de l’artiste © Kiripi Katembo
Papa Mfumu’eto, known for his independent prolific comic book production and distribution throughout Kinshasa in the 1990s, also explored daily life and common struggles throughout his work. Today younger artists like J.-P. Mika and Monsengo Shula, tuned-in to current events on a global scale, carry on the approach of their elders.
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