Kinshasa is undoubtedly and for a long time one of the most dynamic cities in Africa in terms of artistic creation. The exhibition at the Angoulême Museum brings together works by thirty major Kinshasa painters spanning sixty years of creation. Artists whose work has been recognized for several years well beyond the borders of the DRC.
“You have great figures now very well known like Chéri Chérin, Chéri Samba, and other younger ones like Amani Bodo or Pita Kalala who are artists who have a very beautiful international influence and whose paintings are now known and well identified.“, explains Émilie Salaberry, director of the Angoulême museums.
Several generations of artists take an often corrosive look at Kinshasa society and more broadly the DRC and Africa, without taboos. Political satire, eroticism, social and religious parody, but also everyday life and the hope of a better life, everything is a source of inspiration.
Another theme often evoked in these paintings, the relationship with the West and the fears of many Africans for the future: “lhe problems of corruption, of politicians placed in power by the Western powers, all the economic problems and the exploitation of natural resources within the framework of a globalized trade, and paradoxically the pauperization of the African populations with obviously the migratory question which in the background emerges from it all“, explains Émilie Salaberry.
Exhibited artists:
Shula, Enyejo Bakaka, Amani Bodo, Bodo Fils, Sam Ilus, Landry, JP Mika, Pita Kalala, Peter Tujibikile, Lusavuvu, Chéri Chérin, Moké père, Moké fils, Lofenia, Aundu Kiala, Kiesse, Hergé Makuzay, Sapin Makengele, Rigobert Nimi, PP Mbiya, Somi, Chéri Samba, Pierre Bodo Pambu, Papa Mfumu’eto 1er, Ange Kumbi, Simon Kipulu, Chéri Benga, Master Syms, JP Kiangu and Mwenze Kibwanga.
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“Congo paintings” – until January 2, 2022 – Angoulême Museum, Square Girard II, rue Corneille 16000 Angoulême – Information on 05 45 95 79 88 and on the museum website.