“Beauté Congo”: an exhibition on art in the DRC hosted in Paris.

Congolese artists’ work on display at the Foundation Cartier in Paris from the 11th of July to the 15th of November. 

As the scene of an extraordinary cultural vitality, the Democratic Republic of Congo is represented at the Foundation Cartier for Modern Art in Paris. The exhibition takes the 1920s as a starting point to trace back the amazing Congolese artistic production. While painting is at the heart of the exhibition, visitors can also experience music, sculpture, photography and comics.

During the 1920s, when the Congo was a Belgian colony, the artists Albert and Antoinette Lubaki and Djilatendo created the beginnings of Congolese modern art, influenced by the figurative and abstract artistic movements to depict daily life, nature, and dreams based on local tales. During the Second World War, other artists let their imagination run wild to create luminous and joyful artwork. In 1978, the exhibition “Art Partout” (Art Everywhere) presented many populist artists with an interest in urban environment and in collective memory. The most famous, Chéri Samba, Chéri Chérin and Moke, produced a new form of figurative painting inspired by daily life, politics, and society.

Chéri Samba and his work are at the heart of the exhibition. His passion for color is evident in his paintings, which depict life and his own happy memories from his country, Congo. Other works by the artist are also on display, where also small texts as comics are added.