Don't be put off by the colors, proportions, incongruous objects or opulent compositions of these paintings: every element is thought out, considered, symbolic. Chéri Samba's paintings reflect the artist's passions and the world around him. Self-portraits, images of the Congo and Africa, art history, representation of women, the environment, geopolitics. The exhibition A Retrospective: Chéri Samba, in the Jean Pigozzi Collection plunges us into the colorful, sometimes surreal world of this painter with his inimitable style. More than 40 years of his career are brought together in the 50 works on display at the museum.ĭrawn from the Jean Pigozzi collection, these paintings recount the life, commitments and evolution of this Congolese artist. In 2007 Sambaparticipated in the 52nd Venice Biennale, Universes in Universe (Venice,Italy) and in 2004 was included in the travelling exhibition AfricaRemix: Art contemporain d’un continent (Germany, UK, France, Tokyo:2004).He's the best-known contemporary African painter of his generation, so why not get to know him this autumn? Visit the Musée Maillol, from Octoto April 21, 2024, to discover the retrospective devoted to Chéri Samba. Other exhibitions include The Global Contemporary ArtWorlds After 1989 (Zentrum für Kunstund Medientechnologie Karlsruhe,Germany: 2011-2012) JAPANCONGO, Carsten Höllerʼs double-takeon Jean Pigozziʼs collection at Le Magasin, Centre national d’Art Contemporain,Grenoble, France (2011) Why Africa? (Pinacoteca Giovanni eMarella Agnelli, Turin, Italy: 2007-2008) Popular Painting fromKinshasa (Tate Modern, London, UK: 2007-2008). In 1979 Samba participated in the exhibition Moderne Kunst aus Afrika,organised in West Berlin as part of the first Horizonte-Festival derWeltkulturen. Hequestions and establishes the evolution of his material conditions, his statusas an artist, his own fame, the level of that fame, his own place and that ofhis peers in the art history of his country-and within the larger discipline ofart history. In his paintings, he comments on himself. It is also a way of keepingscholars and curators from attaching their own overly normative (or in any caseinsufficiently de-centered) narratives to his work-or from otherwise bending itto their needs. This is a way of blocking subversive interpretations, ofprotecting himself by pretending not to engage in politics, and of maintainingcontrol over the narrative of his life and work. Through his words, hecancels out the visual polysemy of his paintings, while artificially proposinga singular reading. For Samba, this is not an act of narcissism rather, like an anchor on TV news broadcasts, he places himself in his work toreport on what it means to be a successful African artist on the world stage.Ī self-proclaimed “‘undisciplinable’hero,” Chéri Samba likes to throw people off track. From the late 1980s on, he himself becamethe main subject of his paintings. The paintings to be presentedin this exhibition, courtesy of MAGNIN-A Paris, “J'aime bien son dos”, “LeRisque du métier”, “Les relations inutiles”, “Je ne suis pas aimé”, offer arunning commentary on popular customs, sexuality, AIDS and other illnesses,social inequalities, and corruption. Samba's paintings of this period reveal hisperception of the social, political, economic and cultural realities of Zaïre,exposing all facets of everyday life in Kinshasa. Atthe age of sixteen he left his village to find work as a sign painter in thecapital Kinshasa, where he began to develop a body of works that combinedrepresentational painting and text. Currently living and working out of Kinshasa, Samba began his careeras an artist without anyformal education, starting out as a sign painterbefore joining Moké and Bodo, along with his younger brother CheikLedy.Together they run one of the most popular schools of painting. Chéri Samba was born in the Democratic Republicof Congo.
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