Mode Muntu, the Modest Man
A conversation between author Michael De Plaen and art critic Patrick Tankama will take place on Monday 28th January at the October Gallery (24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AL). It will focus on the life and works of Mode Muntu, about whom Michael De Plaen published a monograph.
Jan Hoet, curator of SMAK, the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, in Ghent, said of Mode Muntu that he would be the painter of the 21st century. And this is precisely what Michael De Plaen's monograph, published by Prisme Editions, intends to show.
This original monograph reveals a painter whose humility ('the Modest Man') in no way restrains his genre-breaking work. In the unsettled context of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the mid-20th century, outside any kind of conformism, Mode Muntu paved the way for original pictorial art rooted in his culture. This book is the result of years of work and thorough research on the part of De Plaen, who established himself as an internation specialist of the painter, keen on makig the world acknowledge the originality and dynamism of Congolese cultural life.
Mode Muntu's works were famously exhibited at the Fondation Cartier for their exhibition "Beauté Congo 1926-2015 Congo Kitoko". De Plaen also contributed to the exhibition catalogue with an enlightening article about the Congolese painter.
Modeste Ngoy Mukulu Muntu was a "Lushois" painter born in 1940. Laurent Moonens, then the director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Lubumbashi, invited him to join the Academie in the 50's, launching his career.
Mode Muntu's work became internationally popular when he was exibited alongside major painters from Congo (such as Pili-Pili, or Mwenze to name a few) during the 1958 Exposition Universelle in Brussels.
Unfortunately, his career went underground during the troubled 60s, only to resurface almost a decade later with the help of The Institute of National Museum from Zaire.
The 70's heralded a prosperous era for painting in DR Congo, as the economy was also thriving. In 1974, Muntu was the recipient of an award from the African Art magazine, and he took part in various exhibitions across DR Congo until his sudden death in 1985, while he was painting Le Linceul (The Shroud), ominously forecasting his own death...
Mode Muntu's oeuvre departs radically from his contemporaries' works. Where his colleagues prefered oil on canvas, Muntu developed a unique vernacular technique using gouache on paper board. He heavily drew from the Luba mythology and cosmogony, as well as his own demons.
This event is reservation only. Please contact vicky.itt@gmail.com.
Michaël De Plaen was born in 1979 in Lubumbashi (D.R.C.). As a child, he was free to roam around the town museum where his parents worked as curator and researcher. He was thus lucky enough to meet many artists, including Mode Muntu, who would become a major influence.
In spite of his passion for drawing, he enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences in Liège, during which period he was one of the trailblazers in university radio, hosted cultural broadcasts, wrote a column on cartoon books for a Luxembourg newspaper, worked at night as a DJ and helped organise exhibitions (Moebius, Bilal, etc.).
Having graduated, Michaël set off in a completely different direction - photography. The training he received at the Institut Saint-Luc de Liège confirmed him in the thought that he had made the right choice, as he has been a professional photographer since 2009. His first photoreports, in Cairo and Canada, tackled lost traditions, urban demography and identity. Michaël began to specialise more and more in the photographic reproduction of paintings and sculptures, without ever forgetting his interest in social and urban issues, and won several prizes in 2015, including the Prix de la Presse Belfius, for the transmedia documentary “#Salaudsdepauvres” (Instants Production).
Patrick Tankama is the artistic Director and Curator of Afrika 55, alongside writers Lindelwa Kisana and Thato Nkwatsha. Born in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, he arrived in South Africa in 2009 for his first exhibition in the Mother City (Alliance Française and the Cape Town Central Library, 2009-2010). He's lived in Cape Town ever since.
He published a number of short stories and poems in Belgium, Canada and France. In 2007, Patrick was the guest of writer Amélie Nothomb, after winning a national literary contest in the DRC.
Patrick is also the creator of many cultural workshops and exhibitions dedicated to public of all ages, and has created a library, Mille-feuilles, to help underprivileged classes access art and culture.
His recent activities include 'Presence Congolaise' (2015), an exhibition dedicated to Congoleses artists living in Cape Town, a workshop on the history of Congolese art, and the exhibition 'Malebo : History of Congolese art from the late 19th century onwards'.
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