Envisioning "Modern" African Art:
Expatriates and Painters in Brazzaville, Congo

Joanna Grabski Ochsner

Introduction

During the colonial period in Africa, European expatriates across the continent established art schools intended to provide local artists with work space and artistic training. Of the art schools, the Poto-Poto School of Painting in Brazzaville, Congo has been described as the "most historically important" (Mount 1973: 83) and "the most significant in terms of longevity and widespread influence" (Deliss 1996: 300). Since its establishment in 1951, the school has been a vital location for the creation, exhibition, and sale of painter's art (Figure 1).

While conducting pre-dissertation research in Brazzaville during the summer of 1996, I learned that the relationship between expatriates and the Poto-Poto artists, which characterized the school's establishment and development, is still an important feature of the school. As in the past, expatriates continue to be involved in both training the artists and consuming the art works. In this paper, I examine the relationship between expatriates and artists in Brazzaville by way of two specific examples: Pierre Lods, an employee of the French colonial administration, who founded the Poto-Poto School in 1951; and James McGrath, an American artist hired by the United States Information Service in 1995 to sponsor a workshop for the artists. By examining the roles of Lods and McGrath, this paper explores how the interactions between expatriates and artists have informed and continue to shape art works produced at the Poto-Poto School of Painting.

 

The School's Early Years

As an amateur painter and mathematics teacher, the French expatriate Pierre Lods did not intend to create an art school during his tenure in Brazzaville. Rather, he founded the school after "discovering" his cook Ossali using his oil paints and brushes to depict bird-like silhouettes on an old nautical map of the Oubangi. According to Lods, Ossali painted with "all the superb purity and simplicity of line that is found in African art" (Mount 1973:84 ).

An account written by Lods notes that Ossali, after seeing Lods' enthusiastic reaction, invited his relatives and friends to experiment with the paints (Mount 1973: 84). Upon noting the painter's interest in this new activity, Lods dedicated himself "to saving" the "essential spirit" of African an and helping "it adapt to modern African life" (Tati-Loutard 1978: 26, 31). While we today might find the latter assertion explicitly paternalistic and somewhat naive, Lods' philosophy is reflective of the colonial era during which he lived. Nevertheless, it is significant that Lods not only recognized but actively supported creative expression in Brazzaville. Along these lines, Lods proposed a plan for an artist's studio in Brazzaville's Poto-Poto arrondissement and gained the approval of the Division of Colonial Social Affairs. In June 1951 Lods opened his studio with ten or so painters, one of whom was his cook Ossali.

The renown of the Poto-Poto School is due in pan to Lods' method of instruction. Unlike other art schools founded in Africa at the same time, the Poto-Poto School was premised on Lods' conviction that his students' artistic personalities should evolve independently from Western influence. That is, Lods expected students to draw from their own creativity, knowledge, and inspiration. In the words of Jean-Baptiste Tati-Loutard, the former Congolese Minister of Culture and a collector of Poto-Poto paintings, "Lods' mode of operation was for the artists to express their own sensibility and originality. He wanted them to produce according to their own culture" (Tati-Loutard, interview, 1996).

Thus, Lods provided materials associated with Western art such as drawing paper, canvas, brushes and tubes of paint. Yet, he did not cultivate among the artists familiarity with the subject matter and compositional techniques of Western art. In fact, he hesitated to provide any formal instruction "for fear of seeing them affected by extemal influences" (Tati-Loutard 1978: 28). Instead, Lods constructed an environment which reveals his vision of "modern" African an as subjects of so-called traditional life recast with paint on canvas.

At the school, Lods surrounded his "student painters with traditional African objects, and in the grounds" he "grew a large variety of native plants" (Mount 1973: 85). To encourage that inspiration for the paintings be drawn only from local legends and traditions, Lods also read African proverbs, legends and "poems written by African authors or by Europeans" on Africa (Mount 1973: 85). Moreover, Lods preferred for the painters to use the medium of gouache because he thought it most resembled the colors used traditionally for decorating murals, coloring woodcarvings, and painting bodies (Lebeuf 1956: 280). Lods believed that the paintings his students made as a result of this method of instruction "were purely African in essence" (Mount 1973: 85).

In many respects, the early works from the Poto-Poto School are united thematically and stylistically. Most depict scenes of drumming, hunting, fishing, dancing, warring, market scenes, village scenes, and masquerade performances. Paintings from the school's early years not only focus on scenes associated with so-called traditional life, they also generally exclude references to Western subjects such as European-style houses, cinema, fashion, cars, motorcycles and bicycles -- all of which were an everyday part of life in 1950s Brazzaville (Martin 1995). Indeed, these images correspond with Lods vision of "modern" African art and Congolese culture. Yet, this paper must also ask questions related to the artists' choices for not doing so denies the artist's agency, their importance in creating art and culture. First of all, why did the artists want to work at the school? Likewise, why did the artists choose to represent certain themes and omit others? Moreover, how and why were these works significant for the artists? These are all questions I will pursue in my future research.

Although it is no longer possible to interview the artists who worked at the school during the 1950s and little documentation exists on their perspectives, based on my field experience, I propose that the early Poto-Poto artists did much more than simply follow Lods' direction. Like the artists working at the school today, the early artists were surely aware of their consumers' preferences and the perception of African art in the expatriate consumer's imagination. That is, the first generation of Poto-Poto artists actively and thoughtfully evaluated the expectations of Pierre Lods and the expatriate audience who purchased the art works.

Financial incentive undoubtedly figured into this negotiation between artistic production and consumer's demand. While the school received partial funding from the French colonial administration in Africa, it functioned as a cooperative which divided the profit from a painting's sale equally between the artist and the school. According to Tati-Loutard, the French government also provided the artists with scholarship money to participate in the school (Tati-Loutard, interview, 1996). Considering that the majority of Lods' students had no primary school education and were most often unemployed, scholarship money and the promise of financial reward from the sale of their works was surely enticing (Tati-Loutard 1978: 28).

 

The Artist Today

During the course of the school's history, several significant changes have occurred in the artist's subject matter and styles, their training, and the consumer profile. The thirty artists working at the school today depict a broad array of subjects ranging from urban cityscapes and scenes of social commentary (Figure 2) to tourist souvenirs (Figure 3). As in the Poto-Poto School's early years, artists continue to produce paintings which resonate with themes drawn from their Congolese and Pan-African cultural heritage. When asked why they paint these subjects, the artists responded with a range of explanations. The artist Chantal Banzouzi, who renders images of masks, expressed that such themes satisfy the demand of consumers. Namely, she commented that she paints masks associated with the Lower Zaire River Basin "because people like for us to paint these themes" (Banzouzi, interview, 1996). The artist Bernadine Alouna offered a different perspective. In discussing why she chose to represent two, as she described them, "anonymous masks," she focused on the graphic potential of the forms (Figure 4). Alouna maintained that these shapes are ideal for her to make use of complementary colors and play with dimensions, perspective, and detail (Alouna, interview, 1996).

For other artists, these themes represent what they envision as their artistic legacy. Their comments suggest that the notion of "tradition" is a cultural resource upon which they, as Congolese artists, can draw to enrich cultural memory in Brazzaville. The twenty-three year old artist Ren6 Bokouloumba, who has lived in Brazzaville his entire life, made the following statement: "We refer to tradition when we make these paintings. These are memories we bear in mind. This is why an American painter could never make our paintings" (Bokouloumba, interview, 1996). Similarly, while discussing his portrayal of a Teke sculpture (Figure 5) artist Sylvestre Mangouandza emphasized, "this is art and tradition and ritual from our country" Mangouandza, interview, 1996).

During the school's early years, most works were purchased by French colonial administrators and other European expatriates. According to the artists I interviewed, the paintings today are purchased by both Congolese and an international clientele which includes expatriates, tourists, and employees of the multinational oil companies working in Congo. That Congolese are now important consumers of the art works suggests that such images are deployed to make sense of Congolese history, contemporary culture, and ethnic and national identity. Most of all, the diversity of the consuming audience suggests that these images are significant for the artists and the buyers in multiple and varied ways.

Whereas the artists, supposedly sheltered from "external influences," worked independently during the school's early years, today they are instructed by artists from the school's first generation who are now considered the "masters." The artists typically paint on the school's veranda and in the adjacent courtyard where they also participate in peer review and pedagogical exchange. Their education entails aspects of art history and folklore as well as studio training in composition, color theory, and technique. Moreover, every artist I interviewed discussed the importance of embracing a global perspective which includes studying abroad and participation in international exhibitions.

Last summer, while discussing their training, several artists referred to a workshop they attended at the American Cultural Center-Brazzaville in September of 1995. The workshop, which lasted 7 weeks and involved 23 artists, was sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS). Initiated by Thomas Dougherty, the former Director of Brazzaville's American Cultural Center, the workshop's aims were twofold: it sought to address the artists' difficulties in obtaining paints and acquaint them with strategies for marketing their art works.

To organize and conduct the workshop, Dougherty invited American artist James McGrath, to Brazzaville. Before his departure for Brazzaville, McGrath consulted numerous publications to learn about artistic and cultural life in Congo. Once in Brazzaville, McGrath surveyed the art scene by visiting the Poto-Poto School and the studios of artists, such as Michel Hengo and Rémy Mongo Etsion, who are not affiliated with the school. His impression was that Brazzaville's art scene was experiencing an economic and creative slump. McGrath's observations were corroborated by the opinions of expatriates he met in Brazzaville. They remarked, for instance, that the same overpriced works still hang on the walls of the Poto-Poto School as they have in the past (McGrath, interview, 1996).

For McGrath, who has conducted such workshops in a variety of countries for over four decades, traditional arts and local materials are resources to revitalize contemporary artistic production. As McGrath expressed, "the source of art is tradition...the artists need to keep their feet in tradition and their hands and hearts in the contemporary world. They need to make a bridge" (McGrath, interview, 1996). With this in mind, the workshop's primary goal was for the artists "to learn to draw on what they are as Congolese artists, to look at their own environment, their own culture" (McGrath, interview, 1996). In keeping with this goal, the workshop's activities centered on the recognition and use of the local natural environment and the local cultural arts.

To deal with the dearth of art supplies in Brazzaville, McGrath proposed that imported supplies be substituted with indigenous materials. In place of canvas, for instance, participants painted on woven fiber chair seats and backs from nearby markets (Figure 6). For paints, participants gathered soil from the streets, gardens, and the Congo river basin. They used these materials to prepare a palette of 25 natural earth pigments. The Congo river and surrounding foliage figured prominently into the workshop's activities as they are essential features of the natural environment from which the artists were encouraged to draw inspiration. For example, at the edge of the Congo River, the artists visually recorded the ripples and shadows of flowing water. Later, each artist wrote a poem entitled, "I am the River" and translated it into a watercolor representation (Figure 7). Other workshop activities included McGrath demonstrating the use of wax crayon and turpentine as media to express various Central African mask forms (Figure 8). Artists also reinterpreted Pygmy loin cloths and Kuba textile designs using brayers and acrylic paint combined with twigs and ink (Figure 9).

As the culminating activity of the workshop, the artists collaborated to produce a multi-media sculpture. The sculpture was composed of twenty-one carved and painted wooden poles. To these, the artists attached an assemblage of found objects, primarily those culled from their immediate daily environment. This an work, which was installed on the grounds of the American Embassy, recalls a well-known central African art object -- the power sculpture -- both conceptually and visually (Figure10).

Before the workshop came to a close with a final exhibition held at the American Cultural Center, McGrath had a pricing meeting with the artists. At this time the artists agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to keep prices at the workshop's final exhibition to less than $200. This price ceiling resulted from the assessment on behalf of expatriates that prices at the Poto-Poto School were too high, an opinion which in itself raises several questions about the value of contemporary African art. The final exhibition, which featured more than 550 art works, was attended by expatriates and Congolese alike. During an interview, McGrath recounted that the exhibited works were purchased by employees of American, German, Chinese, and Russian embassies; the Peace Corps and the Marines; and missionaries -- all of whom, according to McGrath, seemed to prefer art works which were "related to Congolese culture and had a Congolese appearance" (McGrath, interview, 1996).

Interestingly, at the time of my research in Brazzaville, nearly one year after the workshop, several artists were still working with the palette of natural earth pigments introduced by McGrath. Composed of local soils and water-based glue, this medium resolves the challenge of obtaining oil paints which are virtually unavailable in Congo. The artist Bemadine Alouna uses this medium to deal with a variety of subjects, not only those promoted in the USIS workshop. By choosing to work with certain materials presented in the workshop and rejecting others, Alouna illustrates that artists in Brazzaville continually reassess and thoughtfully revise their technical training.

It is also significant that, prior to the USIS workshop, artists devised innovative solutions enabling them to circumvent the difficulty of obtaining paints. The artist Thierry Bongoualanga, for instance, uses the collage technique. In his collage works Thierry uses magazine advertisements from Balafon, the magazine of Air Afrique and Atlas, the magazine of Air France, both of which are readily available in Brazzaville. Like Bemadine's usage of natural earth pigments, Thierry's innovative use of collage exemplifies Mary Louise Pratt's assertion that individuals do not passively accept techniques from Western art and artists. Rather, they intentionally select from and continually transform resources at their disposal (Pratt 1992: 6). These issues ofcreativity, dynamism, and choice are some of the most exciting aspects of my future research.

 

Conclusion

As this paper has discussed, the relationship between expatriates and artists in Brazzaville has had a long and rich history. Their interactions have been important forces in the production and consumption of so-called "modern" African art in Brazzaville. Both Lods in establishing the Polo-Polo School and McGrath in organizing the USIS workshop relayed their philosophies that Brazzavillois artists should draw from their own environment and look to their Congolese artistic heritage for inspiration and subject matter.

In this respect, both Lods and McGrath acted as cultural mediators involved in a dialogue with the artists. Certainly, they conveyed the expatriate audience's expectations about African art and Congolese culture. Engaged in this complex process of interaction and interpretation, the artists not only consider and evaluate the demands of the consuming audience. They also continually expand upon the visual repertoire of their predecessors; look to and beyond their experience; and attribute to their paintings a multitude of fluid meanings. Today, the expatriate vision of "modern" African art, as "traditional" themes recreated with Western media, has been transformed by the artists and the new consuming audience of Congolese as they invest significance in paintings which recall and glorify what they envision as their cultural legacy.

Selected Bibliography

Deliss, Clémentine. 1996. Seven Stories about Modeern Art in Africa. Paris: Flammarion.

Lebeuf, Jean-Paul. 1956. "L'École des peintres de Poto-Poto'Africa (London) 26, no. 3: 277-280.

Martin, Phyllis. 1995. Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mount, Marshall Ward. 1973. African Art; The Years Since 1920. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Pratt, Mary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes; Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.

Tati-Loutard, Jean-Baptiste. 1978. "The Poto-Poto School of Painting - Congo," Africa Quarterly 18, no. 1: 24-33.