Projects

Congolines: Inscribing Lines, Weaving Threads. Congolese Colonial Paintings as Images and Objects

HO.0.1.519, collection RMCA Tervuren Albert Lubaki. Bas Congo. Around 1930. (Watercolor on paper).

This project aims to reconstruct the history of Congolese painting from precolonial through colonial times, focusing on collections at the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Royal Library of Belgium. By examining various art forms that emerged in the Belgian Congo in the first half of the 20th century under European patronage, the research repositions these works within longstanding practices of visual art while also exploring their role as products of a unique “contact zone.”

The project prioritizes Congolese perspectives, investigating how these artworks were embedded within local communities and how colonial patronage influenced their creation. Through collection-based research, fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and archival study, it explores the historical, social, and artistic significance of these works both in Congo and Europe.

In collaboration with Congolese institutions, the project also seeks to expand access to these collections for Congolese audiences through digital resources and exhibitions.

This research project focuses upon the first paintings produced by Congolese in the DR Congo just before and during the colonial era, which show the influence of contact with westerners: (1) 19th century mural paintings that merged pre-existing techniques and scenes with representations of Europeans and European-introduced artefacts (RMCA and KBR collections) and (2) water and oil paintings made during the 1920s and 1950s which used techniques introduced by Europeans and whose themes include figurative and/or abstract representations (RMCA collections).

Overall, these paintings have been under-researched and their stories remain untold: more is known about the western collectors, patrons and photographers who constituted or photographed the collections than about the Congolese artists who created the works and their meanings from a Congolese perspective. This project will conduct the first ever field research on these paintings in collaboration with Congolese, with particular attention to paintings made by female artists. The research aims to (1) inscribe the art works in the long history of Congolese drawing by means of a holistic and comparative approach to diverse regional traditions, which includes other precolonial, colonial and postcolonial (im)material cultural heritage; (2) uncover their as yet untold regional im-portance and meanings, as opposed to Eurocentric interpretations; (3) investigate them as artefacts of the contact zone in order to (3.1) foreground their importance as images or performative power objects from a Congolese perspective and/or (3.2) objects that were collected, appreciated and ex-hibited by westerners and influenced western artists and designers, and that were integrated into Congolese art history and, to a lesser extent collections (most are held in western collections); (4) write their reception history; (5) restitute the collections in various ways to Congolese on a regional and national level.

Principal investigator:

Bambi Ceuppens

Dates:

2021 2027

Museum staff:

External collaborators:

Joris Van Grieken, KBR
Vicky Van Bockhaven, UGent
Placide Mumbembele Sanger, UNIKIN
Ophélie Laloy, doctoral student at VUB and KBR
Yvette Nyalusala Ikando, doctoral student at UGent
Michée Diansana, doctoral student at UNIKIN