With Kuba Kings and Kehinde, a Kinshasa painter rises above the fray
The painter Hilary Balu at his studio in Kinshasa, Congo, April 20, 2021. In Kinshasa, art is everywhere. Hilary Balu finds his focus uncovering the Wests powerful influences on African life. Ashley Gilbertson/The New York Times.
by Dionne Searcey
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- When painter Hilary Balu was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, one of the most populous cities on the African continent, he learned about all the masters: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and so on, until his curriculum turned to royal portraiture.
He marveled at the 16th century images of men and women posed in gaudy, elaborate frocks. But he wondered, where were the Africans? He decided to find out.
With Kuba Kings and Kehinde, a Painter Rises Above the Fray
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Artist Alfred Conteh and advisor Jeremiah Ojo. Photo: Funmi Foster (Out The Frame Photography).
A few years ago, the former Atlanta art dealer Jeremiah Ojo was FaceTiming with an artist when he noticed in the background some figural paintings incorporating African fabrics. Thinking the work had potential, he reached out to the artist who made them, an MFA student by the name of Patrick Quarm.
Ojo arranged for Quarm to show his paintings to a Houston-based collector of African diasporan art. Loading a bunch of work into a rental car, Quarm drove nine hours to the meeting which ended with him securing his first art patron.
African Cities, Known for Their Vibrant Cultures, Will Be the Next Big Travel Destinations Naledi K. Khabo © Neil Leifer/Getty
I was born in South Africa and raised in the United States, after my father was forced to leave the country for resisting the apartheid regime. My connection to my birth country and the rest of the continent has shaped my life and career. I have a unique position within the diaspora: Unlike me, many Black Americans will never be able to trace their ancestry to a specific place the way I can. For them, heritage travel is about exploring the land that has shaped our people and culture. It s about finding connections and traces of the familiar.
I was born in South Africa and raised in the United States, after my father was forced to leave the country for resisting the apartheid regime. My connection to my birth country and the rest of the continent has shaped my life and career. I have a unique position within the diaspora: Unlike me, many Black Americans will never be able to trace their ancestry to a specific place the way I can. For them, heritage travel is about exploring the land that has shaped our people and culture. It s about finding connections and traces of the familiar.
Travel to Africa has historically been seen through a Western lens and has been dominated by the idea of going on safari. This is changing: I have been excited to see African culture draw greater international attention as it plays a larger role in fashion, music, art, and food around the world. Of course, Africa s cultural side is something that many Blacks within the diaspora have known about and honored for decades: Celebrities and thought le
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