BODYS ISEK KINGELEZ | BEL ATLAS

Diego Cortez Arte Ltd., New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1998

In 2018, MoMa hosted a complete retrospective of Bodys Isek Kingelez’s work, making him the first black African artist to ever enjoy a solo show at the renowned institution. Spanning over three decades of creation, Kingelez: City Dreams featured a selection of works by the Congolese artist, much of which had rarely been seen before.

Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948-2015) was born in the rural village of Kimbembele-Ihunga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then the Belgian Congo). Growing up with eight siblings in a family of agricultural laborers, Kingelez became aware of his creative potential at a young age. He excelled in calligraphy, a skill that was to have a lasting influence on his work. Leaving behind his rural home at the age of 22, Kingelez studied in the bustling city of Kinshasa, working first as a teacher. In 1978, Kingelez abandoned this profession due to the realisation that he wanted to contribute, in his own way, to the fight for a decolonised Africa. The artist recounts:

‘I combined all my efforts so that Africa would always be heard. I had the conviction to find the best way of obtaining my objectives, and so I began a repertoire of ideas within the little room I was living in at that time. Then, for about a month, I went through a troubled and vague period and it was at that moment that I was overcome with an almost obsessive desire to pick up a pair of scissors, a Gillette razor, glue and paper.'

During the 70s and 80s, Kingelez’s artistic practice was bolstered by his work as an art technician at the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Zaïre (IMNZ, now the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo); where he honed his craftsmanship through repairing artworks from the collection. Additionally, the systematic cataloguing approach employed by the museum likely influenced the numbering system which he used to label his artworks.

Kingelez worked during an era of tremendous change. Straddled between colonial and post-colonial periods, he used his work to envision a forward-thinking, peaceful and prosperous future, untainted by economic disparity. His political engagement continually manifests itself in his sculptures.

The artist used brightly coloured commercial packaging and commonplace materials, such as milk cartons, bottle caps and razors, to create utopian worlds complete with dream-like pavilions, skyscrapers, pagodas and even completely original constructions. The artist’s cityscapes are flamboyant and fantastical metropolises; worlds where racial and geopolitical barriers come tumbling down. Kingelez’s 'extreme maquettes' echo the physicality of the industrialized city that he grew up in. His vibrant yet orderly cities reflect the impact of Space Race-influenced Soviet architecture on a newly post-colonial Africa as well as the Art Deco buildings of colonial times. Kinshasa presented

Kingelez with a patchwork of structural and design inspiration.

In 1989, Kingelez was invited to participate in the landmark contemporary art exhibition Magiciens de la Terre, held at the esteemed Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle de la Villette. The artist exhibited six sculptures in the highly influential exhibition, which placed ‘Western’ and ‘Non-Western’ artists on an equal footing. In the same year as the exhibition, during Kingelez’s six months stay in Paris, the artist became increasingly influenced by the city’s architecture, especially the newly inaugurated Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris. The Grande Arche is referenced in the present lot, Bel Atlas (1989). Bel Atlas emulates the distinctive hollow, arch-like form and grandeur of the landmark, which was built for the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Although predominantly monochrome, the bursts of colour differentiate the structure from other municipal buildings we recognize. The decorative ridges and outlines are painted bright purple, adding animation to the physical mass of the building. This sculpture embodies Kingelez’s playful approach to design. The building’s design is symmetrical but dynamic, with a variety of shapes incorporated into one form.

Works by Kingelez can be found in many prominent private collections and have been featured in numerous key international exhibitions such as the Johannesburg Biennale (1997), Documenta 11 (2002), Beauté Congo at the Foundation Cartier (Paris), African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection at the Museum of Fine Art Houston (2005) and the traveling Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent (2004).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Beauté Congo, Fondation Cartier, Paris, 2015-2016, p. 253

Bodys Isek Kingelez, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018, pp. 20 -23