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Little Kadogo, I am for Peace, That is Why I Like Weapons

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Little Kadogo, I am for Peace, That is Why I Like Weapons

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At this point in time the people in the Congo are not being treated well by the government. Many people are afraid to stick up for themselves against the government, but not Samba. He specifically addresses political issues by painting a child solider with the words “I am for peace, that is why I like weapons." Some people where offended by his strong point of view on the situation but Samba was known to express his political and economic views and made a strong point to do this.

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Samba made this comic style painting describing parts of his life. When Samba was young he couldn't afford real art supplies or classes so, he learned from billboards and comics that he saw in his everyday life. This helped him to develop his style of artwork that helped the basis of his painting/ art career.

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In the mid 1980s Samba had the honor to show this along with many other works at Les Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. This is major breakthrough for Samba because it allowed him to become known internationally. From this experience, many museums asked to buy his paintings and put them on Display starting the beginning of Samba's Career as a famous artist.
(Other meusiums such as Pompidou Center(Africa Remix), Fondation Cartier, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, The Venice Biennale, Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf, National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Provincial Museum Voor Moderne Kunst in Ostende,... )

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This is one of Samba's most famous paintings and was sold in 2005. Samba was part of an exhibition Africa explores 1996- when he made this painting creating a new art form. Samba's uses his unorthodox style and creativity to create his paintings which differentiates himself from the other artists.

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UNE VIE NON RATÉE
(A SUCCESSFUL LIFE)
Cheri Samba’s main goal was to display his African history through his art in an intriguing and beautiful way. This painting shows what life was like for an average person during their everyday life in their communities. The fathers are very invested in their cars and they take lots of pride in them, while the women do the house work and take care of the children. Samba is an activist and uses his popularity to create awareness of the place where he grew up.

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Above is an image of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are very vibrant colors in many different areas in this picture, showing where Samba gets his inspiration for his use of bright colors and textures throughout his paintings.

Then Samba left his home and moved to Kansasha when he was only six-teen. This is an  image of Kinsasha  This is clearly a higher class city, and it's very impressive that  Samba was able to make a living for himself here at such a young age.

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The main point of the Popular paintings movement was to display humor, everyday life, social hierarchy, and economical, social, and political. Samba along with many other self taught artist from the Congo took place in this movement. This movement is a major turning point for these artists because it was very famous and helped them to gain recognition and gain their cultural ideas recognition.

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Bright blocks of color depict crowds, nudes, bars and car crashes with little regard for perspective or depth, while spidery words crawl over entire sections of some paintings. This is the work of the DR Congo's School of Popular Painting, which sprung up in the wake of the country's independence to offer a gritty and joyful depiction of life in the country's capital.

The School was founded by Chéri Samba in the mid 1970s in Kinshasa, the capital of what was then Zaire. He was joined by fellow Kinshasa artists Bodo, Chéri Chérin, Moké and later his own younger brother, Cheik Ledy, and the group became one of the most influential African art movements of the 20th century.

The group's style reveled in the colorful and bold, using text and contemporary reference points to make pointed political statements. Their founding ideology was that art can influence national history and identity, and the work acts as a document of the city's development through the 1980s and 1990s to the present day.

The term "popular" was taken on as a badge of the School's mission: to reflect day to day life and popular art. At the time, they were viewed as subordinate to more traditional, Western-influenced fine artists, but their roots in poster painting, street art and advertising signage became their trademark and contributed hugely to their growing popularity. From the 1980s Chéri Samba began signing his work Chéri Samba: Artiste Populaire as a defiant testament to his work's popularity with and focus on the people of Kinshasa, as opposed to art critics and academics.

With the exception of Chéri Chérin, the artists were largely self-taught, which further explains their disengagement with the mainstream art world. Cheri Samba began his career as a sign painter for an advertising company in Kinshasa, and the craft's block colors and textual elements survive in his later work. His paintings often feature commentary, painted over the work's surface in a mixture of languages (French, English, Lingala and a French patois). He was inspired by the use of text in comic strips and the interaction of speech, figures and commentary.

Samba once said that he included this commentary as a way of "not allowing freedom of interpretation" for the viewer - unlike other 20th century artists (the Expressionists or Cubists, for example) Samba felt his work had a direct focus or meaning. This urge to control the way a work was received may have roots in the turbulent political situation in the country, and the desire of the School as a whole to communicate a specific message that could not be commandeered by proponents of other ideologies.

In 1975 Samba opened his own studio in the city, and became influenced by the work of local artists Moké and Bodo. Moké, born Monsengwo Kejwamfi, moved to the city as an orphan when he was ten, and made his living by painting on pieces of cardboard. While he made his name in 1965 with a depiction of General Mobutu on Independence Day, Moké's style was, in general, less political than Samba's. The two share their use of bold colors (and Moké arguably influenced Samba heavily) but Moké's work followed the daily life of Kinshasa, generally avoiding social conflict or political content. Compositions painstakingly pick out every face at an outdoor bar, or show women in extreme, playful outfits.

Pierre Bodo (known as "Bodo") left high school to move to Kinshasa in 1970. His work, unlike that of the rest of the group, engaged with sorcery (known as "Ndoki Zoba" in the Congo). His style evolved over time to become more and more surreal, often depicting scenes from his dreams or imagination.

Chéri Chérin (born Joseph Kinkonda) gravitated towards the group after studying at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa. Even during his studies, he was attracted to the city's poster-painting and popular artists, rather than the fine art of his training. His busy, people-filled pieces were often painted as murals around the city, allowing the work to interact with the community it depicts.

While the School remains based and largely influenced by life in Kinshasa, increased international recognition has lead to a subtle shift in the artists' themes and subject matter. Chéri Samba's international breakthrough came when he exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1989. Les Magiciens de la Terre was an exhibition of contemporary art which aimed to confront colonial stereotypes perpetuated by previous exhibitions in internationally renowned galleries ( Primitivism at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, was particularly controversial). Samba exhibited L'espoir fait vivre ("Hope enables us to live"), a biographical self-portrait which uses painting as collage or documentary to narrate his own path as an artist.

Samba's work, from that point onward, became more self-reflexive, examining the experiences of a world-renowned African artist. He features in many of his works as a presenter of his surroundings, perhaps displaying a consciousness that the School's art, while reflecting the everyday and the 'popular', was always viewed through the eyes of individuals.

Bodo, too, expanded his focus beyond Kinshasa, delving more and more into dreams and fantasy to make his work appeal more broadly. He said, "I express everything that happens to me, so that I am no longer focused on specifically African topics and can address myself to the entire world."

Moké died in 2001, but three members of the group (Bodo, Chéri Samba and Chéri Chérin) still work and live in Kinshasa today. The Contemporary Africa Art Collection ( CAAC) holds the single largest collection of the group's art, and regularly lends out collections to galleries internationally. In 2008, London's Tate Modern held a display of eight paintings from the school, which was the first time the gallery had hosted a collection from artists living and working in Africa.

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The Zaire School of Popular Painting: An Art of Independence

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Bright blocks of color depict crowds, nudes, bars and car crashes with little regard for perspective or depth, while spidery words crawl over entire sections of some paintings. This is the work of the DR Congo's School of Popular Painting, which sprung up in the wake of the country's independence to offer a gritty and joyful depiction of life in the country's capital.

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Samba was an activist and wanted to express his views through his art work on political and economic issues. This painting is of Samba sitting on a stool surrounded by colorful artwork representing his African culture and thoughts that he expressed in the paintings. He is sitting at ease knowing that he has done good by expressing his ideas and letting future generations know that they shouldn't be afraid to display what they feel.

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La vraie carte du monde (The Real Map of The World)

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La vraie carte du monde (The Real Map of The World)

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One of the things Samba was know for was his various takes on self portraits. I this painting he is showing 'the real map of the world' and uses many colors to display this. Samba uses these many colors to show that life is very diverse but overall we should all feel peace and enjoy our riches no matter where you live (these are peaceful colors representing peace)- Samba wants to spread the idea that the world should come together and feel peace and there should be no judgment for where you grew up.

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Interview of Samba talking about his life

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Interview of Samba talking about his life

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I made sure to use a vibrant back round with many color blocking geometric shapes as a tribute to Sambas art style. The text boxes are also strong primary colors that would Samba use in many of his paintings to display his african culture.