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Painting

National Museum of African Art

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Object Details

Bela, born 1920, Republic of Chad
Sara artist
Label Text
This small painting is by Bela Sara, one of the members of the Lubumbashi painting atelier which was a key modernist movement in central Africa. Established by amateur artist-patron Pierre Romain-Desfossés in the late 1940s, the atelier was variously known as "Le Hangar," the "Elisabethville Indigenous Art Studio" and the Académie des beaux arts and produced a significant body of successful decorative works. Desfossés, like a number of colleagues such as Frank McEwen in Rhodesia and Pierre Lods in Brazzaville, expounded a laissez-faire approach to teaching while simultaneously providing his students with certain palettes and "native" inspirations to pursue their work.
A dynamic composition in blues, greens and ochres, the painting depicts a hunter, acompanied by two dogs, slaughtering a rabbit. The work obtains its lively manner from the application of hundreds of finger-painted dots--a technique common in Bela's paintings, which often depict a wide variety of flora and fauna scenes endowed with a great sense of color and movement.
Description
Oil on paper painting in blues, greens and ochres depicting a man holding an axe, acompanied by two dogs, and slaughtering a rabbit. Flowering or fruiting trees flank the man and animals.
Provenance
Laurance S. Rockefeller, New York, 1949 to 2002
[traveled to the Congo in 1949; then safari to East Africa May 9 -27, 1953]
Exhibition History
Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 18, 2002-January 5, 2003
Content Statement
As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
Image Requests
High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
Credit Line
Anonymous gift
ca. 1940s-1950s
Object number
2002-11-1
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
Oil on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 24.5 x 29.5 cm (9 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.)
Geography
Democratic Republic of the Congo
See more items in
National Museum of African Art Collection
National Museum of African Art
Topic
dog
weapon
rabbit
tree
male
Record ID
nmafa_2002-11-1
Metadata Usage (text)
Usage conditions apply
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys75a0f0eb2-2dee-4674-99fd-e8533827bd94

Related Content

  • Dog: Museum’s Best Friend

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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