The Academy of Fine Arts of Elisabethville
Thomas Bayet
Laurent Moonens in his Léopoldville atelier with artist Albert Mongita, 1948–49. (Moonens Archives)
In 1948, Laurent Moonens, an artist and teacher in Belgium, obtained a grant from the Colonial Office to relocate to the Congo for one year with the stated objective of contributing to cultural relationships between the two countries. [1] He disembarked in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) on
11 November 1948, and first settled in a temporary studio to complete several portrait commissions.
What would go on to be called the ‘Stanley Pool School’ formed spontaneously, representing a group of artists that Laurent Moonens helped both materially and with technical advice. He did not formally teach, as the artists already had a technique and style on par with European painters. Like Thiry or Pierre Romain-Desfossés before him, Moonens was interested in art that drew its inspiration from African culture.
Having spent three months in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), Moonens moved to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), where he arrived on 14 February 1949. It was while visiting the Romain-Desfossés Academy of Folk Art, known locally as ‘Le Hangar’, that Moonens became aware that it was possible to promote Congolese art while protecting it from European influence.
On 16 May 1955, the King of Belgium, Baudouin, landed in Elisabethville, one of the principal stops on his journey due to its status as being the ‘capital of copper country’. Although his official schedule did not include the Academy, King Baudouin visited it on the afternoon of Friday 27 May and, impressed by the Congolese artists, bought several works. He also gave a donation of 5000 francs and souvenirs intended for distribution among the students. Based on this positive response, Moonens planned an exhibition tour in Europe to promote the institution beyond Africa. He was favourably received during his meetings with directors, and a series of five exhibitions was organised from the end of 1955 until autumn 1956.
The Academy in Elisabethville next received institutional commissions, which is how its pupils were invited to decorate the Social Club for Le Centre Extra-Coutumier at the Arboretum, and Kabuya, Kazadi and Mode Muntu created tapestry drawings for the Colonial Pension Fund, which would be woven by the royal manufacturer De Wit in Malines.
Tapestry based on a design by Henri Charles Kazadi made for the Colonial Pension Fund by the Royal Manufacturers De Wit in Mechelen, Belgium. (P. Loos; Photo: Michael De Plaen)
Young painters working in Moonens’ garden
(from left to right) Kabuya, Djumwa, Tshilolo and Kamba. (Moonens Archives)
Moonens had the idea of focusing on young artists, convinced that their youth would give rise to a pure and progressive form. From the beginning, he made every effort not to disrupt their inspiration, while at the same time forcing them to draw on the richness lying within; not to lose themselves in repetition, which is where art disappears—points on which Moonens and Romain-Desfossés were in complete agreement.
Among the teenagers recruited during the 1953 school year were those who would become the Academy’s ‘leading’ pupils and the first to be awarded a diploma, including Alphonse Djumwa, Joseph Kabongo, Célestin Kabuya, Jean-Bosco Kamba, Henri Kazadi, Edouard Tshilolo and Floribert Mwembia. Remaining faithful to his approach, Moonens offered additional practical subjects—such as promotional and architectural design and general applied arts—while also realising the necessity for adding general education classes.
On 31 March 1954, lung cancer took the life of Romain-Desfossés. The following year, the district requested that Moonens take on Romain-Desfossés’ artists, which is how the ‘D’ Section (named for Desfossés) was born. Situated within the Academy, it harboured the artists who had been working at Le Hangar, namely the painters Bela, Pili Pili, Mwenze and Kaballa. [2] The artists received a stipend and half of the sales. The other half remained available to them as a social fund. In addition to their artistic activities, Pili Pili, Mwenze and Kaballa were trained by Moonens as assistants. Bela and Kaballa quickly left the D Section; Pili Pili remained for a while but adjusted poorly to the administrative constraints. In the end, only Mwenze Kibwanga continued to teach at the Academy, going on to become a full-time instructor in the 1960s, and ending his teaching career there in the 1980s.
Pili Pili and Mwenze Kibwanga each presenting a painting to King Baudouin during his visit. Standing next to Mwenze is Laurent Moonens. Cropped out on the right side of Moonens is Bela standing with one of his own paintings. (Moonens Archives)
Minister of the Colonies, Auguste Buisseret, visiting the exhibition of Bela, Pili Pili, Mwenze and Kaballa at the Galerie
au Cheval de Verre in March 1956. (Dierickx Archives; P. Loos Archives)
Joseph Kabongo painting a mural in the hall of the Elisabethville Theater. (Moonens Archives; Photo: Laurent Moonens)
Mwenze, Kabuya, Mwembia and Kabongo (from left to right) at the foot of the Atomium building during their trip to Belgium for Expo 58. (Moonens Archives; Photo: Laurent Moonens)
It was also in 1956 that the Academy was entrusted with the decoration of a theatre in Elisabethville. [3]
In 1958, the Académie d’Elisabethville was invited to contribute to the decoration of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi pavilion in Brussels, erected for the famous ‘Expo 58’ World Fair. [4]
On 27 January 1958, Mwenze Kibwanga, Joseph Kabongo, Célestin Kabuya and Floribert Mwembia flew with Moonens
from Elisabethville to Brussels.
The works by Kabongo, Kabuya and Mwembia were arranged inside the Congo pavilion and covered several walls in the Tropical Gardens, while Mwenze designed elements of a large panel installed on the west facade of the Agriculture Palace.
A wind of nationalism had already started to blow across the Congo. While he had thought to ensure that his actions had a durability by inscribing them within the framework of local power structures and the colonial administration, Moonens also realised that his time in the Congo was limited.
On 22 June 1959, Moonens left Elisabethville with his wife for Brussels, though he did not know that he would never return and he continued to promote the Academy from Belgium. On 30 June 1960, the Belgian Congo was no more. Faced with the discrepancy between his efforts and the results, Moonens felt like he had abandoned the Academy and his pupils without having completed his mission. He eventually refocused on his own artistic career and settled in the south of France in November 1960, where he spent his time as a painter, portraitist and watercolourist until his death on 31 May 1991.
In Elisabethville, the Academy continued to function under the remaining teachers, and the Academy settled permanently at the site of the Athénée. What is now known as the Institut des Beaux-Arts de Lubumbashi, still active and dynamic under the leadership of Séraphine Mbeya Nawej Matemb, remains one of the institutional pillars of the visual arts in Katanga, as testified to by the numerous generations of artists in Lubumbashi who have continued to train there.
[1] Little was written about the Académie des Beaux-Arts d’Elisabethville before independence. The majority of information comes from the Moonens Archives, which is made up of private letters and press articles, some of which are accessible online at: http://www.moonens.com/Archives.htm; see also: Hommage 1955, 39–42; Moonens 1957; Maquet 1958; Musée Vivant 1960; Badi-Banga Ne-Mwine 1977, 84–87.
[2] Hommage 1955, 41; Moonens Archives.
[3] Moonens Archives, file ‘The Congo years, articles and writings about the Academy’.
[4] Moonens Archives, file ‘The Congo Years, 1958, Exposition Universelle-Brussels’.
Tropical Gardens of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi section with a large mural by Mwembia, followed by a painting by Mwenze and Kabongo. (Photo: R. Stalin, Inforcongo 01. 912/1958/141)
Large panel by Mwenze representing the cotton harvest installed on the west facade of the Palace of Agriculture at the foot of the Atomium building. (P. Loos Archives)
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