Indigo Arts' Philadelphia gallery space is closed as I move upstairs to a new space on the fourth floor of the Crane Building. I hope to be up and running again later in May, on a "by appointment or by chance" basis. Meanwhile, the Indigo Arts online gallery is operating as usual, though shipments may be delayed a bit. Please feel free to contact me with any questions in the mean time.
Thanks,
Tony
Indigo Arts represents a collection of paintings from the influential painting workshop in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) in the colony of the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The workshop, L'Academie Congolaise d'Art Populaire, generally known as "Le Hangar" was founded in 1946 by the French painter and former colonial soldier, Pierre Romain-Desfossés. Several of the "le Hangar" artists, such as Bela, Pilipili Mulungoy and Mwenze Kibwanga proved very influential on the next generation of artists in the Congo, and later on other African art movements such as the Tinga Tinga painters in Tanzania. The work of several of the artists was featured in the groundbreaking 2015 exhibit Congo Beauté 1926 - 2015 Congo Kitoko, at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. The work in our collection is by two of the artists who studied under Pilipili Mulungoy - Kabinda Kunkulu Victor and Mwila. Painted in 1958 and 1959, these paintings came from the collection of the late Belgian art collector and dealer, Max Berkovitch.
