MUNTU (1940–1985) Untitled (men and crocodile), oil on cardboard. Signed twice on the reverse. Approx. 27 x 36.5 cm. Provenance: Professor Gaucquié, a colleague of L. Moonens; both were lecturers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Elisabethville, after which the work was passed down through the family. We would like to thank Mr De Plaen for providing us with the year of creation and confirming the authenticity of the work. Note: Mode Muntu, born in 1940 in Lubumbashi, Congo, and the eldest of fourteen siblings, enrolled at his city’s Academy of Fine Arts at the age of fourteen. He produced most of his works in gouache on cardboard and developed a distinctive aesthetic based on an original use of four-colour printing and precise brushwork. His compositions, made up of small coloured dots interplaying with one another, most often depict graphic silhouettes, both male and female. He died in 1985 and remained largely unknown to the art market for many years. It was only after his death that his work was rediscovered and recognised through several initiatives: a major exhibition at the Cité Miroir in Liège in 2017, where his paintings were shown alongside those of A.R. Penck and Keith Haring; the 2015 publication of a monograph by Michaël De Plaen (*Mode Muntu, l’Homme Modeste*); and his inclusion in the major exhibition ‘Beauté Congo’ organised at the Fondation CARTIER in Paris in 2016.