MODE MUNTU (Modeste Ngoie Makulu Munty) [Mwanza, Katanga (DRC) 1940 - 1985, Lubumbashi (DRC)] (Untitled) Silhouettes of hybrid birds Gouache on paper. 18 x 25 cm. Signed lower right, on the back stamped "Académie officielle des beaux arts Elisabethville Congo belge". The work was acquired by Professor Gaucquié, a colleague of L. Moonens, both of whom taught at the Elisabethville Academy of Fine Arts, and then passed on by descent. Mode Muntu ("modest man") is a singular figure in modern Congolese art. He trained with Belgian painter Laurent Moonens at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Elisabethville in 1954, and quickly developed a highly personal style dominated by elongated, moving, unbalanced silhouettes, expressing both human fragility and universal vitality. His pictorial language, enriched by monochromes, contrasts and chromatic experiments, became his signature. Despite his extreme shyness and modest lifestyle (he used to run a fish stall at the market), he enjoyed the support of patrons and art lovers such as Claude Charlier, Nestor Cocks, Chenge Baruti and Guy De Plaen. In the 1980s, he flourished in a studio at the Lubumbashi museum. In January 1985, just a few days before succumbing to fulminant dysentery, he painted a premonitory work depicting a family in mourning surrounding an anonymous figure wrapped in a shroud. Mode Muntu left behind a timeless body of work, in which his silhouettes and chromatic research constitute a universal visual vocabulary, ensuring his place in the history of modern African and world art. Here, the artist's elongated silhouettes intertwine with animal and aerial forms. The dotted, coloured background gives the composition an almost musical vibrancy. The play of bright, contrasting colours reflects a search for balance between rigour and spontaneity, already present in her early works. Acknowledgements: Our warmest thanks go to Michaël De Plaen for his invaluable analyses, which have greatly contributed to a better understanding of the symbolism and significance of these two works in Mode Muntu's artistic career.