BELA SARA (Tchad, 1940-1968, Brazzaville) Sans titre. Oil on canvas, digitalism. 35 x 45.5 cm. Signed lower right and dated 55. Bela is one of the best-known members of the Lubumbashi painting studio. The studio was founded by artist-patron Pierre Romain-Desfossés in the late 1940s, as a workshop called «Le Hangar» at the Indigenous Native Art Academy. His originality is achieved by painting with his finger, without using a pencil. This gives freshness and the spontaneity that makes the charm in Bela’s art. In addition, such a technique has a decorative effect. The artist’s favorite themes are incredible fish and aquatic scenes. Animals from the wilderness are also often depicted: whether peacefully grazing or hunted by man. There are also the initiation scenes sometimes with some fantasy, depicting nocturnal and sometimes humorous scenes, always with animals that conjure up complete freedom. Towards the end of his life, he abandoned the finger technique in favor of the brush..