Object Details
- Label Text
- This small painting is by Kaballa, one of the members of the Lubumbashi painting atelier which was a key modernist movement in central Africa. Established by amateur artist-patron Pierre Romain-Desfossés in the late 1940s, the atelier was variously known as "Le Hangar," the "Elisabethville Indigenous Art Studio" and the Académie des beaux arts and produced a significant body of successful decorative works. Desfossés, like a number of colleagues such as Frank McEwen in Rhodesia and Pierre Lods in Brazzaville, expounded a laissez-faire approach to teaching while simultaneously providing his students with certain palettes and "native" inspirations to pursue their work.
- Kaballa, and other members of the Lubumbashi school focused their attention on genre scenes of flora and fauna, incorporating the human figure only as part of the larger narrative. This painting seems to present the crocodile from a different perspective. Typically identified as a dangerous predator that lurks in the water, here the animal seems to be a protective parent guarding its unhatched young.
- Description
- Painting of two blackened crocodiles which fill the space of a genre scene. In the foreground a crocodile moves out of the reeds and rocks to attack a supine figure in the lower right corner. In the middle register, a crocodile hides behind a tree. The painted forms are richly colored and controlled.
- Provenance
- Laurance S. Rockefeller, New York, 1949 to 2002
- [traveled to the Congo in 1949; then safari to East Africa May 9 -27, 1953]
- Exhibition History
- Artful Animals, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009-July 25, 2010
- Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 18, 2002-January 5, 2003
- Published References
- Freyer, Bryna. 2009. Artful Animals Activity Guide. Exhibition booklet. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Kaballa, born 1920, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Date
- ca. 1940s-1950s
- Credit Line
- Anonymous gift
- Medium
- Oil on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 37.9 x 51.5 cm (14 15/16 x 20 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
