A work for the memory of Central Africa

Little known in Central Africa, his home country, Clément-Marie Biazin (1924-1981) is a singular figure in African art history of the 20th century. He left to posterity several hundred gouaches whose style is characterized by bright colours and scholarly dysorthography. His «tales in images and words» are so many chapters of his great history textbook. For the self-proclaimed «national painter of Central Africa» devoted his work to documenting the immemorial past whose memory must endure in order to support the collective memory and identity, despite the ravages of slavery and then colonialism in Central Africa. His ambitious project of enlightening future generations is based on the following statement of fact: «Once independent, Africans forget their past tradition and civilization, what was their originality. The past must exist as well, and the past must be connected to the future, and this could lead the country along the right path.»