Chéri Chérin
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Anmerkung : THE AUCTIONEER IS ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FRENCH INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THIS CATALOGUE. THE ENGLISH INFORMATION IS COURTESY TO THE ENGLISH SPEAKERS Joseph Kinkonda, called Chéri Cherin, was born on Febr. 16th, 1955 in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic Congo, formerly called Zaire). He studied at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa under the Austrian ceramics-artist Peter Weihs. During this time Chéri Cherin started to paint posters in his residential-quarter Ndjili. Chérin created murals on the walls of bars, barbershops and small boutiques. Impressive pictures of daily life but also with very serious contents. Today Cherin is one of the best known painters in Kinshasa and a teacher to many young talented artists. Joseph Kinkonda called, Chéri Chérin Born 1955, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Lives and works in Kinshasa. In the heart of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), five times larger than France, possesses incomparable natural human and cultural riches. More than 400 ethnic groups speaking as many languages have flooded into Kinshasa in one exodus after another. A megalopolis with more than 10 million inhabitants, Kinshasa exemplifies the famous article 15 of the Constitution which encourages people to take themselves in hand. Often this is done with talent, or even with genius. And this popular genius is what makes "Kin-the Beautiful" a stunning city, by day and by night. Since the early 1970s, the city has witnessed a creative explosion in every artistic realm. The group "Viva la Musica", led by the superstar Papa Wemba, has enjoyed a huge popular success. It was a member of this group, Kester Emeneya, who invented the concept of the SAPE, the "Society of Atmosphere-Creators and Elegant Personalities". In this Kinshasa institution, Chéri Chérin is one of the most prestigious figures. Within this effervescent context, the 1978 exhibition Art Everywhere, brought attention to a whole group of young "people's" artists, co-called because their representational, narrative painting is rooted in an addressed to the people at large. Samba, Moké, Bodo, and Chéri Chérin, the chief innovators of the group, have achieved success and have been embraced by all Kinshasa. The artists in the "gang" - it is neither a school nor a movement - work in their separate studios on subjects inspired by social and political developments. They are differentiated as much by choice of subjects by style by the way they treat pictorial space, and by their use of colour. Chéri Chérin whose name is an acronym for "Créateur Hors (série) Expressionniste Remarquable INéganable unique en son genre" (« unclassifiable remarkable Expressionist creator unequalled and unique in this field »), gives equal prominence to subject, form, representation, intelligibility, and decorative qualities. In this way he draws the spectator into his own interrogations, imprecisions, uncertainties, and unfinished works. He denounces a world in which opportunism and comedy threaten to win out over the true values for which Chéri Chérin means to fight. "And if you, in the West, say that painting is finished, I will not give in to the facility of video as it is seen everywhere today, even in the Dakar biennale. I will keep on painting and you will see what you will see." SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2004 Mémoires de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi National Museum Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo Gallery Art Körner The Hague - Netherlands 2003 Dommenhoff Neerpelt - Belgium Kin Moto Na Bruxelles, Hotel de Ville Brussel - Belgium 2002 Marc Dengis Gallery Brussel - Belgium 1993 Wallonie Bruxelles Center of Kinshasa Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo 1991 French Cultural Center of Kinshasa Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2007 / 2008 "Popular Painting" from Kinshasa Tate Modern, (Room 10) London - U.K. Why Africa? Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli Turin - Italy 2006 / 2007 100% Africa Guggenheim Museum Bilbao - Spain 2005 15 ans de transition, Memling Hotel Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo Peinture populaire congolaise, Museum of Haitien art Port au Prince - Haïti 2004/2006 (travelling exhibition) Africa Remix Art contemporain d'un continent 24 July 2004 - 7 Nov 2004 Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorff - Germany 10 Feb 2005 - 17 April 2005 Hayward Gallery London - England 15 May 2005 - 20 Aug 2005 Centre Georges Pompidou Paris - France Feb - May 2006 Mori Art Museum Tokyo - Japan 2001 La Cité dans la peinture populaire, Wallonie Bruxelles Center of Kinshasa, Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo 2000 An/Sichten-Malerei aus dem Kongo 1990-2000 Museum für Völkerkunde Wien - Austria 1999 Quatre peintres congolais, Cultural Center Gembloux Brussel - Belgium Exhibition catalogue : Bogumil Jewsiewicki and Barbara Plankensteiner.
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