Congo style : from Belgian art nouveau to African independence / Ruth Sacks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sacks, Ruth, author.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Series:

African perspectives (University of Michigan. Press)

African perspectives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, Colonial--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Art, Colonial.

Architecture, Colonial--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Architecture, Colonial.

Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic)--History--20th century.

Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic).

Architecture--Congo (Democratic Republic)--History.

Architecture.

Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic)--Political aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 215 pages) : illustrations, map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

From Belgian art nouveau to African independence

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2023.

Summary:

Congo Style presents a postcolonial approach to discussing the visual culture of two now-notorious regimes: King Leopold II's Congo Colony and the state sites of Mobutu Sese Seko's totalitarian Zaïre. Readers are brought into the living remains of sites once made up of ambitious modernist architecture and art in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the total artworks of Art Nouveau to the aggrandizing sites of post-independence Kinshasa, Congo Style investigates the experiential qualities of man-made environments intended to entertain, delight, seduce and impress. In her study of visual culture, Ruth Sacks sets out to reinstate the compelling wonder of nationalist architecture from Kinshasa's post-independence era, such as the Tower of the Exchange (1974), Gécomines Tower (1977), and the artworks and exhibitions that accompanied them. While exploring post-independence nation-building, this book examines how the underlying ideology of Belgian Art Nouveau, a celebrated movement in Belgium, led to the dominating early colonial settler buildings of the ABC Hotels (circa 1908-13). Congo Style combines Sacks's practice as a visual artist and her academic scholarship to provide an original study of early colonial and independence-era modernist sites in their African context.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Entangled Histories

Chapter 1. Behind Congo Style: Navigating Research

Part I. Style Congo

Chapter 2. Looking for the Congo in Style Congo: Art Nouveau and the African Colony

Chapter 3. Style Congo in the Congo: Colonial Modernism Takes Root

Part II. Congo Style

Chapter 4. Modernism, Congo Style: Authenticity and Tradition

Chapter 5. Kinshasa's Congo Style: Sites of Postcolonial Identity

Conclusion. From Total Artwork to Totalitarianism

Map of Kinshasa

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from eBook information screen..

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-215)

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472903887

0472903888

OCLC:

1378518093

Access Restriction:

Unrestricted online access