African Art. Sculpture By Benoît Konongo Circa 1938.

African bust in exotic hard wood (Macassar ebony), by Benoit Konongo around 1938. Good general condition. Height 38 cm, width 25 cm. Benoît Konongo lived from 1919 to 2008, abandoning this sculptural art to which he devoted himself in 1938 by seeing his maternal uncle, a certain Christian Mayola. Already considered at the time as an esthete of wood, he was called upon in 1945 by the architect Roger Errel for a more intense artistic creation. Proof that the artist's career is based on his marriage to wood, Benoît was invited for the first time to an international exhibition in Kinshasa, in 1951. Among the great works left by Benoît Konongo, there is the Félix Éboué monument, the Liberty monument (central town hall square), others within the grounds of the Brazzaville convention center and the sculpted bas-relief which adds to the beauty of the presidential residence.