Silhouette by Joseph Kapeza (Congo, 20th Century), impasto-styled oil on canvas, signed, dated 1963, framed - 27" x 24 1/4"
 
Joseph Kapeza was a Congolese artist working in the mid 20th century. Kapeza had a long and troubled life of mental illness. He was a carpenter by trade, with no known formal art training. He would often disappear into the woods, where he created bizarre objects and ornaments. As early as 1955 he was selling his paintings in a marketplace in Kinshasa. Suffering from mental illness and impulsive violent behavior, he spent his life in and out of sanatoriums. He married in 1961; shortly thereafter, he was arrested for threatening strangers, after which he was institutionalized. As of 1962, he devoted his life to his art. In 1963, he sold most of his canvases to an Austrian collector and then disappeared into the woods. During the 1960s, in his madness, he signed his paintings in his wife's name N'Sulu (or N'Tsulu). His work was exhibited in Monte Carlo on several occasions and he is considered one of the founding fathers of Sub-Saharan art during the colonial era.