Louis Houenoude lives in the small village of Heve, just outside Grand-Popo, in the small West African country of Benin.
He used to paint barber shop signs for a living. But now he is a bona fide artist.
An art gallery in Finland is exhibiting a series of portraits painted by Mr Houenoude.
The portrait series, called Bad Hair Day Leaders, consists of 14 portraits of today’s world leaders, from Angela Merkel to Xi Jinping.
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
Last year, Mr Houenoude painted a portrait of the Finnish President Sauli Niinisto which was bought by the Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
So how did a Beninese barber shop painter wind up having an exhibition in Finland?
Well, Bad Hair Day Leaders is not entirely his work alone.
The portraits are a collaboration with Finnish visual artist Riiko Sakkinen, who visited Benin last year.
«I initially wanted to know if Benin had the same painted film poster culture as Ghana – it doesn’t. But I saw painted signs for barber shops and hair salons and was intrigued by the colours and composition of the signs.
«The perspective and the shape of figures looked different to the ones familiar to me from European classicism and renaissance tradition. The advertisements worked remarkably well – I kept wanting to go to the barber even though I am bald,» Sakkinen told the BBC.
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
Sakkinen came up with the idea for a series of portraits of world leaders, all done in the style of West African barber signs and Houenoude did the painting.
«Louis is very meticulous. I myself make a mess and could never wear nice clothes when I paint, like Louis. The language barrier initially proved a challenge because I couldn’t give much direction. But in the end it turned out to be a good thing, the work looked like him rather than me.»
Image copyright Perttu Saksa
«I received formal training for three months in [Benin’s biggest city] Cotonou in 2001 and I also trained with a professional artist in Ghana,» Houenoude says.
«But my father was a painter,» he says, «so I learnt from him.»
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
Houenoude has been painting since he was a child.
And now his children help him. A younger son works as his assistant and cleans his brushes. An older son has joined «the family business» and is already painting.
Image copyright Perttu Saksa
The humidity makes the paint dry slowly and the lack of electricity in Heve means painters must work during daylight.
However, the circumstances have taught Houenoude to be efficient. He finished all the 14 portraits of world leaders in less than a month.
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
And he has started painting portraits of pop culture icons and private people on commission. The portrait orders largely come from Finland thanks to Sakkinen’s extensive contacts.
A small venture called Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo was also set up around the portrait painting with the help of Gustavo Afaihoun, a local musician and aspiring entrepreneur.
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
«Painting has been a true gift for me,» Houenoude says.
Image copyright Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo
«I will definitely continue to paint and hope that the future holds more exhibitions.»
Andrei Molodkin’s Burn the Temple, 2019. Photograph: Courtesy a/political and the artist
In an unusual twist on participatory art, visitors to an exhibition by two prominent Russian conceptual artists will be asked to donate blood for display.
Black Horizon, which opens on Saturday in Charleroi, Belgium, is the work of Erik Bulatov and Andrei Molodkin, who say it is about censorship and propaganda.
Molodkin, 53, who was born in the Soviet Union and now lives in Paris, has asked attendees to donate blood, which he will preserve in medical refrigerators and then pump into tubes using industrial compressors. The tubes will spell out song lyrics that he finds on government blacklists.
“It’s like blood karaoke,” he said. “Our program looks for musical lyrics that have been censored. Then people can come and choose to donate blood to whatever sentence attracts them.” A standard donation could be 200 grams of blood, he said.
Some of the lyrics chosen for the Charleroi exhibition come from the drill music scene in south London, whose artists have been prohibited from performing or broadcasting songs that mention rival crews.
Molodkin’s tubes will be displayed beside an eight-metre sculpture by Bulatov, an influential Soviet-born conceptualist. The sculpture, which spells out “Everything’s not so scary” in Russian, is intended to encourage visitors to reject propaganda and censorship, according to Bulatov.
Bulatov’s sculpture, which spells out ‘Everything’s not so scary’ in Russian. Photograph: Courtesy a/political and the artist
“Our consciousness is being manipulated by the press, by political actors, and as a result we’re ending up in a very difficult situation and we can feel trapped,” said Bulatov, a member of the 1960s Sretensky Boulevard group who has contrasted text and image in his work for decades.
Molodkin said both artists had been surprised by how an “open world … without censorship, strong nationalist feeling, where religion wasn’t dictating its own laws” had started “to close in front of our eyes”.
They said they weren’t aiming their criticism about censorship and propaganda at a particular country. Bulatov criticised both Russia and Europe. “It’s coming from everywhere,” he said of the propaganda he was targeting. “Europe is trying to push Russia away like an enemy. But that doesn’t necessarily hurt [Vladimir] Putin. It only helps Putin cement his power, because it looks like they are surrounded by enemies. It’s the people who suffer from this.”
Both said they expected a good response to the work in Russia as well as Europe. “I don’t see a big difference in the last generation between young people in Paris, in London, in Moscow,” said Molodkin.
Bulatov said: “There is a colossal difference between what happened in the Soviet period in Russia and what’s happening now. As long as the borders are open, the Soviet times won’t come back.”
This February across the US, a range of exhibitions will showcase the expansive work of black artists and photographers
Njideka Akunyili Crosby – Nwantinti, 2012, showing as part of Black Refractions: Highlights From the Studio Museum in Harlem. Photograph: Marc Bernier/Victoria Miro, David Zwirner,and American Federation of Arts
“Hold fast to dreams,” wrote Harlem poet Langston Hughes. “For if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
His famous words will sit alongside a great deal of impactful art this Black History Month, all through February. Alongside the more blockbuster events (Black Panther will be screened free of charge at selected theatres), expect to find a Harlem renaissance-style speakeasy, vintage photos of a black sports icon and artworks by Jimi Hendrix.
On the heels of the success of the Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that just ended, here are seven must-see exhibits to catch through February.
Crusader: Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta greeted by the Rev Adam Clayton Powell Jr (left) and labor leader A Philip Randolph (right) at the Pan American World Airways terminal, in New York City Photograph: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Classic photos of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr are everywhere, but the lesser-known, more intimate moments are scarce. Some of these rare shots are on view at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, featuring shots of his travels across the world, on view until 6 April. From his trip to India, where he learned about non-violent resistance, to his trip to Norway to accept the Nobel peace prize, this exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the first biography written about King, Crusader Without Violence by Lawrence D Reddick in 1959.
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The center is also hosting a pop-up exhibit to celebrate the 118th birthday of the Harlem renaissance poet Langston Hughes. The lobby will turn into a Harlem speakeasy-style salon to celebrate the works of writers such as Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Canada Lee and Hilda Simms.
Harlem Perspectives II
Harlem has always been a hub of black art and culture and remains vital to this day. A selected number of local artists working uptown are featured in Harlem Perspectives II at Faction Art Projects. Showcasing artists who live and work above 110th Street in Manhattan, there are works by Elan Cadiz, who crafts family portraits from fabrics, to marble sculptures by Kennedy Yanko. There are also abstract paintings by Patrick Alston, who lives – and finds his inspiration – in the neighborhood.
David C Terry – Slave Owner, Stamp on dollar bill, 2019. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist
“Harlem is an essential place for understanding the essence, resilience and brilliance of black culture,” said Alston. “Black history month is a time to reflect on the significance of black achievements and there is no better place to understand this than through the mecca of black excellence that is Harlem.”
In the Dugout with Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait of a Baseball Legend
In 1947, Jackie Robinson made history when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American major league baseball player. Robinson’s legacy is remembered on the year of his 100th birthday at the Museum of the City of New York, which runs until 15 September. On view are rare photos of Robinson in the clubhouse with his team-mates and at home with his family. Whitney Donhauser, the director of the museum calls Robinson “a true American icon”.
Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider in conversation. Photograph: Museum of the City of New York
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“Robinson’s trailblazing years as a Brooklyn Dodger captivated the country,” she said, “and these photographs offer an intimate glimpse of a defining period in American sports history.”
Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem was founded in 1968 as a space for black artists to shine. Now, as the museum undergoes a renovation, slated to reopen in 2021, this touring exhibition, co-hosted by American Federation of Arts, will visit six venues across the US. It kicks off at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. As part of Harlem’s prized art collection of African American art, a number of artists are brought to the spotlight, including Faith Ringgold, Kehinde Wiley and Juliana Huxtable.
Kehinde Wiley – Conspicuous Fraud Series #1. Photograph: Marc Bernier
“The exhibition will add to an expanded view of American art history,” said Pauline Willis, the director of the AFA. “Many are not fully aware of the tremendous contributions artists of the African diaspora have made to American art.”
Jeff Donaldson
Jeff Donaldson – Aunt Jemima and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist
The famed AfriCOBRA art movement co-founder Jeff Donaldson takes the spotlight at Kravets Wehby Gallery in New York, showing his intricate paintings, watercolors and collages from the 1960s through the late 1990s. Some of his most iconic works will be on view, including Donaldson’s last painting, a portrait of three trombonists. A critical voice to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Donaldson created historic artworks such as Aunt Jemima and the Pillsbury Doughboy, a painting of a black woman being battered by a white police officer. Donaldson started this painting after the civil rights March on Washington in 1963. The exhibit opens 28 February.
Night Coming Tenderly, Black
Dawoud Bey – Untitled #1 Photograph: Courtesy of the artist
The Chicago photographer Dawoud Bey has traced the Underground Railroad path to freedom in his latest exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Night Coming Tenderly, Black is a series of black-and-white photos that follows the fugitive pathways from the south to Canada, which helped enslaved African Americans to freedom in the 19th century. “All across the globe, people are moving across the landscape in pursuit of freedom, an opportunity to live their lives in freedom,” said Bey. “Their flight is as imperative as the flight of those enslaved and seeking their freedom during the antebellum era of the Underground Railroad.”
Bold As Love: Jimi Hendrix at Home
Jimi Hendrix in his apartment. Photograph: Barrie Wentzell
Photos of the psychedelic rock star at home in the 1960s are on at the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle, which was Jimi Hendrix’s hometown. A number of rare family photos are shown alongside artworks made by Hendrix and his personal artifacts, offering a window into his inner world.
“There is always a need to document, support, elevate and recognize the contribution of African and African Americans to provide visibility, agency and a collective voice for a culture,” said Hasaan Kirkland, the museum’s curator. “It’s a culture that does not always receive national, regional or local acknowledgement that leads to an outward societal measure of respect and revered significance of worth, purpose and magnitude in this society.”
D.M. Dellaqueva 