Baudouin Mouanda
Untitled

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Artist Baudouin MouandaCongolese, born 1981

CultureCongolese

Titles

Untitled
from the series Sapeurs de Bacongo

Date2008

MediumInkjet print

DimensionsImage: 23 7/8 × 35 5/8 in. (60.6 × 90.4 cm)
Sheet: 27 × 40 3/4 in. (68.6 × 103.5 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Bryn Larsen

Object number2019.168

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionBaudouin Mouanda has photographed his native Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, since he was given his first camera at age 12. In 2008 he began photographing the “Sapeurs”—members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes. They visibly declare their membership with boldly curated fashions and follow a strict honor code of conduct and community. “These young people have grown up with three separate civil wars in their own lifetimes,” Mouanda noted. “They don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so instead of spending money on a house, they spend it on a suit.”
ProvenanceThe artist, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Exhibition History"Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 23–September 22, 2019.

"Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 27–November 8, 2020.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

[no recto or verso inscriptions]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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