User:Curatorslog/sandbox/Mwana Kitoko, 2000

This is a portrait of the 24-year old Belgian King, Baudouin I, arriving for the first time in the Congo for a state visit in 1955. Baudouin I is the eponymous Mwana Kitoko - beautiful boy, a title given to the young king by the Congolese and later changed by the authorities to Bwana Kitoko - beautiful, noble man (in order to express more respect and authority). Tuymans's use of the former title is therefore telling. This, coupled with the juxtaposition of the King's many medals and his evident discomfort and unease, suggests some distance between the authoritative role and the young man who inhabits it.

The painting was made during the investigation into the murder of Patrice Lumumba - the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the independent Republic of Congo, who was assassinated shortly after independence. Allegations were made that various institutions, including the Belgian government, were responsible for the 1961 murder.

The limited details and muted palette alongside the crop of the image as if it were straight from the pages of a newspaper, showcase the signature techniques used by Tuymans to pull his viewers in. Yet rather than simply reading the story and moving on, the painting remains a reminder of our communal ability to absorb vast amounts of information in the media yet remain once removed from the events portrayed.

The piece was part of Tuymans' series Mwana Kitoko, produced specifically for the 2001 Venice Biennale. The series, according to Tate, demonstrates Tuymans's view of history as "a complex web of unreliable and disparate pieces of information." This attitude would contribute to the 20th century's postmodernist ethos of skepticism and irony, out from which rose art that generally questioned and rejected the pre-fed narratives of our time.

Oil on canvas - Collection unknown