John Madu becomes the first African artist to be exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum

Expressive brushstrokes depict a man sitting at a table, his face hidden behind a book of Japanese prints, a chair in the corner of the room, and a Nigerian passport on the table. In direct dialogue with Van Gogh 's work, this is one of ten paintings by Nigerian painter John Madu, created especially for his exhibition Paint Your Path , the first-ever exhibition of an African artist at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam , which opened this Friday.

The exhibition by 42-year-old John Madu consists of ten works created over the course of three months in his Lagos, Nigeria, studio, in response to seven paintings by the Dutch artist. "Even before I knew who Van Gogh was, I knew his work," explained the artist, who, as a child, admired his father's Impressionist painting calendars. "Van Gogh's works struck me because of the yellows, the swirls, the lines," he told AFP.

Van Gogh's universe is designed to make people identify with it. For the blend to be perfect, the lines, the brushstrokes, the color theme had to come together... This gives the impression that the works are one.

John Madu

John Madu plays with the fact that Van Gogh's works are among the most recognizable in the world to establish a link between the local and the global, notably through the exercise of self-portraiture and the use of symbols. Thus, Van Gogh's famous wooden chair becomes, through John Madu's brush, a white plastic chair, sometimes the main subject of the work, sometimes carried on the shoulders of a protagonist (like the painter) who enters a Provençal café with a yellow facade. "Van Gogh's universe is designed so that people identify with it ," continues the artist. "For the blend to be perfect, the lines, the brushstrokes, the color theme had to come together... This gives the impression that the works are one," he summarizes.

This is not the first time that the Nigerian painter has established a dialogue between his works and Western artists, having previously created paintings inspired by Gustav Klimt , Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell . These references resonated with the "Beeldbrekers" (the "reframers"), a group of young adults who co-sponsored the exhibition and whose aim is to make the Van Gogh Museum more open to diversity, both in its exhibitions and in its accessibility.

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"For me in particular, it's a kind of representation to see an African artist in a museum like this," said Beeldbrekers member Himaya Ayo. "It's an opportunity to be part of an extraordinary, but also very historic, moment," explains the 22-year-old, an artist herself.