Cameroonian painter Marc Padeu says that being an African artist means "being the heir to an extraordinarily rich history." But he also says it can mean "living and working on a continent where artistic infrastructure is virtually nonexistent."Padeu's work often takes inspiration from religious paintings from the European Renaissance –- but reimagines them, depicting people in Cameroon's cocoa plantations.London gallery Larkin Durey is currently holding an exhibition of Padeu's latest work.Oliver Durey, the gallery's director, said: "Mark's work is timeless.
His visual style is simultaneously very contemporary but also deeply rooted in that old tradition –- so there is something extremely fresh about it."Padeu is from Bafang in the West Region of Cameroon and is part of the Bamileké ethnic group.The 36-year-old now lives in Yaoundé, the country's political capital.
In an interview with NPR, Padeu explained his art — and what inspires him.Can you talk about why you meld classic Western paintings with African scenes?I wouldn't say that I'm trying to fuse Western painting with African scenes.For me, it's more a question of placing images that everyone recognizes within a setting that is familiar to me.
I grew up in Cameroon, surrounded by plantations, villages and people who make their living from the land.That's the world I know best, so it's only natural that this is the setting in which I want to tell these stories.At one point, I asked myself why certain images seemed to belong exclusively to Europe.
Why should the Nativity, the Last Supper or Christ in Gethsemane always be depicted with the same faces and the same landscapes? Yet what they convey goes far beyond any particular place or era.They speak of love, sacrifice, fear, hope, family.
These are profoundly human, universal experiences.How did you become an artist? It's certainly down to genetics, first and foremost.My mother is a fashion designer.
She doesn't work much any more, but when I was y...