Jack Rayden Fountain of Blood Audio Guide

The transcription provides information about an artwork called "Fountain of Blood" by Malangatana and Gugna. It describes the colors, themes, and influences in the painting, as well as the socio-political context of Mozambique under Portuguese colonialism. The painting is seen as a warning against colonization and a reflection of African traditions. It was exhibited at the First International Congress of African Culture and now resides in a Western museum. The painting's meaning has evolved over time and continues to provoke contemplation about colonialism and its consequences. Additional resources are recommended for further information. Hello, and welcome to the Cleveland Museum of Art. You are currently in the Modern and Contemporary Collection on the second floor of the East Wing. If you are not in the Modern Collection, please press the menu button on your audio guide and find the play menu corresponding to your current museum location. Please step into room 229A and begin your exploration of the Contemporary Wing. As you enter, take notice of the large scale of the works around you, the bold colors and the innovative mixed-media works that have come to define so much of contemporary art. Once you have found yourself in the center of the room, begin a slow clockwise rotation and stop once you find yourself looking at the left wall. I'll give you a brief moment to spin now. You are now looking at Milongatano and Gugna's 1961 work, Fountain of Blood. Notice how the bright oranges, yellows, reds, and blues create a unified color palette in the work. Consider the similarities between these colors and the ones you see in the works around you. In this work, a central skeleton is flanked by gruesome and chaotic scenes of violence. Blood drips down the canvas for many dismembered, monstrous characters. These figures have brightly colored skin, sharp gnashing teeth, and are engaged in various acts of cannibalism. They bite off the limbs of other monsters, pull out their bones, and drink their blood. The skeleton stands in a hierarchical scale to the rest of the figures above a central grave. And the black, dark background does not establish a clear perspective or functioning spatial setting for the scene. Notice how the skeleton looks directly at you. Its chilling, eyeless gaze draws you into the world of the painting and then forces you to sit with the painting's themes of morbidity and brutality. Now take another glance around the room. Carefully consider each work around you. Pause the recording and consider what differentiates Fountain of Blood from the works in this room. Resume the guide once you've come to that answer. You may have noticed that this piece is the only work created by an African artist in this room. Molongatana himself plays off modern Western styles. His figures take on geometrically fluid shapes similar to the likes of Picasso and other contemporaries. Artistically and temporally, he is a contemporary painter and seems to have clear Western influences, which explains his inclusion in this wing of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Fountain of Blood is painted using a bright color palette reminiscent of European styles. This painting demonstrates the interplay between Western and African arts during the mid-20th century. During the 20th century, as the world became more globally connected, influences more easily spread from one continent to the next. This interconnectedness of inspirations is a major theme for the world's contemporary art and Molongatana is part of a larger theme. One commonly discussed in the well-renowned Kenyan college course, Art History 114, Intro to African Art, taught by Professor Glosser, a theme of African and European modern artists finding inspiration in one another's art. Molongatana undertook training and sponsorship from Portuguese architects and artists, João Eres, Augusto Cabral, and Pancho Guedes. His first painting showed traces of European styles of modernism because he was exposed to European styles through these Portuguese mentors. This connection is representative of a larger stylistic connection between the two continents and one that demonstrates how Molongatana's art took influence from European modernism. Moving now from style to theme, there's also many explanations for Fountain of Blood's gruesome imagery. Raitou Thuring, the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art here at the Cleveland Art Museum, points to an inscription on the back of the painting that reads Beloi, a Bantu term meaning sorcerer. He believes that the term could lead us to explain the imagery as depictions of sorcery. Many believe that given the socio-political climate of Mozambique, the violent themes within Fountain of Blood may be in response to European colonialism of Molongatana's home. Mozambique fell under Portuguese control during the Scramble for Africa. Portugal had also colonized Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe during the same period. Portuguese control typically consisted of coercive labor and tax exactions, racial discrimination and authoritarian politics, and economic exploitation. These pillars of colonialism were typical of European control over Africa and played a major role in building tensions that led to the fight for independence. In February 1961, Angola had become the first of many Portuguese colonies to fight for its independence, marking the beginning of the Portuguese colonial wars. For Mozambique, the War of Independence began in 1964 and finished when Mozambique negotiated its own independence in 1975. Molongatana may have taken inspiration from these African independence movements, as 17 countries had gained independence in the year prior to the painting's completion. Additionally, building domestic tensions could explain Molongatana's ability to foreshadow the violence to come. Thern's more spiritual interpretations of the painting become more and more compelling when coupled with African independence movements. Molongatana may have used imagery of sorcery to embrace a Bantu tradition and ideologically denounce Portuguese colonizers. The violent themes are demonstrative of just how powerful a Boloi could be. In retrospect, the painting works as a warning shot, a rallying cry for the power of Mozambique traditions. It speaks directly to Portuguese colonizers in a Western visual language that would be easily interpretable by colonizers and prelude the violence on the horizon. Which could be why the skeleton locks eyes with us, warning us of a rapidly approaching morbid fate. It is fitting the painting finds its place in a Western museum and even a Western-dominated wing because it was initially exhibited for Western audiences at the First International Congress of African Culture. The painting debuted at the First International Congress of African Culture in 1962, which had the goal to show what European genius owes to an ancient genius of Africa. During the exhibit, traditional and contemporary musical and visual arts from all across Africa were put on display at the University of Ghana-Legaume. Given that a major aim of the Congress was to juxtapose African and European art, it makes sense to speak to both European and African audiences. The Congress saw many European attendance and now is a Western museum, it continues to see Westerners daily. In this way, the painting's meaning has changed in the 21st century. It no longer warns of or forbodes conflict, instead we are confronted by Malangitana's central skeleton who asks us, what have you done? The grave may represent the lives of those lost to colonial conflicts at the hands of greedy, oppressive, and monstrous colonizers. Malangitana shows us from the grave the pain and suffering we see in Western nations have caused in search of power. He forces us to sit with our past of dehumanizing an entire continent by literally turning people into monsters. In this way, we may look at the painting as one that has lived many lives. It continues to adopt new meanings and messages as it moves home all across the world. For more information on Malangitana and Gwenya's Fountain of Blood, please read Miguel Bedea Hernandez's Portuguese Colonialism in Africa from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. Barbara Murray's The 1962 First International Congress of African Culture, a brief report from the Journal of Contemporary African Art. Constantine Petriti's Malangitana as Ethnographer, Modern Painting and Village Life, and Malangitana, Mozambique and Modern, both from the Institute of Chicago. As well as the information and videos listed on our website, www.clevelandart.org, under the specific word, Fountain of Blood. Thank you for listening to this audio guide, and after a brief pause, you'll be automatically directed to Andy Warhol's 1962 Maryland X-100. Make your way to the painting now, or press the menu on your audio guide and find the play menu corresponding to your next museum location.