Introducing Max Sako Lyonga: The Man with the Golden Brush

By Dibussi Tande

In October 2004, Cameroonian painter Max Sako Lyonga captured the imagination of the country and made headline news with a breathtaking and grandiose exhibition at the Blaise Cendrars French Cultural Center in Douala. The exhibition, which was titled “Letter to anyboby”, drew thousands of visitors and again confirmed, if need be, that Max Lyonga was without doubt one of the greatest Cameroonian painters of his generation, if not of all times.

According to a World Bank portrait of the artist, “[Max Lyonga’s] native Bakweri culture, the environment, social aspects of life, and intimate scenes and feelings dominate his artistic works which he expresses through abstraction and figurative works.”

In the past five years, Max Lyonga, one of whose paintings was selected by theMinistry of Culture back in 1998 as the best artistic work in the country, has steadily built a solid reputation for himself as a serious and talented painter. And his popularity is fast spreading beyond the borders of Cameroon; a German art gallery recently bought 42 of his paintings, and his paintings have been displayed in art galleries in Côte d’Ivoire, England, Italy, France, Spain, the United States, Australia, Lebanon, and South Africa. Also, scores of his paintings have been bought on the Internet, some selling for millions of francs CFA.

Max Lyonga is also a noted environmentalist and community activist who has used his growing name recognition and connects to assist street kids and HIV infected children in Cameroon. According to the WB report quoted earlier, "his charitable works also include one of his paintings that sold at an auction sale for seven million cfa francs and he donated all of the money to help children suffering from HIV/AIDS in his native Buea."

He is also an inspirational figure to budding Cameroonian painters such as the young Macmillan Takere.

The price of Max Lyonga's paintings generally range from 200,000 FCFA to 1.5 million FCFA. Max points out, however, that most of the time, people place orders for specific paintings, and then stop by his art gallery in Buea to pick up the finished work.

In spite of his growing national and international recognition, Max Lyonga is, surprisingly, still a largely unknown quantity in his native Fako division, and even in Anglophone Cameroon - this in spite of the fact that he is one of the most visible and potent symbols of  cultural renaissance in the region.

Bakwerirama therefore seizes this occasion to formally introduce Max Lyonga to a public which is still largely unaware of, or does not fully appreciate his art. We hope to interview this talented trailblazer in the coming months. In the meantime, here is Max’s biography culled from the Swiss-based ARTNET website where some of his art work is displayed:

Born on the 12th of June 1968 in Tiko, in southwestern Cameroon, Max Lyonga Sako is a Cameroonian painter based in Buea, in his province of origin. His love affair with art began early in life and his father's death led him to embark upon an artistic career... He began painting in the impressionist style. He later met German tourists practising abstract art which became a dominant aspect of his work. Max Lyonga received his art training at workshops run by the Franco-Cameroonian Alliance cultural center in Buea and at other French-run cultural centers in the country. He is today fascinated by mixed painting techniques, collage, acrylics, natural materials and gouache. He also works with cast-off objects of every description and has explored installations, routinely making use of canvas, plywood, tin sheets and even walls as supports for his art. He favors social aspects of life, the environment, intimate scenes and feelings in his art, ranging freely from pure abstraction to figurative works.

Max Lyonga has continued to enter his works at national plastic arts competitions, winning an "Épi d'argent" art prize in December 2002. A prolific and socially conscious artist, he contributed a work of his at a benefit auction for children affected by Aids. He also set up a facility for contemporary art called Magic Stick at the Franco-Cameroonian Alliance in Buea, where he opened his own exhibition space, Coha Gallery, in May 2004.

Bakwerirama congratulates Mola Max Sako Lyonga for a job well done. We also appeal to members of the Fako nation at home and in the Diaspora to encourage this vibrant symbol of the new Fakocentricity by purchasing his paintings. What better way to give a boost to our revival as a people than by adorning our walls with the paintings of one of our own rather than with culturally alien mediocrities from the Western world?

Max Sako Lyonga can be reached at the following contact address:

Max LYONGA
Buea, Cameroun
Phone:  ++ 237 998.60.01
Cellphone: ++237 748.26.75
E-mail: maxlyonga@yahoo.com

Comments

[BIANCA SANTANA]

Your work is brilliant. I am a grade 12 student in a private school in Cape Town and my theme for the year is Poverty. Can you tell me more about yourself, your current drawings, what inspired you to do poverty pictures, etc.
I will appreciate it very much!
Bianca

[DANTE BESONG]

I would say, Max is one of the most oustanding Camroonian artist and the finest in the south west province.I admire his spectacular taste of diversity as well as his stunning touch of colours....BRAVO MAX!!
DANTE BESONG

[NOVAK]

Hello Max,
I would like to say, at first, that i am really fan of your work, and about your personal fights at well!!
My exgirfriend, who lives at Douala, offered me one of your painting, numbered 11002-003 which presents two women pregnants, and which uses a lot of different materials.. it is really great!
Maybe can we speak on internet some days, about the feedback of this painting, your motivations, the understandings?:)

[PEARL C. NGONGANG]

HI MAX,
I am delighted with your progress and am happy to see you are my country man,africa is prode,(another re-model for our young black men), stay focus,remember to be steady fast in all you do, and remember god in all that you do and he will continue to expand your bordaries
PEARL.C.NGONGANG

[Jordan AJF 8]

In the dance of destruction, creators ceased to create and began to destroy.