Born around 1895 in Thysville (now Mbanza-Ngungu), Bas Congo province
At a very young age, Albert Lubaki learned to carve ivory. After settling in Western Kasai, he married Antoinette, the daughter of the chief of the village of Kabinda. In 1926, while selling his ivory figurines along the railway line connecting Port-Francqui to Elisabethville, he had a decisive encounter with colonial administrator Georges Thiry.
Fascinated by the paintings adorning the walls of a hut—a gray crocodile dozing alongside two green birds particularly caught his eye—Thiry entered and discovered Lubaki's visual universe. Impressed, he offered him paper and watercolors to preserve and develop his art. He also gave him candles, as tradition forbade Lubaki from telling the stories of his ancestors in daylight, so he worked at night.
Trained as an ivory craftsman, Lubaki draws without models, spontaneously, without worrying about shadows, backgrounds, or perspective. He applies bright colors, often far removed from reality, in large flat areas. The edges of his works are almost always framed by colored margins.
Impressed by his work, Thiry began collecting his watercolors, which he sent to his superior in Brussels, Gaston-Denys Périer, who was also passionate about Congolese art. Périer set about introducing Lubaki to the European public. In 1929, a first exhibition dedicated to him was held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, bringing together 143 of his works.
In 1935, the collaboration between Thiry and Périer came to an end. Deprived of support, Lubaki gradually abandoned his art on paper. Nevertheless, in 1941, a new exhibition was dedicated to him at the Musée d'Ethnographie in Geneva, presenting twelve watercolors commissioned by Professor Eugène Pittard. Subsequently, no exhibitions were dedicated to him until 2012, when the artist was rediscovered in Europe during the exhibition Histoires de voir at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris.
