A Frenchman in Africa
My love for Africa
When did I start painting?
In 1896 when my father, an unassumed gifted artist, was born. He gave me his virus and his name in 1939 in Paris, just before the war. Thereafter, difficult time!
In Paris I learnt the Print and Graphic Art trade. It landed me in Lagos Nigeria in 1968 as Litho manager in a printing firm. Then something happened:
“Long ago in Africa a fisherman’s daughter, from the Igbo tribe, caught me in her net, a passerby from a Paris tribe.
I stayed raising a family.
I stayed training people with careers and opportunities.
They stayed showing me around, opening my eyes.
I stayed, becoming a brother of the African dust, hoping that my brush, one day, meets other brothers and sister’s hearts.”
Fra Dehele
Brother Louis Duval
This is when my private pictorial serendipity started. I rarely exhibited, only through accidental circumstances such as Onikan Museum in Lagos, in Nairobi Ole Sereni Hotel and Paa Ya Paa Art Centre.
I dedicated my work to my dear Apaulina Okafor who inspired me and to my loving daughter Yvette Duval gone too soon’’.
At near 80, I am now back to France. I never looked back. My art reflects my life long relationship and respect for the people and continent of Africa.
Louis / Fra