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Poto-Poto School Painting

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Gallin
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Keywords
Local ID
20231003_poto_poto_school_paintings_32
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10267/36486
Abstract
Gouache on black paper. Depicts two boats on either side of a group of green trees. The boat on the left contains a figure wearing a yellow skirt and another wearing a white skirt. The boat on the right contains a figure wearing a red skirt and another wearing a white skirt. Signature of "GALLiN" in bottom right corner.
Description
Reverend William Pruitt (1911-1999), who served as a Presbyterian missionary in the Belgian Congo from the 1930s to 1978, collected a group of 37 paintings from artists at the Poto-Poto School, a small art school in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo that is still in operation today. In 1998, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. began an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse made by several children of missionaries from the time Pruitt was a missionary in the Congo. This collection of paintings was found in the Rhodes College collection in the summer of 2023. The paintings were digitized and cataloged in the Visual Resources Center during fall 2023. Learn more about the William Pruitt investigation here: https://www.pcusa.org/news/2010/12/16/pcusa-named-lawsuit-alleged-victim-sexual-abuse-mi/ https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/iarp/pdfs/iarp_final_report.pdf