Nicolas Ondongo, 1933-1990
Biography

Nicolas Ondongo (1933–1990) was among the first generation of students to gather around Pierre Lods in Brazzaville, alongside François Thango, François Iloki and Eugène Malonga, and became the most celebrated of the group, winning awards at the National Exhibition of Labour in Paris in both 1955 and 1961.

When Congolese independence arrived in 1960 and Lods departed for Senegal, it was Ondongo — together with Guy Léon Fylla — who kept the École de Peinture de Poto-Poto alive, reorganising it as a cooperative of artist-teachers to secure its financial independence once state subsidies were cut, and overseeing an expansion of the school's stylistic range beyond its founding “Miké” manner.

Ondongo worked chiefly in gouache, depicting market scenes, dance and village life in the bright, schematic style associated with the school; his painting “Marché en AEF” was included in the 2014 exhibition “D'une rive à l'autre” at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. Like his contemporaries, he signed his work with the initials “PPP” (Peintres de Poto-Poto).

source: Barnebys; Euvrard-Fabre; African Contemporary essay on the Poto-Poto School