The recent winner of the 21st edition of the 'National Culture and Arts Award', in the Visual Arts category, did not resist the complications of the covid-19 virus, dying at 73 years of age.
Multi-faceted artist, Kapela Paulo has an exceptional place in the Angolan artistic context. Its trajectory is confused with the recent history of post-colonial Angola. Through an eclectic artistic practice, mixing apparently disparate and dissenting objects and references, Kapela became a kind of Spiritual Father of National Contemporary Art, a Master for a whole generation of younger artists - whom he influenced.
"Our Father, our Kota, our Kapela died. His heart could not bear it. He is now with Jah! The family of brothers and close friends is crawling and heartbroken, but resigned that our rasta has joined to Jah, Deus no Céu ", said Dominick Tanner, director general of Espaço Luanda Arte (ELA), in a statement sent to VerAngola.
The responsible also left some thanks to those who marked the Master's life and who took care of him for the last hours of his life: "I want to thank ToyBoy for having achieved what he achieved, to give a special thanks to Naama Margalit and his Foundation team, special thanks to the clinical staff of Endiama in Cape Island, for the person of Dr. Vanda, who were tireless in trying to help Kapela to win the covid-19, and to comfort Fátima and Germano who lose a father ".
Kapela Paulo "leaves a huge void on the stage of national contemporary art", he concludes.
