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Vincent Coppée – Tangier Art Collector

TLmag 29 Extended: Afriques / Africas
Living with Art & Design
Nov 4, 2018
I have yet to reread Tintin in the Congo, but listening to Vincent Coppée speak, his eyes full of mischief, I can easily imagine him in 1985, a Belgian-born young man arriving in Kinshasa, Zaïre (formerly Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo). He began working in communications and advertising for his...
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I have yet to reread Tintin in the Congo, but listening to Vincent Coppée speak, his eyes full of mischief, I can easily imagine him in 1985, a Belgian-born young man arriving in Kinshasa, Zaïre (formerly Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo). He began working in communications and advertising for his own agency and a large international corporation.

Vincent, looking for favourable places to carry out his work, found, among others, the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Kinshasa, where he met the young painter Aimé Mpane. There, Vincent encountered and began to delve into African art; with care and passion, he soon started to assemble a collection, avoiding mediocrity and works by ‘artists without an art’*.
In 1996, he returned to Brussels, where he diversified his collection with sculpture and photography, including works by Robert Mapplethorpe and Walker Evans. In 2007, he sold a large portion of his collection to take a year’s sabbatical, returning to Africa, with a first stop in Tangier. But his journey ended there: he had a home built, featuring beautiful lines that pay homage to his passion for art.

Daniel Aron, Tangier, May 2018

*Capote, Truman. Local Color. Random House, 1950.

Vincent Coppé in his home in Tangier
Aimé Mpane, Vata-vata, acrylic on canvas, 1992
Aimé Mpane, Le libanda, acrylic on canvas, 1992
Moseka Yogo Ambake, Quatre pygmées assis, acrylic on canvas
Paul Daxhelet (1905-1993), Danseuses Louba Arthur DUpagne (1895-1961), Athlète, bronze sculpture
Sadi Matemba (1944-2013), La fête royale, oil on canvas, D.R Congo
Aimé Mpane, portrait de maman Benz, oil on canvas, 1990
Robert Mappelthorpe, Ken Moody, photo, 1984
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