The history of visual art education in and around the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been much analysed in relation to the ‘Indigenous Art Workshop’ known as “Le Hangar”, which operated there in the years 1ti46-1ti54. This school, sometimes described as "the first art school in francophone Africa", is considered by many to be the first expression of modern art by Congolese artists. Taking this school as the starting point and considering, in particular, the medium of easel painting, has often resulted in the creation of linear narratives linking the students of Le Hangar workshop Pilipili Mulongoy, Bela Sara and Mwenze Kibwanga, directly to the creation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lubumbashi in 1952, with artists such as Mode Muntu and François Amisi, and also with autodidact painters such as Kanyemba, right up to the generation of young artists currently practising today, such as Trésor Malaya.