The school he founded rapidly became known all over Africa. With independence from France in 1960, the new government discontinued financial assistance. Without art supplies, Lods found teaching impossible. Heartbroken, he left the atelier to his students, and moved to Dakar.

Miraculously, the painters survived and taught a new generation of artists. In 1997, Congo plunged into a brutal civil war. The atelier was plundered and shelled. The artists fled into the forests. Three years later, when the fighting ended, they decided to form a cooperative. Today, when a painting is sold, 30% goes to the collective and 70 to the individual artist. This communal spirit has allowed the school to survive into its fifth decade without any government support.

Thanks to Kofi Annan, the Poto-Poto atelier joined UNESCO’s protected sites in 2001. Like most Congolese, these master painters and their students live in extreme poverty while their leaders profit immensely from the country’s oil wealth. Each morning, the artists convene to work in their shared atelier. At sunset, the crowded cité of Brazzaville falls into darkness. With no electricity, the painters have to use oil lamps or candles like modern-day Caravaggios.

The masterpiece, Brazza: A symbol of Humanity, now in the National Museum of Cameroon, exemplifies the mastery of nine artists working together to create a testimony of the redemptive role of art, rising like a phoenix above war and desperate hardship, acting as a bridge between cultures.