For the first time in its 50-year history, Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is hosting a solo exhibition by an African artist, and it is Nigerian contemporary painter John Madu who is leading this historic shift. His exhibition Paint Your Path, unveiled on Friday, is not only a creative triumph but a bold statement on representation, global influence, and artistic dialogue across continents.
The collection, consisting of 10 original pieces, is deeply personal. Painted in just three months from his studio in Lagos, each work is a modern response to seven of Vincent van Gogh’s masterpieces. The result is a vivid cultural reinterpretation, with recurring themes of identity, migration, and belonging carefully threaded through brushstrokes that echo Van Gogh’s signature style, but through an African lens.
In one of the exhibition’s most talked-about works, a man is seen lost in a book of Japanese prints, with a Nigerian passport casually resting on a nearby table and a white plastic chair, common across West Africa, standing quietly in the corner. That same chair, a recurring motif in the series, reimagines Van Gogh’s rustic wooden seat, challenging notions of aesthetic hierarchy while placing African everyday life firmly within the global visual conversation.
“Before I even knew Van Gogh’s name, I was already drawn to his art,” Madu said, referencing his early exposure to Impressionist imagery on his father’s calendars. “It was the colour, the energy, the texture. Van Gogh’s yellows spoke to me.”
This intuitive connection eventually matured into a formal homage. Madu doesn’t mimic Van Gogh, he mirrors him, adapting the visual language but speaking in a different accent. The merging of palettes and brushwork is deliberate. “It needed to feel cohesive,” Madu explained. “Like these worlds, Europe and Africa, belong in the same room.”
What makes this exhibition even more groundbreaking is its collaborative origin. The project was co-commissioned by Beeldbrekers (Image Breakers), a group of young adults working with the Van Gogh Museum to challenge long-held norms around representation in Western art institutions. Their mission: to break the mould and bring in stories often left outside the museum frame.
For Himaya Ayo, a 22-year-old member of the group, the significance runs deeper than art. “To see a Nigerian artist take up space in a place like this is powerful. It’s not just representation, it’s validation,” she said. “When the opportunity came, I signed up immediately. This is a historic moment.”
John Madu’s Paint Your Path is more than an exhibition. It is a landmark moment in contemporary art, a quiet but potent confrontation of who gets to belong, who gets to influence, and who gets to be seen. And for many, it’s a reminder that art doesn’t always have to cross oceans to find its way into history. Sometimes, it’s already there, just waiting to be recognised.
