Hailing from Shaba Province, Ilunga was an active member of Pierre-Romain Desfossés' Académie des beaux arts in Lubumbashi. At times he worked with some of the school's more celebrated practitioners, like Pilipili Mulongoy with whom he collaborated on Pintades.

Pintades
c. 1950
Oil on masonite
125 x 247 cm (49 3/16 x 97 1/4 in.)
92-15-4, museum purchase
(on view May-August 2001)