Bisi Silva, bold curator of African art, dies at 56

We have the great annual religious festivals of Christmas, Eid, Easter and Diwali with more besides.

And there are the secular celebrations too — one thinks of the excitement of International Women’s Day, with us next week — and we are privileged also to enjoy the splendours of the East African art auction, slated to take place on March 5.

It promises to be the most splendid yet.

This sixth foray into the secondary market, organised by the Circle Art Agency based in Nairobi, boasts more lots than ever before with 59 artworks going under the hammer and estimated prices from a pocket friendly $450 up to a hefty $8,500.

Most works are expected to make between $2,000 and $4,000, yet at the lowest end of the scale some of the most exciting prospects are to be found.

There is, for instance, a stunning portrait, Frieda, in coloured inks on paper by the Nigerian Wole Lagunju. It is small at 30.5cm by 22.9cm, but burns brightly on the wall.

And at a similar low estimate is an astonishing little print by Kenya’s First Generation master Sane Wadu.

He is best known for his energetic brushwork, and crowded, colourful canvases, but here is an experimental etching he made from a copper plate, during a workshop in the late 1980s held at Yony Waite’s Wildebeest Studio on Lamu.

It is the first artist’s proof before the edition of 10 was made, and it was assumed lost until Waite found it recently.

Hand-coloured, this charming work shows the Angel of Inspiration framed by a border of birds, leaves and animals.

Two prints going under the hammer as one lot and given a low estimate of $450 for the pair, are Looking at the Horizon 2018 and Horizon 2018, by the Tanzanian Robino Ntila, each numbered 2 from editions of 50.

Aquatint etchings on paper, they are boldly drawn offerings from a man represented in many international collections.

Attracting top estimates in this auction are two paintings by the man who gave his name to the Tanzanian Tingatinga style — Eduardo Saidi Tingatinga.

Elephant Eating from the Marula Tree and Hunter with Bird were both bought by the present owner from the now defunct Gallery Watatu in Nairobi — an essential with Tingatinga’s work is a solid provenance; fakes abound — and have a top estimate of $8,500 apiece.

Hoping to attract a roughly similar price with a top estimate of $8,200 is a rare oil on canvas by Robin Anderson, perhaps best known for her silk batiks and one of the founders of the Watatu, with Yony Waite and David Hart.
Here, in Women’s Market, dating from the early 1960s, Anderson, who died in 2012, showed her love of large scale figurative painting combined with compositional ability and her penchant for a dark palette.
In the $2,000-$4,000 range, highlights include a stunning woven tin screen called Doors, by Dickson Otieno.

He may not remain in the middle range for much longer. At the recent Cape Town art fair, Circle sold all three of his submissions for $4,000 and $6,000.

Then we have Matoke Farmer, by the polymath Samson Ssenkaaba, known as Xenson. It has an upper limit of $6,000 and could go even higher, although starting bids are expected around $3,500.
It shows the farmer wearing a sinister balaclava, balancing an AK47 on his head and with a jembe on one shoulder.

The painting is huge, at 175.5cm by 145.3cm, and, for my taste, the tension so apparent in the catalogue reproduction is dissipated by its sheer size.

Lovers of Outsider art will welcome, as well as the Tingatingas, the inclusion of paintings by two of the best of the self-taught artists — a delightfully faded landscape with zebra by Ancent Soi from 1982, and a typical Kivuthi Mbuno of struggling wildlife in a rocky setting, all cool greys and blues offset by sharp white. Although undated it looks to be relatively early, thankfully untroubled by the myriad little black birds that bedevil his later work.

For some reason, sculpture tends to be somewhat overlooked in this region — other than the Akamba curio carvings — in spite of the abundance of ability demonstrated by a visit to any gallery and many a public space.

Here a witty George Lilanga painted creature clutching a bottle of soda and a cellphone is expected to make between $1,000 and $1,500, a low price that takes into account some restoration.

And saving the best to the last is a stunning piece by the late Samwel Wanjau of a seated woman holding a book.

A rare early work made in the late 70s and expected to make between $3,500 and $4,500, it shows why Wanjau became an inspiration for all sculptors in this region.

The tranquility of the model’s expression shown through her half-closed eyelids and slightly pursed lips is just one of its delights.

Wanjau’s deliberate extension of the left arm to allow the figure to sit upright, yet place an elbow on her knee while holding her book at head height, is another — a masterful key to this circulatory composition; a reworking of anatomy popular particularly among painters from the Renaissance to today.

The sculpture’s elegance and refinement are exceptional and of all the lots in the Circle auction, this is the one I would most like to take home.

Related Stories