By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted to Awaaz 3 December 2018)
Jak
Katarikawe was a beloved East African artist who wasn’t just a painter of
allegorical landscapes of Ugandan rural life. He was also a charming
storyteller who’d hold his audience, (be it a client, longtime patron or
friend) rapt as he interpreted the stories he had just painted. He’d always
tell his tales with a twinkle in his eye as his characters, be they elephants
or actual human beings, were often involved in [some sort of] illicit love
affair, the kind he might have known first-hand back home in Uganda, before he
came to Kenya in the late 1970s.
Jak didn’t
arrive in Nairobi until he was nearly forty years old, or thereabouts. He was
never sure of the year and month in which he was born, but he approximated it
at 1938. That means that when he passed on October 19th, Jak would
have spent the same numbers of years living in Kenya as he did in Uganda.
Yet as Jak
grew less capable of painting the whimsical way he had done for a good forty years,
producing brilliant and beautiful artworks that went into public institutions
and private collections all over the world, he refused to ‘go home’ to Uganda.
Despite having pumped a large portion of the revenues he had made from his paintings
into constructing his family home in Kigezi, Southwestern Uganda, he no longer
seemed to identify with the land of his forefathers. Kenya is where he had
become King of contemporary East African art in the 1980s and 1990s. So in
spite of his weakening condition and his difficulty paying his rent, Jak
remained in the flat on Forest Avenue (now Wangari Maathai Blvd.) until the
very end.
Until he
passed on October 19th, Jak was a living legend who inspired younger artists
for both his talent and apparent financial success. He was among the first East
Africans whose artworks could sell for hundreds of thousands of shillings a
painting. He is also one of the first whose works were exhibited abroad, in
Europe and the USA.
Jak’s
legendary status was confirmed the same day he died, when news spread like
wildfire on social media that Jak had passed on. He’d been found alone and
unconscious by a cousin who’d come to his flat to cook for him since Jak’s wife
Florence was back in Uganda. Friends had tried to get him to accompany her home
as he’d built a house for the family in Kigezi. Yet he refused.
He died
while on route to the Hospital.
In his
prime, Jak was known as an ‘African [Marc] Chagall’, named after the 20th
century modern artist who, like Jak, created colorful, whimsical paintings that
invariably had an enchanting narrative to back up his artwork. Unfortunately,
in his latter days, Jak was better known as a beggar who was frequently almost
booted from his flat by an angry landlord who was only appeased when one of the
artist’s longtime patrons stepped in at the last minute to ensure that Jak
wasn’t tossed out on the street. They would pay his rent, including the
arrears.
A few months
before he passed, Jak was offered the means to go home to Kigezi with all his
luggage and the remnants of his illustrious career. Alan set aside a
substantial chunk of money to assist Jak to enjoy his last days in the comfort
of his own Ugandan home. Yet he rejected that idea as well.
Jak never
had a chance to go to school since his polygamous father had retired by the
time he was born, the last born of the old man’s youngest wife. But Jak had
natural talent. Plus his mother was artistic. Jak once recalled how she used to
paint lovely designs in ash all around her mud and wattle hut as a means of
attracting the old man to come for supper at her home. In an interview with
‘The Nairobi Times’ in the early 1980s, Jak also remembered how he was inspired
by the colorful stained glass windows of the nearby church. He said the windows
had shown him the value of brilliant translucent colors and the storytelling
power of art.
Jak’s big
break came after he was hired to be a driver for David Cooke, the Makerere
University professor who found his sketches stashed in the boot of his car.
Professor Cook could see that Jak had talent which he felt should be nurtured.
So he arranged for him to be mentored by Professor Sam Ntiru, who at the time
was head of Makerere’s Art Department and a leading Tanzanian artist.
After
spending some time at Makerere, Jak had his first solo exhibition in 1966 at
the Uganda National Theatre. It was like a coming of age for him. He now
realized he was truly an artist. But like so many Ugandans who had to migrate
to Kenya due to the political turmoil in his country, Jak moved to Nairoi in
the mid-1970s. He initially worked and stayed with the Tanzanian sculptor and
painter Elimo Njau, who as co-founder of Paa ya Paa Art Centre had set up
visiting artists’ studios where refugees like Jak found a safe haven in which
to work. Subsequently, Jak exhibited at Alliance Francaise and Gallery Watatu.
He also worked closely with Nani Croze and Dr Eric Krystal in the 1980s when
they were organizing artists’ workshops to create works reflecting Eric’s
priority of family planning. Jak produced some of his most memorable paintings
during that time.
Jak was
already established when the late Ruth Schaffner bought Gallery Watatu in 1985
from Yony Waite, the Guam-born American artist who co-founded Watatu with the
late Robin Anderson and David Hart. Ruth quickly took Jak under her wing and
soon became his mentor, mother-figure, accountant and bank. She took his art
worldwide, particularly to West Germany and the US where she owned two
galleries in Los Angeles and sold his oil paintings like hotcakes.
Jak, who had
never been to school and had only learned how to sign his name from Dr Cook,
grew increasingly reliant on Ruth. There is little doubt that Ruth made a
fortune from Jak’s artworks, but since he didn’t keep his own accounts, nor did
he know how much his artworks were sold for overseas, no one will ever know the
kind of commission Ruth the art dealer made from Jak’s paintings.
What we do
know is that Jak was perfectly happy painting in his spacious rented rooms upstairs
at the Paradise Hotel on Tom Mboya Street. But Ruth convinced him the
neighborhood was so ‘dangerous’ that he needed to move. She shifted him to the
most expensive flats in Nairobi, the Norfolk Apartments just next to the
historic hotel. She paid his rent out of his earnings which undoubtedly
contributed to the penury he incurred in his latter days.
But once
Ruth passed on in 1986, Jak refused to move. He continued to pay the rent
despite the cramped quarters she had moved him into. Without her regular sales
of his art, Jak had very little revenue and thus, his financial problems began
immediately upon Ruth’s death.
Jak never
recovered from Ruth’s passing. He went into mourning and never got over his
grief. It wasn’t assuaged by Ruth’s husband, the Ivorian counsel Adama Diawara
who took over the gallery after Ruth was gone. When the Ghanaian journalist,
Osei Kofi took over the gallery for Diawara, he held an exhibition for Jak
around 2007. He shared the limelight with Sane Wadu and Wanyu Brush. But even
that didn’t shake Jak out of the doldrums he’d fallen into after losing his
beloved Ruth.
Ruth’s death
also had a profound effect on his painting. Jak could never reactivate his
effortless style of visual storytelling. Despite being pestered for years by
art collectors from all over the world who frequently came personally to his
Forest Road flat (where he finally moved to after having no choice) to buy his
art, he could never regain his creative edge. He soon exhausted his supply of
the paintings that expressed the ‘old Jak’. Nonetheless, any time one of his
older paintings has gone up for auction, the prices have soared. Many people
believe Jak’s art will only accrue in value over time, just as it did for other
artists who died poor, such as Vincent Van Gogh and even Rembrandt. But now
their paintings are valued as many millions of whatever currency you prefer
Jak will
primarily be remembered for the luminous artworks he created between the 1970s
and 1990s. But to his friends, he’ll be remembered as the sweet-spirited
gentleman whose skill in visual storytelling was sublime.
Jak was
buried quietly at his Kigezi home on October 28th, just a week after
he passed. Tributes to him continue to pour in on social media. And many Kenyan
artists are still waiting to hold a memorial service for Jak, yet they respect
the wishes of the family who wanted their father buried quietly without fanfare.
Fortunately, his art has already made him an immortal and he will always be
considered one of East Africa’s finest artists.
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