Rosemary Karuga, Mother of East African Art

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 2, 2021)

If great artists in Kenya were recognized and lauded like Picasso is in Paris, Vincent Van Gogh is in Amsterdam, and Andy Warhol is in USA, then Rosemary Karuga would have received an abundance of accolades in her lifetime and now in her death on February 9^th of this new year.

Alas, Kenyans do not yet appreciate the role of the artist in society. So Rosemary’s passing on in her 93 year was a quiet affair. She had moved to Ireland to live with her daughter Beni back in 2006, so her death might not have generated even a ripple of news in the local press.

Yet to those who had the privilege of knowing her or knowing her incredible collage art or her enchanting terracotta sculptures know we had an artistic genius in our midst.

Karuga has been called an icon, a female exemplar and a pioneer in East African art, all of which apply then and now.

The first Kenyan female to attend and graduate from Makerere University’s prestigious Margaret Trowel School of Fine Art from 1950 to 1952, Karuga’s genius was early valued among her peers, including men like Elimo Njau, cofounder of Paa ya Paa, the first indigenous African art gallery in Kenya.

Born in 1928 in Meru to a Ugandan father and Sudanese mother, Rosemary’s artistic bent was visible from an early age when she’d take charcoal sticks and draw on walls all over her family home.

Sent off to boarding school where the nuns encouraged her to pursue her art, Rosemary was quick to spot a call from Makerere for young women to apply for university entry.

In an interview with the BBC on her 60^th birthday, Rosemary described how much she learned at Makerere. She already excelled in drawing, but at university she first learned about sculpture and wood carving, modeling with clay and even molding in bronze. Graduating with a double major in painting and sculpture, her later years as a collage artist grew out of necessity since paper and glue were the only ‘art materials’ affordable at that time in her life.

Then soon after graduating, she met and married a railway man named Karuga. They moved to Kenya, and subsequently, Rosemary found herself in a wasteland where she had “no kiln, no fire, no plaster of paris,” and so, her sculpting days were done. She sadly “gave up” as she told her BBC interviewer. For 13 years thereafter, Rosemary the artist disappeared as she taught art in Kenyan primary schools. No doubt the children were immensely benefited by her creativity.

Ironically, one skill she taught her young students was the art of mosaic-making using old shredded newspapers combined with a gooey mix of ‘unga’ flour and glue. The children loved the challenge, and as it turned out, so did their teacher.

Rosemary said she retired soon thereafter, and wanted to return to doing her art. But her husband had no funds for her ambition and neither did she. What she did have was her imagination and desire to get back to work.

“All I had to work with were the paper jackets of Rexona soap and Unga flour,” Rosemary told BD back in the 1990s after her career had revived.

Those humble art materials are what enabled Rosemary to reignite her artistic work ethic. Nonetheless, her first collages were experimental, except that her daughter quietly took them to Nairobi, to Gallery Watatu where they were quickly bought by the late Ruth Schaffner who demanded Rosemary make her more. And the rest is ‘history’ as they say.

In 1988, the acclaimed Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola asked her to illustrate his book ‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard’ which set her onto an international career, first to Paris where the book had been translated along with her illustrations, then to the Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, where she co-exhibited with fellow luminaries like El Anatsui and Bruce Onobrakpeya in a show entitled ‘Contemporary African Artists—Changing Traditions.’

Yet whenever Rosemary came home, she continued to find the lack of appreciation among her fellow Kenyans.

“Some people might like my art, but they only felt it was worth pennies, so we artists have remained poor as a consequence,” Rosemary had told BBC as they toured her humble abode in Gatundu.

Yet today, Rosemary’s collage art is sold for high stakes at international art auctions. Her sculptures are priceless, and her name won’t be forgotten. She’s the Mother of East African art.

Nairobi Gallery will exhibit Rosemary’s art from March 25^th.