By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (5 February 2019)
Let’s be
clear. National Museums of Kenya are not art institutions. It’s wishful
thinking to imagine that it is. That is why one’s ears perk up when a
discussion started recently about Kenya needing a National Museum of Art.
But
currently, a Kenyan art museum is still just talk so we must be grateful for
the Nairobi National Museum where Kenyan artists’ works are not only to be
found upstairs in the Creativity Gallery where the group exhibition of
paintings and sculptures, ‘Glad Tidings’ has been extended through
mid-February.
Even
downstairs and outside, artworks are everywhere. Outside, there are glass
sculptures by Tonny Mugo, stained glass windows by Nani Croze, a labyrinthine
Peace Path by Elkana Ong’esa, a cement ‘Mother and Child’ sculpture by Francis
Nnaggenda, another sculpture by Jackson Wanjau, Ahmed the Elephant, and several
sculptures by the late Charles Carol Bwire. One is the true-to-life sculpture
of Dr. Louis Leakey which rests right in front of the auditorium named after
him and the magnificent monument dinosaur that intimidates you as you enter the
Museum grounds.
Anthony Okello's
Then inside,
even before one enters the Creativity Gallery there are artworks on display by
everyone from John Odoch-Ameny, Anthony Okello and Justus Kyalo to Kamau
Kariuki. Of these last four, I believe only Kamau’s impressive impasto
portraits were recently hung.
Kamau Kariuki's Young Woman
The other three are part of the Museum’s permanent collection.
The other three are part of the Museum’s permanent collection.
I’m a fan of
all of their work, but I was only introduced to Kamau’s portraiture last year.
He was part of the Kenya Arts Diary 2019 Preview exhibition at Alliance
Francaise and it seemed his painting was the most popular for your Kenyans to
stand in front of while they were taking their selfies! That’s not to say
selfie-popularity should be a measure of quality or value, but it does say
something about a new generation of Kenyans’ growing appreciation of fine art.
The
exhibition upstairs in the Creativity Gallery is one of the best I have seen in
a while at the Museum. It’s a generous mix of color, character and technique.
Of the five
painters featured in the show, namely Anwar Sadat, Deng Chol, Ngula Yusuf, Ruth
Nyakundi and Yusuf Ssalu, it is only Ngula’s art that I hadn’t seen before. He
only had one piece in display, a colorful abstract work that had a warm rhythm
and muted blend of hues to it.
Deng Chol's Patterns
Ssalu also
only had one piece. And like his fellow Ugandan, his work is colorful, abstract
and suffused with joyful energy, fitting for the exhibition’s name. The other
Ugandan in the show, Anwar Sadat has two works which echoed a wildlife theme
that strikes one instantly as you enter the gallery. That’s because Bwire’s
animal sculptures are stunning contrasts to the paintings. His bronze-like
miniature sculptures of lions, leopard, rhino, hippo, tortoise and eagle take
me back to a time when I met his uncle, the late Charles Bwire who was busy
installing his sculpture of Louis Leakey and I was in awe of his uncanny
ability to precisely capture every delicate feature of the great paleontologist’s
human form.
Charles Bwire's Lion trophy
The senior
Bwire explained he had never gone to art school but had worked for years for
Zimmerman, the taxidermist who all the hunter went to with their kills for him
to disembowel and then reconstruct as prized trophies. It was there that he
learned all about anatomy and how both humans and animals are constructed, from
the inside out.
With that
history in mind, I must say my favorite pieces by Bwire the Younger are his
lion ‘trophies’ which he made, not from a real animal ‘kill’ but from plaster
and bronze paint.
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