By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 10 June for 14 June 2019)
Kenyan creatives
have been complaining for years that they don’t have a National Art Gallery
like the ones existing in places like Harare, Johannesburg, London and Washington,
DC. They have a National Museum, but that was designed to display fossils and
dead birds before it took some interest in the arts.
Ngene Mwaura
Ngene Mwaura
The one
resort where one can go to at least see the works of Kenyan and other visual
artists is the Galleries, Art Centres, select restaurants and various hotels.
Such places include galleries like One Off, Circle Art, Red Hill and Banana
Hill, art centres like Brush tu Art Studio, Kuona Artists Collective, Kobo
Trust, Paa ya Paa and Ngecha art centre (with the GoDown closing shop for
renovations) and restaurants like the Tamarind, Talisman, Que Pas and the
Intercontinental Hotel.
But none of
these venues are designed to keep a permanent collection of Kenyan art which
they preserve in temperature-controlled conditions that ensure the art survives
in spite of the heat, cold, vermin and neglect. The one exception is the National
Museum, but few people have been able to see inside their store or ensure that
the artworks have retained their original form.
Patti Endo
Patti Endo
This is when
there’s no where else to look for the preservation of Kenyan art but to private
individuals who collect, display and also take special care of the art that
they own. By now, Kenyan contemporary artists’ works exists in both public and
private collections overseas. For instance, it’s impressive that the British
Museum owns one piece by Kenya’s own Peterson Kamwathi and that UNESCO has
Elkana Ong’esa’s bird at the entrance of their Paris headquarters.
Michael Musyoka
Michael Musyoka
But equally
or perhaps even more important are the local collectors who collect and
carefully retain local artists’ works. Among them are businessmen like Mutuma
Marangu with his vast collection of Kisii stone sculptures, broadcasters like
Jeff Koinange whose collection is Pan-African, not only Kenyan and gallerists
like Hellmuth Rossler-Musch whose large private collection compliments his
public exhibitions of contemporary art.
(l-r) Zachariah Mbutha, Ngene Mwaura, Richard Njogu and Dixon Otieno at Jeffie's Umoja studio
(l-r) Zachariah Mbutha, Ngene Mwaura, Richard Njogu and Dixon Otieno at Jeffie's Umoja studio
There are also some local artists who collect the works of their peers which they have obtained either by swapping their art for their friends’ or in rare cases, buying a piece at a reduced price. One British artist who lived in Nairobi for several years and painted portraits of countless Kenyan artists is Dale Webster. Dale has returned to UK but he swapped so many portraits with leading Kenyan names that his collection of art is substantial and looked after with loving care.
One Kenyan
artist who has a sizeable collection of contemporary Kenyan art is Jeffie
Magina. He has only been collecting since 2009 but Jeffie’s abode in Umoja
Estate proves that one need not be wealthy in financial terms to be rich in
appreciation of the works of local artists.
Longinos Nagila
Longinos Nagila
Jeffie has
art by everyone from Patrick Mukabi, Michael Musyoka, Boniface Maina, Kota
Otieno, Ehoodi Kichapi and Kevin Oduor to BSQ artists Kenneth Otieno and Bebeto
Thufu, Gloria Muthoka, Nicholas Odhiambo, Wilson Matunda, Mike Chalo, Evans
Ngure and Dixon Otieno. He has art by Zachariah Mbutha, Peteros Ndunde, Evans
Yegon, Joseph Weche, Joyce Kuria, John Kariuki, Melanie Manosi, and John
Kamicha. And he even has works by Longinos Nagila, Patti Endo, David Thuku, Remi
Musindi, Charles Ngatia, Hassan Ali and Daisy Buyanzi.
Jeffie’s
home in Umoja defies the notion that one must be rich and live in a mansion to
own fine art. What he has is the foresight to have known that all these busy
people were passionate about their painting and seriously committed to growing
their creative capabilities.
Granted
since his flat is not vast, most of his artworks are miniatures. And many were
conceived when the artists were just picking up steam in their styles of
expression, experimentation and innovation. For instance, Jeffie has several
pieces by Michael Musyoka which only give one an inkling of where Musyoka’s
artistic adventures will take him aesthetically. The same is true of the pieces
he has by Boniface Maina, Longinos Nagila and even David Thuku.
Patrick Mukabi
Many of his
pieces were obtained through swaps with the artists. But Jeffie, who has a
background in finance, says he didn’t make those swaps solely to support his
fellow artists.
“Of course, I
knew their art would only accrue in value in the future,” says Jeffie who
understands both the aesthetic and the economic value of building his own collection
of Kenyan art.
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