Kalashnikovs no longer call the shots in Maputo

Several of the Nucleo habitués took part in a workshop at the city’s Polytechnic University to raise funds through an auction of their paintings for disadvantaged children. Joao Paulo Bias, a painter who organised the workshop, wasn’t quite sure how the starting price would be set.

When interest was expressed in the two paintings he had done, and he was asked for a price, Jamal Carlos replied, “I don’t know. What do you want to pay?”

In Kenya, where art has never been seen as arm of ideology, the commercial aspect has taken hold without much difficulty. But the problem remains of establishing a market value for the merchandise in the absence of valid criticism and cultural arbitrators.

The April 8 auction of contemporary African (read mainly Nigerian) art at Bonham’s in London was an attempt, according to promoter Access Bank, to establish prices for the expanding market for Nigerian art, primarily among Nigerian expatriates.

Alda Costa and Jorge Dias, curator at the National Museum of Art and an artist himself, agree that because there is little or no commercial art activity in Maputo, it is difficult to set prices — and standards.

“Everything is all mixed up; we need writers and critics and philosophers,” said Mrs Costa, who is president of the board of the new High Institute of Art and Culture, the first tertiary institution of its kind in the country, expected to open its doors in August.