Ugandan pioneer in rare display of wildlife paintings
Saturday July 29 2017
Left, Maasai Mara, and right, Chiwara mask, by Theresa Musoke. PHOTOS | KARI MUTU
Ugandan artist Theresa Musoke was one of the first female contemporary artists to gain prominence in East Africa.
In recent years, she has rarely exhibited, but now a selection of her works is on show at the Nairobi Gallery.
Musoke is renowned for semi-abstract and mixed-media paintings, particularly of romanticised wildlife. The current exhibition of 33 pictures, which is on until October, has both block print, oil paintings and batik-style paintings on canvas, sisal fabric and bark cloth.
Maasai Mara shows a herd of earthy-brown wildebeest with curvy outlines blending into an ashy white background. Musoke uses deep blue to depict a hazy dazzle of zebra and other wildlife. In this respect, she has been compared to Yony Waite, a Kenyan artist known for her inky and ashen paintings.
My favourite is a long oil painting of wildebeest called Primordial Animals in Mist. It is a surreal image. The elegant-looking animals have tawny brown bodies, long legs, and their curved horns merge with slender tree branches.
The image is painted on two pieces of pale sisal cloth, and the fabric joint does not take away from the attractiveness of the piece.
On another wall are monotone block prints of buffalo and wildebeest in black, dark purple and mahogany red, but these are less exciting than the oil paintings.
In a departure from wildlife are two paintings on bark cloth of the famous chiwara antelope carvings that are worn on ceremonial headdresses by the Bambara people of Mali.
Musoke paints them in mustard colours against flame-like shapes of smoky white and copper brown. Also from West Africa is a herd of long-horned yellow cattle that she saw in Nigeria.
Musoke, 75, was one of the first women to study fine arts at Makerere University. She earned a postgraduate diploma in printing from the Royal College of Art in London. She lived in Kenya for 20 years, exhibiting locally and abroad, and teaching at Kenyatta University.
Over the years, she has been commissioned by prestigious institutions such as the Birth Mural at Makerere University, the National Parks of Kenya, and Entebbe International Airport. The current show is a great opportunity to view the works of this pioneer artist.