VM Art Auction Changed Pascal Chuma's life

When Much's painting, The Scream, sold for $120 million at the Sotheby's Art Auction, I realized Pascal Chuma's life had also been transformed when his painting was the highest seller at the Village Market art auction held late last year in aid of drought victims living in northern Kenya. Perhaps we need more art auctions to 'grow' the Kenyan art market!

Chuma Pascal: Artist and Art Institution Builder

By Margaretta wa Gacheru May 3, 2012

Pascal Chuma made the radical choice not to follow the majority of his classmates when they completed their art course at Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art (BIFA) in 2000.

“They didn’t believe they could survive as artists in Kenya at this point in time, so they became graphic artists,” said the founder of Bobea Art Centre in Donholm Estate.

                                      Pascal Chuma's In My Dairy. Pix by Marta O.

Conceding that financially speaking, it hasn’t been easy sticking with painting.

But once he won an award late last year during the ‘Kenya for Kenyans’ campaign organized by the Village Market to raise funds for hunger-stricken Kenyans who were victims of the drought in the Northeast, the prospects for doing well as a visual artist in Kenya improved significantly.

“My painting was the highest seller at the art auction run by Village Market’s Managing Director Hamed Ehsani to raise funds for the drought victims. It went for KSh260,000,” said Chuma.

The artist doesn’t know who bought the painting entitled  “My Dream will never die” since Village Market ran a ‘silent auction’ where anyone interested in an artwork wrote down a figure and then, people waited to see whose bid was highest.

The buyer chose to remain anonymous, but others present at the auction got in touch with Chuma,” he said. “Village Market gave me my first exhibition the following December last year.

People from Braeburn School also came and invited me to exhibit at their Coffee House in Lavington since they appreciated what I do,” said the artist cum art teacher who started Bobea Art Centre in Kayole back in 2007 to nurture artistic talent among disadvantaged youth who can’t afford school fees to study the arts.

“After that I also got a booking for Bobea artists at Osteria restaurant in Karen in April, although that had to be postponed until this coming June,” said Chuma who was speaking to Business Daily at the Village Market where he and his art students are currently exhibiting through May 7^th in the Exhibition Hall.

              

                                  Pascal Chuma's The Musicians. Pix by Sylvia Gichia

There were initially five artists who started the Bobea Art Centre, three of whom were graduates of BIFA: David Thuku, Sophie Wasonga and Chuma; but both Thuku and Wasonga dropped out of the centre once they got jobs. So did self-taught founder member Walter Lubisia.

It’s only Isabellah Nyanchoka, one of Chuma’s former art students, who remains with Bobea. But others have joined the centre, including four of the five other artists exhibiting with Chuma at Village Market right now.

They are Isabellah, Mundia Asena, Alfred Mwaengo and Sarah Kaloki. The fifth is sculptor Kepha Mosoti who is based at Kuona Trust.

In fact, Bobea has grown since they made the shift from Kayole to Donholm in late 2007.

“We had to move since most of the young talents we were nurturing and teaching disappeared due to their craving for quick cash,” said Chuma.

“The group formerly known as Mungiki got the youth to join their garbage collection business, which was a good idea [i.e. slum clean-up] except that Kayole residents were compelled to pay for the service. Otherwise, the youth would dump garbage in front of the doors where people didn’t pay.”

Shifting first to his home in Donholm, Chuma and company found his place too small. “So we rented a place near mine, where we both teach and hold exhibitions for our students.”

Chuma has had lots of experience nurturing youthful talent among Kenyans. His first job was straight out of BIFA where his cards, miniature printed reproductions of his paintings, found their way to UK where a group called Wetfoot International took interest in his wor.

“They contacted me and requested that I work as a ‘volunteer’ for them in Mwea among ‘disadvantaged youth’ which I did for several years,” said Chuma who recalled the way all his expenses were paid by Wetfoot, including art supplies, accommodation, food and even transport  between Nairobi and Mwea.

He also did similar work, empowering talented youth through teaching them skills in painting in Pumwani.

“I volunteered at St. John’s Community Centre, and was given an allowance for my work.”

It was after both of those contracts ended that Chuma decided to set up Bobea (meaning ‘excell’ in Kiswahili) Art Centre in 2007.

Now the challenge has been covering overhead costs, such as rent and art supplies.

“Our main source of revenue is currently the sale of my artwork and that of our students,” said Chuma who’s been dipping into his savings ever since Bobea was born.

He established quite a successful network of clients who appreciate his art, both among locals and global patrons, including the Canadian NGO “Painting a New World” (PNW).

“But our biggest challenge is having enough art materials to teach the youth to paint,” said Chuma who sees his busy exhibition schedule as a crucial way of generating and expanding greater interest in an art market that is both youthful and Kenyan.

“There is no doubt the talent and creativity is right here in Eastland. Our job at Bobea is simply to tap it. That’s what the Centre is all about.”

The Scream by E.Munch sold at auction

This story of The Scream being the highest selling painting ever sold at an art auction correlates well with a story i just wrote on Pascal Chuma's painting that all was the highest selling painting at the Nairobi art auction run in late 2011 by Village Market.

 

Edvard Munch's iconic artwork The Scream sold for $120m

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The Sotheby's auctioneer in New York told one phone bidder "I love you"

www.bbc.com may 3, 2012

What makes The Scream so iconic?

 Munch’s Scream and the art of anguish

Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch's The Scream has become the most expensive artwork sold at auction, after it fetched $119.9m (£74m).

The 1895 pastel was bought by an anonymous buyer at Sotheby's in New York. Bidding lasted 12 minutes.
The work is one of four in a series by the Norwegian expressionist artist and was the only one still owned privately.
Proceeds of the sale are to go towards founding a new museum, hotel and art centre in Norway.
Seven bidders were competing for the work, which had a starting price of $40m. The crowd broke into applause, following the sale on Wednesday.
The sale price includes the buyer's premium.
The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was for Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, which sold for $106.5m in 2010.
'Trembling with anxiety' The other three versions of The Scream are all owned by Norwegian museums, but Sotheby's say the version they sold is the most colourful.

Continue reading the main story

Most expensive art works

• The Card Players (pictured), by Paul Cezanne sold for $250m to Qatar
• No 5, 1948, by Jackson Pollock fetched $140m
• Willem de Kooning's Woman III went for $137.5m
• Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I sold for $135m
• Edvard Munch's The Scream fetches $120m

It is also the only one to include a poem by Munch on the frame, which talks of the inspiration behind the series of works.

It reads: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city.
"My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."
The piece was sold by businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was friendly with the Norwegian artist.
Earlier this year, Olsen spoke of his decision to sell The Scream.
"I have lived with this work all my life, and its power and energy have only increased with time," he said.
"Now, however, I feel the moment has come to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work."
The Scream has become one of the famous works of art in popular culture.

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Philip Hook from Sotheby's discusses Edvard Munch's masterpiece with the BBC's David Sillito

"Together with the Mona Lisa, it's the most famous and recognised image in art history," Michael Frahm, an art adviser with Frahm Ltd, told the Associated Press news agency.
He added that it has been "used by everyone from Warhol to Hollywood to cartoons to teacups and T-shirts".
Two of the other versions of The Scream were stolen, in 1994 and 2004 respectively. Both were later recovered.

Magdalene Odundo, Kenya's world renowned ceramacist returns home for AH Celebration

MAGDALENE ODUNDO: MASTER CERAMICIST

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Published in Daily Nation, Nairobi, April 24, 2012

Her hand-sculpted vessels are worth tens of thousands of dollars, yet the world-acclaimed Kenyan ceramicist Magdelene Odundo refuses to talk about money. She’s more inclined to talk concepts rather than hard cash, aesthetics rather than rates of exchange, despite the fact that her vessels have been viewed, sold and placed in permanent collections, both public and private, all over the world.

In Kenya recently to attend the African Heritage 40^th anniversary celebration and to receive an AH Lifetime Achievement Award, she’s one of the few Kenyans to have also received an O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen of England.  

Born in Nairobi and raised in Mombasa, far away from Bunyale where her family originally comes from and where there’s a long tradition of women potters. Yet her knack for creating incredible pots might well be in the genes, since that might explain why/how this world renowned potter makes pots considered not simply utilitarian containers but refined works of art, vessels valued for their beauty, delicacy and grace.

The artist herself claims she is influenced far more by history and antiquity than genetics. The key to her creativity is inspiration, be it in the form of a book or a walk on the beach or a trip back home to Kenya from her current base in the UK.

“My work is often thematically conceived so that I’ll create a series of ceramics based on an idea that excited me,” says the senior professor at…. Where she supervises post-graduate students of ceramics.

”Occasionally, I will throw clay on a potter’s wheel, but all my [highly-prized] work is ‘hand-built’ and highly polished,” says Magdalene whose vessels all display a patina that has a sheen and distinctive glow that one might imagine is due to a glaze. But no, she says none of her vessels are glazed.

 and ‘hand-built’—not made with a wheel and not glazed….just highly polished with a patina that is rarefied and distinct and delicate.

Part of the opening night proceedings…she came especially from south Hampton where she has her studio and teaches, is a professor…who lectures in…. and makes pots  every chance she gets. Ie when she is not doing exhibitions all over the world

Accepting invitations to do exhibitions either in asia, Europe or America or Africa…

Her vessels reside in museums, galleries, universities all over the world, from the Smithsonian in dc. To the metropolitan in ny to the british museum in London and the …of toyko…. All over Europe and states…

With 2 agents represetnting her. One in santa Barbara, the other in Brussels:

She loves what she does, yet she didn’t start off as a potter but a painter trained at loreto convent limuru by great  nun….then to Cambridge ollege of fine art…commercial art for a time, then back to school…royal academy and pots….also print making and…

I’ thought iw ould go into sculpture,,,, which in a sense, she did…sculpted pots each distinctive and delicate: which is why the one in the African heritage show is \under glass’  it is so precious…

She loves what she does…doesn’t get personal about her life only her art.

Her art very personal, immediate, refined just like the woman who has been coming back to Kenya regularly since 19856 when first exhibitied with carol and angela at un women’s decade exhibiton at African heritage.

Since then back back back…..collaboration between ku and uk school…

She loves to teach to share ideas, concepts, appraisal, appreiciation with post graducates…

Back to uk but will be back soon….otherwise to be in her studio

Sanaa Mbele opens in Muchatha, Kenya

Enterprising painters give Nairobi its first open fine arts market

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Martin Muhoro, an artist in residence at Muchatha. WAKANYOTE 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru  (email the author)

Posted  Sunday, April 22  2012 at  16:34

Out in Muchatha, one of Nairobi’s peri-urban villages situated a few kilometres from the United Nations headquarters, a group of artists are working on the front garden of an old hand in the game, Wakanyote Njuguna, to create one of the most inventive experiments in artistic expression in Kenya.

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Since March last year, the team composed of fine artists, painters, and sculptors has been at Wakanyote’s almost every day of the week — creating a large variety of African art and artifacts that are exhibited at a monthly show where visitors not only sample the aesthetics but can also buy and carry it home.

                                     Wakanyote Njuguna, founder of Sanaa Mbele. pix by Xi Lin

“We are creating and assembling what should become one of Kenya’s prime fine art markets, one day at a time,” says Elkana Ong’esa, who recently opened the African Institute for Culture and Development to train local sculptors and carvers in the finer techniques of creating works that are not only claiming world class status but also selling for millions of shillings in the global art markets.

Together with the dozens of quasi professionals who exercise their skills in Wakanyote’s garden, Ongesa belongs to the group of artists that has rejected the notion that commercialising art kills aesthetics.

“Those who tell us not to think about making money from our art are doing us a disservice,” he says vigorously opposing the myth that has only defined African art in terms of its functionality — either as utilitarian artifacts such as ceramic pots, calabash milk containers, and beautiful grass mats used for bedding, or as religious or ceremonial items used at special occasions such as circumcision.

Today, one could say that Africans still create art that is functional but not purely as “art for art’s sake”.

The difference is only that the functionality has to do with surviving in a 21st century world where millions of Africans are self-employed in the informal economy, there being too few jobs to go round in the formal sector.

In Kenya, art has in the past few years gradually taken its position as an important element of the “Creative Economy”, with immense and often untapped potential for generating growth and creating jobs.

Recent studies by the United Nations agencies have found that for a culturally diverse country like Kenya, creative art is one segment of the economy with a limitless growth potential in activities such as music, architecture, handicrafts, fine art, fashion and interior design, publishing and graphic design.

This is the reality that has escaped the minds of Kenya’s policy makers even as they grapple with the tough task of keeping jobs growth steady and in line with population trends.

A misunderstanding of its role in a modern economy is also the reason art was removed from Kenya’s list of examinable subjects in the national schools syllabus at the turn of the millennium after former President Moi roped it into the formal learning system in 1985.

Bear fruits

Though now on the periphery, the mainstreaming of art in the school system in the 1980s helped nurture and sharpen the skills of countless Kenyan artists who identify themselves as self-taught painters and sculptors, despite having taken art classes throughout their primary and,or, secondary education.

The Kibaki government deleted art from the syllabus upon coming to power in 2003, dismissing it as unnecessary and a waste of time.
That action has not prevented a few Kenyan artists from enjoying a good living off their art.

The list of successful artists includes Richard Kimathi, Peterson Kamwathi, Ehoodi Kichapi, Beatrice Njoroge, and Patrick Mukabi, among others.

As in any other segment of the economy, there are strugglers in the art-world who can only be best described as belonging to the jua kali market, whose occupants are doing their best to find ways of not only producing quality art but also exhibiting and marketing it both locally and internationally.

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The Sanaa Mbele Centre in Muchatha village hosts local artists from neighbouring Banana Hill, Ngecha, Ruaka, and Muchatha itself — a daily engagement that is only beginning to bear fruits.

“The artists are prolific, yet they haven’t had enough venues to exhibit their art,” said Wakanyote, a former gold medal winner in fine art.

                    David Mwaura created 'Butterfly' at Sanaa Mbele. pix by Xi Lin

Better known as an actor, who performed regularly with University of Nairobi theatre groups in the 1980s, Wakanyote has in the past few years come back to his first love, painting and fine art.

His affinity for painting became especially clear in 2006 when he helped the Alliance Francaise produce what was then the most comprehensive catalogue of Contemporary Kenyan Art. His text and interviews are still some of the finest works yet to be done on Kenyan artists.

But Wakanyote was never one to rest on his laurels. He briefly became the chairman of the Banana Hill Arts Studio but has taken on a new and more entrepreneurial role, serving as both a mentor and link between local artists and the wider Kenyan art-world at the venue he calls Sanaa Mbele.

It all began a year ago when Wakanyote opened up his home in Muchatha for artists to come and paint in a nurturing, non-judgmental environment.

Because he already knew scores of local artists, Wakanyote’s initial goal was to debunk the myth that Africans do not purchase, own, or fill their homes with fine African art.

“My feeling was that artists needed more space in which to be creative and to share communally with one another,” said Wak as he is fondly known.

Echoing a sentiment that artists working across town in Hurlingham where Kuona Trust provides a communal setting to a small number of local artists, Wakonyote has also been keen to see Kenyans establishing their own arts enterprises, and not be dependent on foreign donors for handouts.

“We started an artist-in-residency program at Sanaa Mbele without support from any foreign donor,” says Wakanyote.

“We just knew there was room for artists to get together and create art,” he added, noting that the small lunches he provided for the artists who came to paint in his front yard came out of his own pocket.

This effort provided a home for artists like Shade Kamau, Martin Kamuyu, Martin Muhoro, and Wangari Mwagiru who had always wanted somewhere to go and work side by side with other artists.

“Some artists like to work alone, but others are social beings who love to feel the energy and inspiration of sharing ideas, materials and space with other artists,” said Kamau, who has been working at Wakanyote’s since the day he declared his home an open space for artists to congregate and paint to their hearts’ content.

      Shade Kamau's Musicians were painted at Sanaa Mbele. Pix by Xi Lin

Claiming he is not much of a mentor or art tutor, Wakanyote says he prefers letting artists express themselves in their own way without constraints of any kind.

“At the end of every month, we have regularly had a weekend Sanaa Mbele Art Exhibition in which not only the artists-in-residence but other artists are free to exhibit and also sell their work on site,” he adds.

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Placing paintings on wooden easels around his compound, on veranda walls, and even inside his front living room, Wakanyote says the weekend exhibitions have not only been for the artists , but for the community at large.

“Back in the 1980s, there was something called ‘Sisi kwa Sisi’ where local artists took art to the people in the estates.

In a sense, we are reviving that idea, only now we are bringing art to the village as well as to the wider world community,” he adds.

But bringing art to the people is only one dimension of Wakanyote’s success.

Providing space for artists to communicate and affirm their roles in Kenya’s creative economy is also bearing fruit, since one can actually see the confidence and immense artistic potential coming to light in the progressive developments that artists like Shade Kamau, George Ngaruiya and Martin Muhoro have made in the past year.

Attract attention

There are those like Peter “Jimmy” Kiarie who had never painted before coming to Wakanyote’s artists community but has produced work that makes clear he’s got more than potential in the trade.

The centre has also helped trained painters like Wangari Mwagiru who recently returned to Kenya from University of Cape Town, to find a conducive space to experiment without stress or duress.

                 Wangari Mwagir's Cityscape was painted at Sanaa Mbele pix by Xi Lin

The centre has offered a sort of incubating environment wherein local artists have found a rare opportunity to share not only space, but art materials and an exhibition site that is beginning to attract attention from the wider Kenyan art world.

For instance, a brand new art centre that just opened in Parklands that has been taking some of the work produced at Sanaa Mbele and selling it in the blink of an eye.

Purity Senewa, like Wangari Mwagiru, also studied in South Africa with a focus on curatorial and arts administration, which is why she has been quick to make the connection between the artwork coming out of Sanaa Mbele and the potential for sales.

Wakanyote also sees the sale of contemporary Kenyan art as a high priority for the artists who stay and work in his art centre.

But he’s looking at the larger picture and defines Sanaa Mbele as meaning Kenyan “art advancing” in the broadest sense, achieved first by strengthening the artists’ sense of confidence and creative output and then, seeing how easily the sales can flow once artists have gotten rid of all the colonial hangovers that made them feel they had to wait until foreign funding arrived before they could create credible works of art.

‘One of the most important lessons I think we are learning is that we can all do a little something to advance Kenyan art; we don’t have to wait for someone from elsewhere to give us handouts.

We can be self-sufficient even if it’s on a small scale,” said Wak.

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“The idea is to promote one another and see the way we can advance without compromising our creativity.”