Juma Mwakalinga (1958–2019)
Fishermen Mending Nets, 1987
Oil on canvas
76 × 100 cm
Estimate KES 2,400,000–3,400,000
Bidding
Not sold
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About the work
Four fishermen sit on an upturned boat at the Kivukoni fish market, mending a net that runs across the whole width of the picture. Mwakalinga breaks the figures, the boat and the shade of the market roof into flat, tilting planes of green and terracotta, and the net ties them together. One of the finest pictures of his market years, unseen in public since 1990.
Condition
Good. A short, stable craquelure in the upper left sky. Small retouching at the lower right corner, visible under ultraviolet light.
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by a British engineer working in Dar es Salaam, 1988; by descent to the present owner.
Exhibited
Dar es Salaam, Paintings of the Harbour, a group exhibition, 1990.
The artist
Mwakalinga painted the working life of Dar es Salaam for four decades: the fish market at dawn, the crowds of Kariakoo, the women who sold cloth at Mwenge. He broke each scene into flat, tilting planes of muted green and terracotta, so that a street becomes a pattern of shade and weight. He taught drawing at a secondary school until 2004, and painted at weekends and through the long school holidays.
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