Market Day, Gikomba, 1982. Linocut printed in black on paper.
Lot 11

Elias Thuo (1949–2011)

Market Day, Gikomba, 1982

Linocut printed in black on paper

45 × 60 cm · From the edition of 25

Estimate KES 70,000–110,000

Bidding

Sold

KES 75,000

Hammer price. Buyer's premium of 20% and VAT on the premium are added.

How bidding works

Bids · 12

  1. KES 75,000 Paddle 134 Online 14:49
  2. KES 70,000 Paddle 104 Online 14:49
  3. KES 65,000 Paddle 120 Online 14:49
  4. KES 60,000 Paddle 147 Online 14:48
  5. KES 55,000 Paddle 487 Online 14:48
  6. KES 50,000 Paddle 492 Online 14:47
  7. KES 47,500 Paddle 309 Online 14:45
  8. KES 45,000 Paddle 200 Online 14:44
  9. KES 42,500 Paddle 309 Online 14:40
  10. KES 40,000 Paddle 487 Online 14:36
  11. KES 37,500 Paddle 122 Online 14:35
  12. KES 35,000 Paddle 404 Online 14:01

About the work

The second-hand clothes market at Gikomba on a Saturday, a crowd of shoppers and sellers pressed between stalls hung with shirts. Every figure is cut with the same quick, confident line.

Condition

Good. A small repaired tear in the lower margin, well clear of the image.

Provenance

Private collection, Nairobi.

The artist

Thuo cut linoleum blocks of Nairobi's crowds for thirty years: matatus packed to the doors, the cloth stalls of Gikomba, queues at the bus station. He printed in black, sometimes with a single second colour, on a hand press in his house in Kaloleni, in editions that rarely went beyond thirty. His prints were sold for years from a table outside the post office on Moi Avenue.

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