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 80,000

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

How bidding works

Bids · 13

  1. KES 80,000 Paddle 400 Online 08:48
  2. KES 75,000 Paddle 309 Online 08:45
  3. KES 70,000 Paddle 200 Online 08:43
  4. KES 65,000 Paddle 335 Online 08:43
  5. KES 60,000 Paddle 200 Online 08:42
  6. KES 55,000 Paddle 129 Online 08:40
  7. KES 50,000 Paddle 295 Online 08:38
  8. KES 47,500 Paddle 168 Online 08:38
  9. KES 45,000 Paddle 284 Online 08:37
  10. KES 42,500 Paddle 343 Online 08:36
  11. KES 40,000 Paddle 200 Online 08:36
  12. KES 37,500 Paddle 343 Online 08:22
  13. KES 35,000 Paddle 355 Online 08:02

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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