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 134 Online 06:50
  2. KES 75,000 Paddle 492 Online 06:49
  3. KES 70,000 Paddle 104 Online 06:48
  4. KES 65,000 Paddle 344 Online 06:48
  5. KES 60,000 Paddle 290 Online 06:48
  6. KES 55,000 Paddle 355 Online 06:46
  7. KES 50,000 Paddle 493 Online 06:46
  8. KES 47,500 Paddle 271 Online 06:45
  9. KES 45,000 Paddle 427 Online 06:43
  10. KES 42,500 Paddle 114 Online 06:42
  11. KES 40,000 Paddle 154 Online 06:40
  12. KES 37,500 Paddle 104 Online 06:07
  13. KES 35,000 Paddle 283 Online 06:01

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.

More by Elias Thuo