Fabian Mpagi (Ugandan, 1953-2002)
Masquerade Fetish, 1996
Signed ‘FABIAN MPAGI 96’ (lower right)
Oil on canvas
106.5 x 95.5 cm
Ksh 300,000-410,000
(US$ 2,750-3,750)
Sold Ksh 469,600
Provenance: private collection
A fine draughtsman, with an astute touch, Fabian Mpagi is recognised as one of Uganda’s most refined painters. The artist described the concerns of his practice in an interview with Wanjiku Nyachae in 1994: “My interest was in the universal concerns of man – both pleasure and pain – so I studied the hidden values of spiritual abstraction”.
After graduating from the Margaret Trowell School of Fine and Applied Arts in Kampala in 1976, Mpagi returned to the university as a post-graduate student and teaching assistant. In 1983 he received a scholarship to study in Florence, Italy. On his return, Mpagi went into political exile in Kenya, where he set up a studio and his artistic career flourished. He won the Habitat Art Competition in 1987 and was awarded a four-month artist residency in Paris. The following year Mpagi returned to Uganda and shortly became the director of the Nommo Gallery, which he eventually resigned in 1998, in order to devote time to his art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lampert C, Havell J (eds). Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 1995.