Lot 41

Livingstone G. K. Nkata (Ugandan, born 1939)
Untitled (Still Life), 1971
Signed ‘L. Nkata ‘71’ (lower right)
Oil on board
79 x 61.6 cm
Ksh 510,000 – 735,000
(US$) 4,500 – 6,500
Provenance: private collection

Sold Ksh 486,000

A painter, sculptor, printmaker and curator, Livingstone Nkata was born in Mukono, Uganda in 1939. He first studied at the University of Nairobi before attending Margaret Trowell School of Fine Arts in Kampala where he was influenced by the modernist era of Cecil Todd. Nkata went on to study again at the Pratt Institute of Art and Design in New York, where he wrote a thesis on the place of visual arts in education in Uganda. On his return to Kampala, Nkata worked as an education officer and curator at the Uganda Museum for a number of years, from 1969.
Despite records of Nkata’s career being hard to find, his artwork is known to have been exhibited at Nommo Gallery in Kampala and the Uganda Museum. It is believed that the period under Idi Amin brought Nkata’s work into relative obscurity. This rare still life painting has been in the current owner’s family for many years and is being brought to auction with a desire to return visibility to this great Ugandan artist.

Bibliography: Art in East Africa, Judith von D. Miller. Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1975.

This artwork has been cleaned and restored and comes with a condition report.