Allan Githuka (Kenyan, born 1965)
Election Time, 2013
signed ‘Githuka’ (lower middle)
oil on canvas
138 x 114cm,
Ksh 80,000–100,000
US$ 910–1,140
Sold Ksh 223,060
Provenance: Direct from artist
Githuka is a self-taught artist, raised within the “artist village” of Ngecha on the outskirts of Nairobi and inspired by its founders. Githuka paints the people, landscapes, rural scenes and day-to-day life. He produced some of his most powerful works during the post-election violence, depicting the chaos and anguish of people he had witnessed being killed or displaced.
In 2011 Githuka won the prestigious Ruth Hunt Wood Foundation award and spent a term as artist-inresidence in Kentucky, USA. This work is typical of Githuka’s sea-of-faces style and through further study we can identify the deep emotion within the multitude of human expressions and interactions.