Edward Njenga (Kenyan, born 1922)
Newspaper Vendor, 1967
unsigned
stoneware
34 x 19cm
Ksh 200,000–300,000
US$ 2,270–3,410
Sold Ksh 352,200
Provenance: Direct from artist
Born more than 90 years ago, much of Njenga’s work dates from the decades following independence and his sculptures, executed mostly in clay, display an instinctive social realism. Each of Njenga’s sculptures are unique and serve as a visual memoir of everyday living in Nairobi and Eastleigh, where he worked as a social worker for many years.
Njenga currently has a major retrospective exhibition of over 200 sculptures at the Nairobi National Museum, until January 2014. His intimate sculptures of local characters who have worked daily on Kenya’s streets come alive as he describes their stories: here, The Nation newspaper vendor with his jaunty stride as he sells his papers to pedestrians and drivers and the almost extinct door-to-door vegetable hawker, with heavy baskets and even heavier expression.