Zachariah Mbutha (Kenyan, born 1948)
The Chase, 2013
Signed ‘Z.Mbutha’ (lower right)
Mixed media on canvas
73 x 110cm
Ksh 90,000-120,000
US$ 1,020-1,365
Sold Ksh 93,920
Provenance: direct from artist
Mbutha studied at a teacher training college and worked as a teacher for many years before becoming headmaster of a primary school in Nakuru. In 1979, he resigned to become a full time artist. Without formal education in the arts, his paintings were experimental, inspired by books he found on modern art. In the 1980s he was introduced to Gallery Watatu and became one of the gallery’s most popular artists. Unlike many of his fellow artists from that period, Mbutha is still actively painting and exhibiting. Mbutha’s paintings are social commentaries on everyday Kenyan life and the relationships between humans and humans and animals.
‘The Chase’ is a new experiment for Mbutha. By deconstructing two older oil paintings, he has removed each individual animal from the older works and attached them to a new canvas, creating a new and unusual composition.