Circle Art Auction 2015 Lot 33 David Mzuguno

David Mzuguno (Tanzanian, 1951-2010)
Cut One Plant More, undated
Signed ‘By DVD Mzuguno’ (lower left)
Enamel paint on board
64 x 64cm

Ksh 132,000-165,000
(US$ 1,200-1,500)
Sold Ksh 152,620

Provenance: private collection of the Emerson Foundation, Zanzibar

During his lifetime David Mzuguno was widely regarded as one of the leading Tingatinga painters of the time. He began his career in the arts with the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society, where he started to develop a style quite different from the other painters. In 1989 he left to pursue his own technique, taking the shared style in a new direction.

The richness of nature in Mzuguno’s paintings is inspired by his roots in the Kilimanjaro region where he was born. In 2009, he participated in a residency programme in China at the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute. He died in 2010, shortly after a very successful exhibition in Kampala. In 2013 his work was given a solo exhibition at the Alliance Française in Dar es Salaam.