Raza Mohammed (Tanzanian, born 1946)
Mother and Child, 2018
Signed ‘RAZA 2018’ (lower right)
Oil on canvas
73 x 101.5 cm
Ksh 240,000–330,000
(US$ 2,200– 3,000)
Sold Ksh 234,800 post-auction
Provenance: direct from the artist
Raza Mohamed was born in Tanzania but moved to Mombasa, Kenya as a child, where the art lessons he took at secondary school made a lasting imprint on him. On his return to Tanzania, he began working as a painter, graphic designer, book illustrator and stamp designer, and by the 1980s had emerged as one of a new generation of revered Tanzanian artists.
Through a practice of painterly experimentation and technical refinement, Mohamed has developed a sophisticated form of fragmentary abstraction, embodied in Mother and Child, where the representation of the mother exudes both a sculptural power and a transient flow of light and motion.
He was selected to go to the USA with the Crossroad Africa Operation, an event showcasing the work of several African artists. He has been commissioned to paint portraits of four Tanzanian Presidents and was also invited to Moscow to produce medals for high-ranking army officers who had served in the resisting Ugandan Army during Idi Amin’s regime.