David Mzuguno (Tanzanian, 1951- 2010)
Untitled (Bird on Branch), undated
Signed ‘By Dvd Mzuguno’ (lower right)
Enamel on board
62 x 62 cm – framed
Ksh 395,000 – 530,000
(US$) 3,000 – 4,000
Provenance: Private collection
Sold Ksh 399,160
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 an approach quite different from the other painters. In 1989 he left to pursue his own technique, taking the collective style in a new direction.
The opulent depictions of the natural world in Mzuguno’s paintings are 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, Mzuguno’s work was shown in a solo exhibition at the Alliance Française in Dar es Salaam. A book about Mzunguno was published by Mkuki Nanyota Publishers Ltd, Tanzania, in 2013, ‘David Mzuguno – The Last Days of the Master’, written by Pascal Bogaert.