Lot 44

Allan Githuka (Kenyan, born 1965)
Election Time, 2013
Signed ‘Githuka’ (lower middle)
Oil on canvas
136 x 113.3 cm
US$ 1,500 – 3,000
Provenance: private collection
Sold US$ 1,996

Githuka is a self-taught artist, raised within the ‘artist village’ of Ngecha on the outskirts of Nairobi and inspired by its founders; Githuka paints the people, landscapes, rural scenes and day-to-day life. He produced some of his most powerful works during the 2007-2008 post-election violence, depicting the chaos and anguish of people he had witnessed being killed or displaced.

In 2017, Githuka had a solo exhibition Painted Faces at One Off Gallery and in 2008 at Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art (RaMoMa). Githuka is also the recipient of the prestigious Ruth Hunt Wood Foundation award and spent a term as artist-in-residence in Kentucky, USA.
This work is typical of Githuka’s sea-of-faces style and through further study we can identify the deep emotion within the multitude of human expressions and interactions.