Lot 37

Lydia Mugambi (Ugandan, born 1939)
Untitled (Children Eating), 1976
Signed ‘Mugambi’ (lower left)
Oil on canvas mounted on board
103 x 121 cm
Reduced price KES 240,000 plus buyers premium
Provenance: Private collection

Lydia Mugambi’s multifaceted career reflects her significant contributions to the Ugandan art scene and its educational landscape.

Mugambi spent two years at the Margaret Trowell School of Art before transferring to Makerere University School of Education to pursue a teaching degree in the 1960s. In 1965 she was employed as an art teacher at Makerere College, where she taught for the next five years. Students remember her classes with much fondness, describing her as eager to support her students, but at the same time strict and having high expectations of them.

Mugambi later received a scholarship from a US based women’s non-governmental organisation, for a master’s degree in art at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Upon her return to Uganda, she became one of the first art lecturers at Makerere University School of Education. 

Notably, Mugambi mentored numerous prominent Ugandan artists and educators including Dr Nakisanze Sara, Dr Lilian Nabulime, Bruno Sserunkuma, Lubowa Paul, and Prof. George Kyeyune. She is recognized for her mastery of diverse art forms including drawing, sculpture, weaving, mosaic, etching, tie and dye, and batik.

She has been featured in various exhibitions such as, Artistically Speaking Women at Art Gallery Cafe (1995), The Nudes Exhibition (2000), the 5th International Artistically Speaking Women at Nommo Gallery (2001). A retrospective of her work titled Imparted Impressions is currently taking place at Xenson Art Place in Uganda.