Lot 33

Simon Mpata (Tanzanian, 1940 – 1982)
Birds and Insects, circa 1975
Signed ‘MPATA’ (lower left)
Enamel on board, in the artist’s hand-painted frame
60.5 x 60.5 cm
KES 400,000 – 460,000
(US$) 3,000 – 3,500
Provenance: Private collection

Simon Mpata is the youngest half-brother of E. S. Tingatinga. Mpata learnt to paint from his brother and is generally viewed as the artist who kept his style the closest to Tingatinga’s. After Tingatinga’s death, Mpata left Tanzania to open a studio in Nairobi where he lived and worked until his death in 1982.

Mpata’s work has been extensively collected and shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide and is considered second in value and technique only to his celebrated mentor and brother.