Lot 29

Samuel Githui (Kenyan, born 1973)
Fruit Vendor, 1999
Signed ‘signature’ (lower right)
Oil on paper
43 x 34.5 cm
Ksh 110,000 – 170,000
(US$) 1,000 – 1,500
Provenance: Direct from the artist

Sold Ksh 234,200

Born in 1973, Samuel Githui has been drawing from a young age, since he was about five or six years old. He has always paid close attention to his surroundings, and his impressions of his the spaces, people, and events around him are the material for his artwork. Githui relies on his observation of typical events to investigate societal shifts, politics, and the lives of people working to make their place in a world that does not always work in their favour.

This previously unseen autobiographical work was made at the beginning of Githui’s art career. At the time, while an artist at the Kuona Trust Museum Art Studio, Githui was also working as a fruit vendor to supplement his income.