Lot 19: Edward Saidi Tingatinga (Tanzanian, 1932-1972) Spotted hyena 22 7/16 x 22 7/16in (57 x 57cm)

Spotted hyena
signed 'E S Tingatinga' (lower left)
enamel bicycle paint on masonite
22 7/16 x 22 7/16in (57 x 57cm)

Tingatinga was a Makonde man born in a village called Namochelia (now known as Nakapanya) in the Tunduru district of South Tanzania. He moved to Dar es Salaam looking for work in the 1950s. In the 1960s, at a time when Tingatinga was unemployed, and local Makonde people were mostly selling indigenous carvings and sculpture, Tingatinga chose to paint pictures in the style of the Congolese immigrants. Without any formal training, he produced simple paintings of the animals and people he remembered from his home in southern Tanzania. He used just four or five different colors of house paint and painted on wooden boards. His wife sold his paintings near Morogoro Stores, mostly to European tourists who admired his original and naive style.

Within months Tingatinga hired other painters to keep up with the demand for his work. As they became more successful, they could afford better, bicycle enamel paints and canvas, so tourists could carry the paintings home more easily. Tingatinga was mistakenly shot dead by police in 1972. The students who survived him continued to paint in his style and formed the Tingatinga Partnership in his honor; this became the Tingatinga Arts Co-operative Society in 1990.