Lot 122: Richard Onyango (Kenyan, born 1960) Mbuni 1969 31 5/16 x 39 3/8in (79.5 x 100cm)

Mbuni 1969
signed and dated 'Richard 2008' (lower right); inscribed 'Mbuni in 1969/Serial IIC' (lower left)
acrylic on canvas
31 5/16 x 39 3/8in (79.5 x 100cm)

PROVENANCE:
Purchased from the artist
A private collection, UK

Richard Onyango is one of East Africa's leading artists. His work was shown at Africa Now and Africa Remix and has been widely collected in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

Onyango is, amongst other things, a memory painter and this work was painted without the aid of any photographs. It marks a bus journey made by the artist (then only ten years old) and his father from Hola, a remote town in North Eastern Kenya, involving a mechanical breakdown and ending with the bus getting stuck in the mud. Onyango's approach to painting comes from the story-telling traditions of his Luo ancestry; he has painted virtually everything that has had a major significance for him in his life. In rural African communities the bus is still the chief means of transport for the majority of the population – bringing people, animals, provisions and mail. Onyango's fascination with buses and vehicles in general dates back to his childhood and lead him to become a bus supervisor with the Tana River Bus company and later a truck driver before becoming a professional artist.