Nairobi auction sets new benchmarks for East African art

A major art auction held at the Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi saw highly animated bidding, which realised a total of $356 219 for artworks from various East African countries, with several pieces fetching prices far above their pre-auction estimates. 

Animated bidding marked the second edition of Art Auction East Africa | Strauss & Co auction held at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi in October. 

The sale involved modern and contemporary art from Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique and earned a total of $356 219). 

The star of the auction was a painting by Edward Saidi Tingatinga, the Tanzanian artist whose vibrant style gave rise to the Tingatinga School of Painters, which fetched $58,708. 

The price for the painting Untitled (Landscape with Lion and Bird) was four times its highest estimate, and set a new world record for Tingatinga’s works at auction. 

Sudanese artist Salah Elmur’s 2019 painting Untitled (Seated Figure) sold to a telephone bidder for $27,096 after 24 bids. A second work by Elmur, Untitled (Composition with Figures in Blue and Brown), fetched $5,871.

Competition was equally pronounced for Kenyan artist Peterson Kamwathi’s monotype diptych The Two Horse Race (2004), which sold to a telephone bidder after 31 bids for $16,258.

The East African art market has been growing steadily in recent years, as investors and collectors seek alternative asset classes. The auction, a collaboration between Nairobi-based Circle Art Agency and South African auction house Strauss & Co, sold 90% of the 68 lots on offer. It saw particularly high demand for artists from Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique.

“From the intense competition for Peterson Kamwathi’s The Two Horse Race to the strong results for Edward Saidi Tingatinga and Salah Elmur, the sale brought together a wide range of artistic practices and collecting interests,” says Susie Goodman, Executive Director of Strauss & Co. 

Mozambican photographer Mario Macilau’s untitled 2013 portrait from his Price of Cement series sold for $9,032 after 18 bids. An untitled oil on paper depicting a herd of elephants by revered Ugandan artist Jak Katarikawe sold for $6,774, more than double the high estimate, while an untitled woodcut from 1984 achieved $5 600, also beating its estimate.

Founded in 2012, Circle Art has been working on building an art market in East Africa for both local and international collectors. The challenge, according to founder Danda Jaroljmek, has been bringing in the fragmented bits into a formal art market with a sustainable secondary market. 

At this year’s auction, that demand extended beyond paintings, and shows some of the progress made in both visibility and commercial structures. An untitled sculpture depicting a bird with chicks, by Kenyan artist Samuel Wanjau, sold for $13,548, exceeding its high estimate. Dreaming, a figurative carving by Samuel Wanjau’s son, Anthony Wanjau, also attracted strong bids, achieving $13, 548.

It also extended beyond contemporary works. Three works by Ugandan artist Geoffrey Mukasa, who was born into a prominent political family and studied art in India, elicited strong demand. 

A 1990 mixed-media work incorporating collage and depicting a reclining figure sold for US$5 871, an untitled 1978 oil on canvas portraying a seated figure in blue achieved US$5 419, while a 1992 pen drawing of four figures sold for US$4 968.

The auction’s organisers see the demand as telling of not just progress, but the lasting place of art in the world. According to Danda, the auction’s success was proof that “when things are hard in the world, we need art.”