Geoffrey Mukasa died in 2009 while Prof Pinkerton Ssengendo left us in 2015. Yet as Ugandan artists of tremendous skill, initiative, and wide-reaching imagination, neither will be easily forgotten or surpassed.
That will be evident to anyone able to reach Red Hill Gallery where they will see an immortalising exhibition of these two brilliant men, both of whose art has been carefully collected and curated by Hellmuth Rossler-Musch.
With his wife Erica, their Red Hill show is exceptional for several reasons. One is that none of the illustrious artworks on display can be bought.
Geoffrey Mukasa's 'Artist's Home' painting at Red Hill Gallery in Nairobi on July 9, 2023. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU | NMG
A big bad ‘NFS’ stands beside every one of them. That’s because while all have a fascinating story and style, all belong to the owners of the gallery whose vast collection of contemporary East African art cannot be contained at once inside the gallery.
“I was casually collecting art back in Germany, having no idea that I would find such a vibrant art scene once I came to work in East Africa, particularly in Kenya,” Mr Rossler-Musch told BDLife.
It was his fellow German, Ruth Schaffner, who switched him onto the rise of contemporary Kenyan art. Ms Schaffner also inspired him to start collecting Kenyan and more broadly, contemporary African art.
Having come to East Africa as healthcare professionals — Mr Rossler-Musch as a pharmacist, Erica as a public health nurse, both were based in Uganda from 2000 to 2003.
Before that, they had worked all over the region, from Somalia and Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somaliland.
It was while living in Kampala that they first met Prof Ssengendo who at the time was the Faculty of Art dean at Makerere University.
Something of an avant guard innovator in his own right, it was Prof Ssengendo who established the university’s doctoral programme.
He was also deeply influenced by Elimo Njau who at the time, was lecturing at Makerere. According to Prof George Kyeyune, Mr Njau was a strong advocate for decolonising African art and utilising indigenous themes, materials, and criteria for appraising art rather than falling back on the British curriculum and criteria of Western aesthetics.
At Red Hill, one will see how Prof Ssengendo applied those progressive ideas to his art, using local fabrics like bark cloth and hemp, strings of beads, and paints mixed with clay on cardboard and plywood.
“There was one particular painting we’d wanted to buy from Prof Ssengendo, but he’d refused to sell it every time we asked,” Mr Rossler-Musch told BDLife at the opening day of the Ugandans’ exhibition.
“But as we were leaving the country, he changed his mind and let us have it.”
This monumental nine-foot-tall, multi-layered painting entitled African Love Portrait currently covers one whole wall at Red Hill where its semi-abstract character can boggle the mind as it is pondered. But its beauty and richness of colour, texture, and mood are inescapable.
There are several more of Prof Ssengendo’s works in the show, but the remainder belongs to Mukasa who sadly died in his mid-50s while Ssengendo lived into his 70s.
The contrast between the two men is significant since Mukasa follows a more Western aesthetic. Having missed a scholarship to the UK due to visa problems, Mukasa went to study art at the University of Lucknow where he was influenced by MF Hussain, a brilliant, Western-trained painter and mentor who the young Ugandan admired.
While there is little doubt as to the beauty and elegance of Mukasa’s art, one can’t help reflecting on his reminiscence of nudes by French painters like Manet and Courbet when one sees his lovely nude entitled Tea Time. It’s painted as a collage on paper with delicacy and grace.
Another one of his luscious paintings is a small gem entitled Artist’s Home, which is oil on canvas.
Yet I can’t help remembering Cezanne who created a similar style of landscape which is often included among the late Impressionists.
Geoffrey Mukasa's Untitled Sketch painting at Red Hill Gallery in Nairobi on July 9, 2023. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU | NMG
And Mukasa’s other beauty is the Woman with Lyre, which I also love. But again, her face is lit with light and shadow that is so characteristic of the chiaroscuro effect which was used by everyone from Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio to Vermeer and Rembrandt.
The marvel of the Red Hill exhibition of these two giants of East African art is that the Rossler-Muschs have graciously shared from their immense collection much as a museum would do.
They also have sculptures on display by Morris Foit and Bernhard Pius with sketches by Rashid Diab.
