Tingatinga School, Tanzania

The Tingatinga School is a style of painting that originated in East Africa and is named after its founder, Tanzanian painter Edward Tingatinga (1932-1972). Tingatinga is traditionally painted on masonite and uses layers of bicycle paint, resulting in vibrant, saturated colors, caricatured and often express humor and irony. It is true that initially intended for tourists, the paintings of the Tingatinga school are also known as "airport paintings," or souvenior art. Kenji Shiraishi argued that "The artists were "predestined" by the gods to keep alive in two-dimensional art the ancient memories of their people, and by extension, the African people, by taking the energy and genius that they had internalized, and exploding it all at once with a square board and enamel paint" (Tingatinga, Kodansha, 1990, p113).

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Abdul Amonde Mkura (1954- ), Tanzania

1954  Born in Nakapanya, southern Tanzania

1975  Started training on Tingatinga painting

1992  Exhibited and lectured on Tingatinga art (Japan)

2004  "Tingatinga and Lilanga" exhibition, The Museum of Art, Kochi

 

Jaffary Aussi (1960-2008)

1960  Born in Dar es Salaam, his father was Tingatinga's cousin

1987  First solo exhibition as a Tingatinga artist (Tokyo)

1991  Commissioned by Tanzanian Government to commemorate the 30th anniversary of wild gorillas research

1992  Exhibited at Mito Museum of Art, Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art

1993  Produced a spherical three-dimensional painting for an Italian museum commission

2000  "Sanaya Africa! exhibition at Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo.

2004  "Tingatinga and Lilanga" exhibition, The Museum of Art, Kochi