Lot 153: Jak Katarikawe (Ugandan, b. circa 1940) VILLAGE WITH CATTLE

signed lower left

h:25 w:38in.

oil on paper laid on board

Jak Katarikawe is one of the most prominent East African artists and has attracted worldwide attention. He was born in about 1940 in Kigezi, Uganda. He never received any formal education, though he was inspired both by his mother's paintings on the walls of their house and murals in the Catholic Cathedral at Rushoroza. The first 25 years of his life he worked as a casual labourer, before Professor David Cook, a lecturer of literature at Makarere University in Kampala, discovered his talents and supported his artistic endeavours.
After Idi Amin's seizure of power beginning in 1970, Katarikawe withdrew from the capital to his rural home in Kigezi, and later moved to Nairobi, Kenya, in 1981, where he has been living since. He joined the then newly established Paa Ya Paa Arts Centre and became, from 1984 onwards, one of the top Gallery Watatu Artists.