TINGATINGA - Popular African Paintings

Dear Visitors

I am very happy that so many people visit this website about Tingatinga. You can get more information about Tingatinga on these websites.

www.tingatinga.info - the most comprehensive information about Tingatinga on Internet.

www.tingatinga.org - Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society (TACS) , Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

www.tingatingastories.com - Research, fun, travel diary and photos from the Tingatinga villages

www.tingatingastudio.com - the commercial website of TACS

www.tingatingamemo.com - the Tingatinga memory card game. Still under construction.

 

Tingatinga, so funny name... is about african paintings, Actually the man who started all this was Edward Saidi Tingatinga. It was in 1968, he came from Nakapanya in Tanzania. The paintings are very colorful. Some still say it is a naive art for children. But Tingatinga paintings were auctioned at Sotheby´s and it is said that Keith Harring was inspired by Tingatinga. Hurry upp to see some original paintings at your local library exhibition - before they lock them in British museum. Or go to the official website of the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society to read more. Tingatinga shows us how to see the world with our inner child. Fun, happy and colorful. Greetings from your Tingatingaist - Daniel Augusta

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It started with paintings of a single animal like a hyena, a lion and others in 1968. Today few painters paint in this old style. But there are exceptions like Tingatinga´s son Daudi Tingatinga. Other painters who use to paint the single animals is Abdul Mkura and Omary Amonde. Both of them belong to the first generation of Tingatinga painters. Others occasionally taking up this style are Becker Wasia, Saidi Chilamboni, Mwamedi Chiwaya and more. (Paintings of Saidi and Tingatinga)

Single girafe is a new motive but inspired by the old days. It is represented by Shabani Mkarekwa (Photo left down) and Jabili Masoud. Also down right you see the style of Amonde Omari.

Then the guys (and a few girls too) came with the idea to add some flowers here and some birds there. Nothing for the old men, but the young painters enjoyed. They got almost obsessed and to finish one tingatinga painting could take up a week! The young masters are Rubuni, Saidi Omary, Ibrahim Omary, Zuberi Daimu and others. There is not clear line so occasionally if Mwamedi Chiwaya gets tired of painting the tenth simba (lion) he may do something more complicated also. (Down are the paintings of Rubuni and A. Hasani)

I think the best painters of this complicated technic is Mwamedi Chiwaya (Photo down), Iddi, Daimu Zuberi and Saidi Omari.

Saidi Omary is a young painter but he has already pupils. He doesnt vary in quality of paintings. He has always good humor and he never is in a hurry. So his paintings are very good. He tries to be creative also but it is difficult in Tingatinga. Enjoy paintings of S.Omary!

It feels like the tingatinga is a big mess. But if you look closely, only few animals are depicted. And some painters got specialezed in some animals. So Gayo Peter, Mtapwata and even Kolumbo paints butterflies - ok not really animals! But the greatest butterfly master is Kambili. He doesn´t paint anything else, it seems. . Down you can see buterflies of Gayo and Chiwaya.

Mbwana Sudi is known for blue fishes and Rubuni surprised me with red fishes

Yuba Mawazo and Zaburi likes to paint birds in different ways. But don´t take it for granted, the painters may switch from day to day, yap. So here you see paintings of Chiwaya and S.Omari.

In "people" subcategory there are villages, political paintings, hospitals etc. Sometimes very serious things...So let´s take it step by step! The traditional village life is represented by Noel Kapanda, Mkumba, Kalembo (see down) and others

And here is Mitole and Mkumba, both well established painters

The master of political paintings is Mohamed Charinda and the hospitals are painted best by Maurus Malikita.

And the city life is represented by Katengo, Kalembo, Anthony Jonas, Mr. Sey (Down Anthony Jonas)

Have you ever heard about shetanis? Shetanis are kind of devils in african mythology. Many people still believe in these Shetanis and painters try to get some protection (it seems) by painting these Shetanis. The master of Shetani paintings was George Lilanga. Lilanga is among ten most famous in the world. His paintings were exhibited at Pompidou in Paris and Metropolitan in New York to name only few. I appologize to all serious collectors that I call George Lilanga a Tingatinga painter but basicaly it is true. It showed up that not all by Lilanga signed paintings were painted by George Lilanga. I have set ap a website for that research - www.lilanga.org

George Lilanga never painted in Tingatinga collective, he painted in Cultural House but he had very good friends among tingatinga colective. And he gave permission to Mchisa Thabiti to paint like him. And Mchisa gave permission to Jabili Hasani, it is how the extended family works. Mchisa still paints in this style and you will find many such paintings in Dar es Salaam.

But if I call George Lilanga a Tingatinga painter, then certainly Sayuki is one of them also. He found his own style though inspired by George Lilanga. Not wonder - Sayuki Matindiko and Lilanga are from the same tribe.

They are several hundreds Tingatinga painters in Tanzania now. Maybe one hundred of them are really good. But the point here is that they are not same. And some are very different. It is case of David Mzuguno. He had to rush when he left the Tingatinga cooperative. One of the reason was he painted very differently.

But usually in art we say the artists break away. So did John Kilaka or Damian Msagula. But John Kilaka si not only a painter, he is a story teller and illustrator too. See his own website - www.kilaka.com

Now if some artists break, don´t they create a new tingatinga school? The answer is yes. One of most prominent is Makumbusho branch. Look at Nangida Masawe and Emanuel Jeremiah!

But mostly these branches don´t have a strong leader so they experiment, like Ally Omary, Job Luandala, Lewis Steven. They are strong personalities but don´t work together. They may paint under same cealing in Oysterbay but they paint extreemly differently. Here you see Lewis

 

Lastly let me show you something personal. It is a tingatinga painting of Peter Martin. Peter Martin lived with Beatrice and three children in Mikocheni, part of Dar es Salaam. After 14 years they married. She converted from Muslim to Christian to be able to marry in church. Unfortunately, one year after the marriage Peter Martin passed away. But he knew he would die. So before it happened he painted a tingatinga painting as a testament for future. It tells us that tingatinga paintings are deeply connected with the lives of painters. It tells us that we should look deeper beyond the colors, birds and flowers to find true story about Africa, its artists and ....us.

The painting paid his own burial. When I found the widow Beatrice Peter I found that she had a newborn child - Steven. I hope that when Steven grows up, the whole world will know about Tingatinga.