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each painting individually signed ‘Sane Wadu' lower right acrylic on paper 65 x 276cm US$ 6,025-7,400 Sane Wadu gave up his teaching profession in the early 1980s to start painting and was one of Gallery Watatu's most successful artists and co-founder of the Ngecha Artists' Association. Considered eccentric by people who knew him as a teacher, he adopted the name Sane as a reaction to their attitude. Wadu is still actively engaged with the Kenyan art scene, supporting young artists through The Sane Wadu Trust alongside his artist wife Eunice. Renowned for his narrative paintings of people and animals in a distinctive, energetic style, Wadu is also an excellent printmaker: he has had solo exhibitions in New York and his work has been shown in the U.S. and Europe. During a visit to New York in 1988, Wadu painted this highly unusual work on paper, inspired by his experience there. The artist has kept this work for 25 years. It is an exceptional piece and although it is being sold as a single entity, it could be displayed as six individual works.

Sane Wadu began painting professionally in the 1980s, having given up his career as a teacher, and became one of Gallery Watatu's most successful and iconic artists. Over a long and distinguished career, his distinctive, crowded and energetic paintings have been exhibited worldwide, including the USA, Germany, South Africa, Japan and the UK including in the seminal exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa in 1995. Wadu co-founded the Ngecha Artists' Association in the 1990s with fellow artists Eunice Wadu, Wanyu Brush and Chain Muhandi, and alongside his artist-wife Eunice continues to support young artists through The Sane Wadu Trust where they teach workshops every weekend from their studio in Naivasha. Best known for his thickly applied oils on canvas, Wadu is a consummate storyteller. His work depicts current political and social situations, often crowded scenes of people with his trademark birds and animals half-hidden in the narratives. Wadu is one of the few artists of his generation who is still actively making work and engaging in the Kenyan art scene and this is a very new painting showing more defined borders and restrained brushwork.

Modern & Contemporary African Art