HARVESTING
signed SJ Ntiro lower right
oil on canvas
35.5 x 46cm; 14 x 18in
50 x 60cm; 19 3/4 x 23 1/2in (framed)

Property of a Private Collector, London

Born in the Kilimajaro region in North West Tanzania in the village of Ndereny, Sam Joseph Ntiro is widely recognised as an icon of the Tanzanian artist landscape. He studied Art and Education at the Makerere College of the University of East Africa, before completing a post graduate degree at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Ntiro was instrumental in the development of the Department of Music, Arts and Culture at the Univeristy of Dar es Salaam where he spent time as a lecturer. He served as East African High Commissioner of Saint James in London from the then-republic of the Tanganyika Territory, and was also Ambassador of Tanganyika to Ireland from 1961-1964. Then from 1967-1973 he served as Commissioner of Culture for the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, during which he extensively researched Fine Art and African studies at universities across America. An intelligent man, he spoke English, Swahili, Kimachame and Kimarangu fluently, and had a working knowledge of Runyoro, Luganda, French, German and Italian.

A highly accomplsihed artist, he was the first East African artist to have solo exhibitions held abroad, and the first African to hold a solo exhibition at a New York Gallery, in 1961 at the Merton Simpson Gallery. In 1960 he ws the first African artist to have a work purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His works often explore liberation and post-colonialist identity, and depict scenes of community labour and cooperation, and it is likely that the present work depicts a scene that is reflective of his childhood environment. With his figures depicted with very little facial detail and often with their backs turned to the viewer, his works could be said to be representations of Tanzania's post-colonial self-image.