Fake George Lilanga

"I am quite amused how easy it is to manipulate the art world. For instance that the one of the most famous African artists painted thousands of paintings and containers of sculptures in the time he could hardly finish an interwiev because of his poor health. In fact he did not know how to paint and how to sculpt. It was done by tens of other artists." Daniel Augusta,

WHO WAS GEORGE LILANGA?

There is quite enough official information on life and art of George Lilanga so I refer to those sources in links. George Lilanga passed away in 2005 in Dar es Salaam just when his work was shown in Europe on AFRICA REMIX exhibition organized by Jean-Hubert Martin. He was therefore the only non-living artist out of 82 presented on this exhibition of contemporary African art. But his works became famous much earlier. George Lilanga was discovered in 1978 in Washington DC where he showed 100 different works which were compared to the art of the French artist Jean Debuffe. It had profound influence even on modern west art, for instance it is said that Keith Harring was inspired by Lilanga. But the first person ever to discover Lilanga´s talent was sister Jean Pruit who founded House of Culture in Tanzania and who now runs Dogodogo centre in Dar es Salaam.
Now when Lilanga has passed away, new history is emerging. It showed up that after his death new works still flooded the market. Explanation is easy – George Lilanga employed tens of people in his neighborhood in Mbagala in Dar es Salaam.

HOW THE WORLD WAS CHEATED?

1994 - "Lilanga's Cosmos" - Okariya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1995 - "Lilanga's Artist in Residence and Workshop" - Hiroshima City Moderne Art Museum, Hiroshima, Japan

1999 - "Georges Lilanga : Storie Africane" - Franco Cancelliere Arte Contemporanea, Messina, Italy

- Fabbrica Eos, Milano

2002 - "Georges Lilanga" MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

2003 -" Linanga d'ici et d'ailleurs" - Centre Culturel François Mitterrand, Périgueux, France

- "George Lilanga" - Christa's Fine Tribal Art Gallery, Copenhague, Denmark

2004 - "Tingatinga and Lilanga" - Kouchi Prefecture Art Museum, Kouchi, Japan

1974 - National Museum, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

1976 - National Gallery of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

1977 - Goethe Institut - Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

1978 - Marykoll Ossining Centre, New York, USA

- IMF Hall, World Bank, Washington, USA

1979 - National Museum, Dar Es Salaam, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

1981 - "International Summer Academy", Salsburg, Austria

1983 - National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe

1984 - "International Summer Academy", Salsburg, Austria

- "Arts & Crafts Center", Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

1985 - Travelling Exhibition: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland

1986 - "Arts & Crafts Center", Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

1988 - Travelling Exhibition: London, Glasgow

1989 - "Arts & Crafts Center", Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

1992 - "Out of Africa" - Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

- "Tingatinga Art" - Art Tower Mito, Tokyo, Japan

1993 - "La Grande Vérité, Les Astres Africains" - Nantes Fine Art Museum, Nantes, France

1995 - "Haring K. and Lilanga" "Animals and Spirits of Africa - Pantheon Tama Gallery,Tokyo, Japan

- Mimoca Gallery, Marugane, Japan

- Johannesbourg 1st International Biennal, Johannesburg, South Africa

1996 - Dak'Art - Dakar 2nd Biennal, Dakar, Senegal

- Pyramid Hotel, Furth, Germany

1997 - Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya

1998 - Goethe Institute, Dar-es-Salaam

1999 - "African Contemporary Art" - Lenz Gallery of Art,Pregassona, Italy

- La Persia srl - Palazzo Carlotti, Verona, Italy

2000 - Shanghai Biennale 2000, Shanghai, China
- "Il ritorno dei Maghi" - Palazzo dei Sette, Orvieto, Italy - Casino di Malindi, Kenya- Deposito 6, Verona, Italy
2002 - "Mapico Dance" - MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

- "Georges Lilanga" Galleria Spazia, Bologna, Italy

2003 - "Latitudes " - Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

2004 - "Africa Remix - Art contemporain d'un continent" - Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany

2005 - "Africa Remix" - Hayward Gallery, London, UK

- "Arts of Africa " - Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, France

- "African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection" - Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, USA

- "Africa Remix" - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

2006 - "Africa Remix" - Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

STATEMENT

1. First of all I respect George Lilanga and his work. He was the founder of the style which gave the world great art and relatively stable employment for a quite considerable number of artists here in Tanzania. I don´t regard him as a cheater, I explain this in the point 2, 3 and 5.

2. My aim is to show the many other great Tanzanian artists who have been totally neglected on the many exhibitions and books around the world. In fact they were called fake-doers, they were sent to court. It has gone so far than Agustino Malaba got a visit by policemen who asked him to stop to work. The aim of my articles is to balance the Lilanga story and say: “the Lilanga art was rather a collectively created art while passing the Lilanga studio than the art work of an individual”. Actually the sales were regulated by George Lilanga himself and therefore it is wrong to talk about the other artists as fake-doers. They did what George Lilanga has ordered from them. I want to take away that label from these artist, I don´t want to put a new label on George Lilanga.

3. The art of George Lilanga was performed on different mediums and different materials. George Lilanga could be skilful in some techniques while less adept in another one. The statement of Hendrick Lilanga demonstrates it: “My grandfather was good in cutting calabash while he had problems to accomplish an oil painting”.

4. Obviously George Lilanga did not master the oil paintings and he could not carve the Lilanga style sculptures. I don´t know what could be an accepted academic proof of this statement but my claim is based on the discussions with artists such as: Agustino Malaba, Robino Ntila, Hendrick Lilanga and many others. Also I lead the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society with around 80 painters and there was and still is a frequent “traffic” between the “Lilanga” artists and “Tingatinga” artists. We have relatives of Lilanga here at Cooperative, Vinta Malaba comes here still today to sell the art, we had Mchisa, Mchimba…etc. The Lilanga matter is discussed in between artists here even without my questioning. And what is more important - very few dealers dissagree with me - some even watch my efforts with relief.

5. The “trademark” Lilanga was created by coincidences rather than by planned efforts by George Lilanga himself, therefore I don´t see George Lilanga as a cheater. It could start like this: the artists in Tanzania work very much collectively. I have seen as many as three artists painting one painting here at Tingatinga Cooperative. It could be so that George Lilanga did calabash cuttings. Then Noel Kapanda painted the oil painting with the similar design as Lilanga did on the calabash. And because it was Lilanga´s design they put the Lilanga sign. Maybe some buyer could even ask them to do this. Then it was all exhibited under Lilanga name and the “trademark” was established. After the exhibition George Lilanga gets more orders and they feel they should sign all artwork made by Noel Kapanda as Lilanga. In fact Kapanda, Malaba and Lilanga took this decisions together, it is not any secret. Later the number of orders, exhibitions and books grew and they were “locked”. The “legend” was created.

6. My research is more passive than active, more hobby than an academic one, driven from interest to show other hard-working artists than to disregard the originator. I respect the academic world, I respect the galleries and all art lovers. If I use the formulation “how the world was cheated” I merely want to draw attention to our lack of knowledge than to look down on anybody. It is not a task of the galleries or art-lovers to double check all facts. Personally I can only say that I was surprised how little interest the art dealers showed to visit the “field”. Most of the “business” was a “parcel” business, not “face to face”. Many mediators were employed. Occasionally some visited the Lilanga studio but that was all. It is why I found it a very interesting subject to write about. I thought simply people will be interested to learn, to read, to hear.

7. I was surprised that some people dealing with Lilanga even didn´t heard about Noel Kapanda, the most important of Lilanga artists. He was Lilanga´s right hand and painted all paintings before other artists joined. Don´t forget: Lilanga did not know how to paint the oil paintings. By some mistake or miracle he was never presented on any exhibition or book here in Tanzania. As you can read later he was a brother of the well known Damian Msagula. He visited Japan on 7 occasions, some of the trips with George Lilanga. He lived in a collective house with Sister Jean and other artists (Ntila, Malaba etc). I was puzzled he was almost unknown to the established art community here in Dar es Salaam (Galleries, Museums, University etc). Though I visited him at his house ca 5 times during 2-3 years he never told me anything about his role in Lilanga art. I was the one who was most surprised when I was told about his role.

8. I am aware the reality is more complicated and I am ready for new surprises, changes, revisions, ideas, theories. To run this website implicates responsibility for the outcomes on the market, exhibitions etc. I have seen that some of the sculptures were already “renamed”. Some even bear two names such as “Lilanga” and “Malaba”. Completely “new” Lilanga artists are “discovered" and sold on eBay such as “Karinto”. So my articles had I hope some effect on making the other artists more visible. But unfortunately I am still alone who is visiting the field. I would be happy if some professional art journalists could take up this story. I don´t know the academic terms, the formulations etc. But I have put down the facts, ideas, theories and collected some information, just enough material for any scholar who wants to get an interesting subject for his/her research.

ABOUT ME

My name is Daniel Augusta and I have been working with Tanzanian artists for the last five years. Recently I have been employed by Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) as a manager. I studied physics and environmental sciences at Chalmers University and the University of Gothenborg in Sweden. I have participated in two environmental projects in Kenya and Tanzania before I got into African art. The first photo bellow is showing the Lilanga´s house in his village Mchauru Mwitika. The following photos: As I travel on the local buses, the family of the painters Max Kamundi and Sayuki Matindiko and the last one is from the prof. Elias Jengo´s garden.

info@afrum.com

Fake George Lilanga

The untold story about the famous African artist

WHO WAS GEORGE LILANGA?

HOW THE WORLD WAS CHEATED?

STATEMENT

ABOUT ME