Leonard Kateete's Buganda couple (my uncle) on display at the Weganda Gallery in Kampala. PHOTO/COURTESY
Rodney Muhumuza, a Ugandan art collector and critic, says he has decided to open the Weganda Gallery in Kampala as part of a movement to popularise the culture of collecting books and art. Muhumuza, who in 2007 bought his first painting in the shape of a cityscape that Ismael Kateregga carved out on “a really small canvas,” is the first to admit that he cannot go it alone. He, however, would take convincing “even one person that art matters.”
“I collect art in the same way I collect books, good books. There is an old joke about books being the best way to decorate a home. That’s probably true, but I don’t hoard art in the sense that I want it to beautify my home, even if beauty comes with it. I am looking for knowledge, for God’s bits of truth that only fine artists can share,” he told Saturday Monitor.
Under the theme Rehearsing the Future, the Weganda Gallery opened on May 10 and will close on June 28. On display at the exhibition, which as the theme’s sub-title reminds us, revolves around the art collection of Mr Muhumuza, are about 50 pieces, mostly paintings, and some sculptures.
The pieces
The canvas print titled Chupa na Ndebe by Leonard W Kateete, a Kenya-based Ugandan artist, easily stands out. Chupa na Ndebe hangs in a Catholic Parish in Nairobi, and has been the subject of several attempted thefts. It is the portrait of Njoroge, a homeless man in Nairobi who used to collect discarded bottles from dustbins and resell them. The scavenging work is known as chupa na ndebe in Kiswahili.
Lugbara Couple, another Kateete piece in the collection, is a picture of the Lugbara elder Nahore Aguaye Oya and his submissive wife. According to Mr Muhumuza, it is a wonderful exposition of the order of things among this community of people who live astride the River Nile in north-western Uganda. Executed in a neo-classical style, Lugbara Couple is a fine example of Kateete’s singular ability to describe the personal contours of life in traditional settings.
Nuwa Wamala Nnyanzi’s painting titled Challenge of the First-Born tells the woes of the first-born in many African families.
The gomesi-wearing girl at the centre of the picture is in fact the figure of the first-born child in the painting’s title, and the upturned faces of the boys beside her hint at the pressure on the girl’s shoulders. Muhumuza describes it as a masterpiece of composition and style. Its colour scheme, which he describes as “unforgettable,” adds to the draw.
Muhumuza, the first of three siblings who was forced to mature very quickly after growing up as an orphan, says Challenge of the First-Born resonates with him at a deeper level. It is, he adds, one of his favourite pieces in the collection.
Mr Wasswa Ronald Katumba’s African Beauty is a sculpture in Milicia excelsa (mvule) wood. According to Muhumuza, this bust depicts a pretty African woman. It’s not clear if Mr Katumba made it according to the true likeness of someone known to him. The figure looks gracefully ahead, and there’s a faint but clearly discernible smile on her face.
The obvious risk with busts is that, sometimes, they can seem off-putting, requiring to be hidden from most eyes. Not so with this one, an exquisite piece that could be proudly displayed anywhere.
Ms Lilian Mary Nabulime’s sculpture in Quercus (oak) wood and embellished with metal is titled Emboozi Z’okumizigo. This sculpture was exhibited in a 2023 solo exhibition, appropriately titled Olugambo, at the Xenson Art Space in Kampala. “It is the image of a woman whose features have been deformed by her incessant gossiping. Unlike many of the other sculptures shown in that exhibition, this piece was unique for its minimalist aesthetic…,” Muhumuza says.
Ronex Ahimbisibwe’s Where Every Drop Counts is a picture of children fetching water from a borehole. Muhumuza says it’s executed in a realist style with Cubist influences, and is among Ronex’s great achievements as an artist.
The picture evokes the chaotic urban quest for water when it happens to be scarce, with the many jerrycans in the foreground attesting to the water woes of the moment.
George W Kyeyune has a couple of pieces in the collection, including Gossip II, which Muhumuza says is top of the pile because “the picture beats with the force of human nature.” Abaana ba Kintu, another Kyeyune masterpiece, has the gift of life as its central idea.
Elsewhere, Mr Kateete’s Totem Tree offers us a glimpse into the mysterious afterlives; Ocom Adonias’ studies of Ugandan women’s bathing rituals boast a compelling intimacy; and Nabulime proves that she “is a terrific sculptor.”
“As much as I can say I love one or another painting more than others, the truth is I like all of them and, in my house, they can seem in conversation with one another,” Muhumuza tells Saturday Monitor.
Influences
It is easy to see that Kyeyune, a professor of sculpture and art history at Makerere University, has left an indelible mark on Muhumuza. “I’ve collected nine of his paintings, each one of them a masterpiece. His works evoke distinct realities in the Uganda of our time, perhaps the most important thing for me. He has a rare impasto style that makes his canvases rich with texture, so that it seems as if he is digging through the canvas rather than painting onto it. He’s not the first one to do it, but no one does it like him. When it comes to art, I am a very difficult person to please, but I trust Kyeyune in everything,” Muhumuza says.
“I also admire the work of Leonard Kateete, a septuagenarian Ugandan artist who made his career in Kenya, as well as Ocom Adonias, the outstanding artist of his generation in our country. Kateete paints like a classical master, and he’s created pictures over the years that underscore the beauty – and fragility – of living things.
With Ocom, I am in awe of his brilliance as a draughtsman and a thinker. Ocom can draw. If you have an idea for a painting, the artist to go to is Ocom,” he adds.
Also on display are banknotes that Muhumuza has been collecting for a while. Muhumuza admits to being “fascinated by what governments choose to highlight on banknotes, and what they think is so important that it should be immortalised in such a way.” Consequently, a delicate balance, which he calls “the right pitch of design, colour, and knowledge,” comes into play.
“I am thinking now of a Zaire note in my collection, like many others of the time featuring the face of the dictator Mobutu Sese Sseko. Mobutu famously said that he was the state and the state was him, and he put a curse on his country by saying there would be no Zaire after him. He was right,” he, excuse the pun, notes.
“I wanted first to establish authority, to assert the intellectual basis for this undertaking. Some people may look at me and say, ‘Oh, but what’s that journalist trying to do and where did he come from?’ But my gifts are many and I shall exercise them to prove it. This doesn’t make me a dilettante. The mission of the Weganda Foundation, which I founded in 2023, is to be a superior force for intellectual culture in Uganda and across Africa,” he further offers, also disclosing that this dovetails with The Weganda Review literary quarterly, which he edits.
Financial bottlenecks means Muhumuza has to wear many hats, including as the chief curator during the regular shows held at the gallery. Financial bottlenecks also bring different pangs.
“I get agitated when I enter the studio of an artist whose work I admire but can’t afford. They mention the applicable sum and I am upset because it’s out of my league. It happens quite often. But I am also very determined as a hoarder, so that I will try to negotiate a payment plan or get the artist to give me a discounted price,” he confesses.
Asked to best describe the current state of the art industry in Uganda, Muhumuza says: “There are foreigners who come here and speak dismissively of Ugandan art. One of them is said to have mentioned years ago that there was ‘no art’ in Uganda. What arrogance! I say there is a lot of it. I say so as one who regularly visits artists’ studios and is aware of a great many of them yet to be visited. What we don’t have is a supportive ecosystem: collectors willing to commission new work, a good range of galleries, auction houses, a government that takes visual art seriously.”
