TingaTinga
VEENITA BHATT
Tinga Tinga
Tinga tinga is one of the most famous and unique style of abstract and surreal painting, it is all about Africa- its wildlife, culture and people of Tanzania specifically. “Tinga tinga shows us how to see the world with our inner child. Funny, happy and colorful,” writes Daniel Augusta, manager of the Tinga tinga Arts Co-operative Society. Tinga tinga was named after the Tanzanian artist Edward Said Tinga tinga in 1968. He was born in 1932 in the southern Tanzania’s Tunduru district, and had only four years of primary school. He had no formal education in art, he just expressed himself by painting. He painted animals, birds, and people. His parents were peasants therefore the rests of his early years were spent in the manner of most of peasant boys in the village, he did his general duties of the home and learnt various crafts in his free time. In 1955 Tinga tinga travelled to Dar es Salaam to look for a job, he started working as a domestic servant in a colonial civil servant’s home, he worked in that position for six years when Tanzania got her independence. In those six years Tinga tinga had been watching the work of the government painters who occasionally came to paint the government house in which he stayed; he admired the ceiling boards, bright colors and the graceful brush strokes made by the painters. He had longed to give his hand a try at painting, but unfortunately he never got time.
He never got a permanent job after he became unemployed in 1961. The turning point in his career was Tanzania’s independence when lots of painters from Zaïre were brought who painted inexpensive artworks and sold them along the city’s main streets. The new turn triggered Tinga tinga’s urge to paint, therefore he grabbed some household paints and a brush from a friend and painted on a piece of - ceiling board and created his picture. He later displayed it outside the stores in Dar es Salaam where he sold the painting for 10 shillings, this
Tinga Tinga
Tinga tinga is one of the most famous and unique style of abstract and surreal painting, it is all about Africa- its wildlife, culture and people of Tanzania specifically. “Tinga tinga shows us how to see the world with our inner child. Funny, happy and colorful,” writes Daniel Augusta, manager of the Tinga tinga Arts Co-operative Society. Tinga tinga was named after the Tanzanian artist Edward Said Tinga tinga in 1968. He was born in 1932 in the southern Tanzania’s Tunduru district, and had only four years of primary school. He had no formal education in art, he just expressed himself by painting. He painted animals, birds, and people. His parents were peasants therefore the rests of his early years were spent in the manner of most of peasant boys in the village, he did his general duties of the home and learnt various crafts in his free time. In 1955 Tinga tinga travelled to Dar es Salaam to look for a job, he started working as a domestic servant in a colonial civil servant’s home, he worked in that position for six years when Tanzania got her independence. In those six years Tinga tinga had been watching the work of the government painters who occasionally came to paint the government house in which he stayed; he admired the ceiling boards, bright colors and the graceful brush strokes made by the painters. He had longed to give his hand a try at painting, but unfortunately he never got time.
He never got a permanent job after he became unemployed in 1961. The turning point in his career was Tanzania’s independence when lots of painters from Zaïre were brought who painted inexpensive artworks and sold them along the city’s main streets. The new turn triggered Tinga tinga’s urge to paint, therefore he grabbed some household paints and a brush from a friend and painted on a piece of - ceiling board and created his picture. He later displayed it outside the stores in Dar es Salaam where he sold the painting for 10 shillings, this
Cited: Wembah-Rashid, J. A. R. "Tingatinga of Tanzania." African Arts 5.4 (1972): 20-1. (“Tingatinga- Art that makes you smile” 2011, Watchtower online library) "Tingatinga - the popular paintings from Tanzania" - Y. Goscinny “Tinga Tinga studio. Tanart, n.d. Web. 2014