One animal, one colour, one legend: on a masonite square, with bicycle paint, an entire school of painting was born.
Edward Saidi Tingatinga (1932, Namochelia, Tanzania - 1972, Dar es Salaam) is the founder of the Tingatinga school, East Africa's most distinctive and enduring painting tradition, which bears his name. A self-taught artist of Makua descent, without formal schooling, he began painting around 1968 in Dar es Salaam with the only materials he could afford: bicycle enamel paint on recycled masonite squares. His fantastic animals and birds, rendered flat against monochrome grounds with bold outlines and rooted in the legends of his Makua culture, enchanted residents and travellers, giving rise in only four years of activity to a movement that survived his tragic death, when he was shot by police in a case of mistaken identity. His followers founded the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society, and his style, which influenced artists including George Lilanga, became the visual emblem of Tanzania.