Francis Nnaggenda
Untitled (Mother and Children)
About the SessionNAIROBI – Following their successful collaboration in 2025, Strauss & Co, Africa’s leading auction house, and Danda Jaroljmek, Director of Art Auction East Africa, will present Art Auction East Africa | Strauss & Co, a 67-lot sale bringing together modern and contemporary art from East Africa and the wider continent. The live-virtual sale will be held at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on Wednesday, 28 October, 2026, 7pm EAT. The catalogue spans a diversity of East African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, alongside works by artists from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria. Works on paper, photography and sculpture complements the strong painting consignment. “The selection invites collectors to discover East Africa’s diverse modernist histories, particularly those beyond the Anglophone world,” says Susie Goodman. “In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in East African modernists, with artists associated with the Khartoum School shown in museums and fairs globally. Our work as an auction house rooted in Africa is ensuring this rediscovery is not temporary. We are delighted to partner with Danda Jaroljmek in cultivating a sustainable secondary market for East African modernists active during the era of decolonisation and independence.” A preview exhibition will be held at Circle Art Gallery, Victoria Square, Riara Road, Nairobi, during the two weeks preceding the auction on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.
LOT 50
Francis Nnaggenda
Untitled (Mother and Children)
About this Item
signed and dated 1964-66
Provenance
Private Collection.
Notes
Professor Francis Nnaggenda’s masterful paintings and sculptures constitute a significant contribution to East African Modernism. Raised in Buganda, in central Uganda, Nnaggenda went into a long exile during the era of Idi Amin, spending a large part of his academic and professional life between Europe, the USA and Kenya.
Nnaggenda studied Art at the Fribourg University in Switzerland and the Bayerische Akademie der Schonen Kunste in Germany. In 1968, he moved to Kenya where he taught at the University of Nairobi. During this time, he met Joseph Murumbi, Kenya’s second Vice President, who was an admirer of his artwork and one of his first collectors. Nnaggenda’s sculpture Mother and Child is a landmark outside Nairobi National Museum.
By 1979, Nnaggenda had returned to Kampala where he became Head of Department of Sculpture at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts and where he taught for nearly twenty years. Nnaggenda has been hugely influential as both an artist and teacher. His many students include George Kyeyune and Rose Kirumira. Nnaggenda’s artworks are in public collections including the Zurich Museum of Art, the Kenya National Archives, the Nairobi Gallery, National Museum of Kenya and the African Heritage House. He was one of the selected artists of KLA Art 014, Kampala Contemporary Art Festival.
Biography courtesy of Circle Art Gallery.
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