Collection Hansen - Makonde and Tingatinga art
Since the years I've spent in Moshi, Tanzania during my childhood I'm fascinated by african art especially the sculptures of the Makonde tribe. Their tribe originally lived in the area of the big stream Rovuma. This river is todays border between Tanzania and Mozambique and devides the Makonde tribe into north and south Makonde. Carving has a long tradition in their world. Todays interest in african art makes most of the good Makonde carvers move to Dar Es Salaam region, Arusha or even Kenya. Some of them still carve ebony (blackwood) the original way and create great sculptures but unfortunately tourism has a negative influence on quality of their art. The original shetani (abstract ghost / devil sculptures) are more and more replaced by a simple sort of "tourist sculpture" which suits to the view of africa many tourists have.
In my collection I allways try to collect old pieces of art or at least pieces which were created close to the old shapes and traditions. Some of my shetani sculptures are now shown on this site. Several very interesting pieces of my collection are the shetani of Mr. Georges Lilanga Di Nyama (* 1934, † 2005). He is the most famous Tanzanian artist. Some collectors call him the "african Picasso" as he invented an extremely colourful and expressive style. Photos of Lilanga art can be seen in the pictures of my collection.
One of my projects is the development of a Collectors Network in which friends can show parts of their collections of Tanzanian art and get in touch with each other. Every collector is invited to join! From time to time I sell some of my sculptures and paintings as the collection would become too big. You can see the offers on "for sale.
If you are interested in Makonde and Tingatinga art you should not miss to have a look at the sites I like to. Especially on the site of Daetz-Centrum you'll see some of the best Makonde works ever.
Soon I'll also show some more Tingatinga art paintings. Paintings of Mzuguno, Saidi Omary, Mr. Mnyaru ( similar to Malikita ) and Max Kamundi are shown already. Also really interesting is the huge batik of Mr. Jonasse. It shows a village scene with a big group of women and their children.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can also find a long List of Makonde and Tingatinga artists in the subfolders of "sevice" and a small overview about the different Makonde carving styles.