Richard Onyango (Kenyan, born 1960) I love Africa
Provenance : Provenance Acquired directly from the artist in 2007. Onyango is mostly famous for his iconic series of paintings documenting his love affair with Drosie Dawes the British medical doctor whom he met while he was a drummer in a band. The affair was cut short by Drosie's sudden death nine months after they had met. Onyango's early paintings had mostly been of buses but the death of his beloved girlfriend triggered a flow of works memorialising key moments in their relationship. The paintings are much more than one man's grief over the loss of his partner but explore the coexistence of romantic love, racism, inequality and the West's often harmful obsession with Africa. I Love Africa is a major work because it distills the elements of Onyango's oeuvre, where Africa is an objectified plaything of the Western visitor and simultaneously an irresistible force.
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