The curtain comes down on legendary painter Jak Katarikawe

Jak Katarikawe (1938-2018) was, until October 19, a living legend who inspired younger artists with both his talent and apparent financial success. He was among the first East Africans whose artworks could sell for hundreds of thousands of shillings each.

He is also one of the first East Africans whose artworks were exhibited in Europe and the US.

Jak’s legendary status was confirmed the day he died, when news of his passing spread like wildfire on social media.

He had been found alone and unconscious by a cousin who had gone to his Forest Road flat to cook for him because Jak’s wife, Florence, was back in Uganda. Friends had tried to get him to accompany her back home, where he had built a house for the family in Kabale, western Uganda. He refused. He died while en route to the hospital.

In his prime, Jak was known as an ‘African (Marc) Chagall’, named after the 20th century modern artist who, like Jak, created colorful, whimsical paintings that invariably had an enchanting narrative to back up his imagery. In Jak’s case, they were stories about love triangles that he used to explain with a merry twinkle in his eye.

Jak never had a chance to go to school since his polygamous father had retired by the time he was born, and he was the last born of the old man’s youngest wife.

NATURAL TALENT

But Jak had a natural talent. Plus his mother was artistic. Jak once recalled how she used to paint lovely designs in ash all around her mud and wattle hut as a means of attracting the old man to go for supper at her home. Jak also recalled how he was inspired by the stained glass windows of the nearby church.

He said they had taught him the value of translucent colors and the storytelling power of art.

Jak’s big break came when he became a driver for a Makerere University professor, who found his sketches stashed in the boot of his car. Prof David Cook could see that Jak had talent.

MENTORSHIP

Cook then arranged for him to be mentored by Prof Sam Ntiru, who at the time, was head of Makerere’s Art Department.

After spending some time at Makerere, Jak moved to Kenya in the early 1970s and initially worked with Elimo Njau at Paa ya Paa gallery.

Subsequently, he exhibited at Alliance Francaise and at Gallery Watatu.

Jak was already established when Ruth Schaffner bought Gallery Watatu in 1985 from Yony Waite, co-founder of Watatu.

She quickly took Jak under her wing and soon became his mentor, mother-figure, accountant and banker. She took his art worldwide, but after she died in 1996, Jak never recovered. He went into mourning and never got over his grief.

Ruth’s death also had a profound effect on his painting. Jak could never reactivate his effortless style of visual storytelling. Despite being pestered for years by art collectors from all over the world who frequently came personally to buy his art, he could never regain his creative edge.

He soon exhausted his supply of the paintings that expressed the ‘old Jak’. Nonetheless, any time one of his older paintings has gone up for auction, the prices have shot sky high.

Many people believe Jak’s art will only accrue in value over time, as it did for other artists who died poor, such as Vincent Van Gogh.

Jak will primarily be remembered for the luminous artworks he created between the mid-70s and mid-90s. But to his friends, he will be remembered as the sweet-spirited artist whose skill in visual storytelling was sublime.

Jak was buried quietly at his Kabale home last Sunday, just a week after he died.