featured_artists > bio | selected exhibitions | available work

David Herekia MZUGUNO, 1951

David Mzuguno started painting in 1967 and became known in 1969 at age eighteen, by wining the third prize in the Esso Calendar Competition.

Originally from the Kilimandjaro region, Pare district, and of Mpare Tribe, he was born in 1951 in the village of Gonja Bombo (at the junction with Mkomasi on the old Moshi road), where he also attended primary school at the Luteran Mission.

In 1967 Mzuguno arrives in Dar-es-Salaam and, two years later goes to live with his uncle in Msasani, nearby the Morogoro Stores. While attending secondary school (with art subjects) and passing by the Tingatinga painters, he used to make fun of them because of their non-realistic style.

David Mzuguno completed Form 4 in 1972, and started working as a mining prospector from 1973 to 1979, but continued to paint and brought his paintings to sell at hotels.

In 1979 Mzuguno decides to drop his realistic style and join the Tingatinga Partnership opting for the tingatinga style (which was much more successful at the time). Mruta accepted him as member no. 42 at the Partnership.

David Mzuguno stayed at the Tingatinga Centre until 1989. He was selling more than the other painters partly because, due to his education, he could speak english with the customers. When he left, he spent the next couple of years painting for a japanese lady who was a guest at the Dar-es-Salaam University.

Since then, Mzuguno has pursued his career, painting at his home in Kahaba, 15 Km from the city center. In December 2003 he held a solo-exhibition at the Alliance Francaise in Dar.

Mzuguno is one of the painters with the highest level of education. His works demonstrate a great originality in meticulously depicting beautiful scenes of rural life, with a lush of intrincate vegetation.

source: "Tinga Tinga, the popular paintings fom Tanzania", Y. Goscinny, "Art in Tanzania 2000", Y. Goscinny