George Lilanga

There is quite enough official information on life and art of George Lilanga (see down for links) so I refer to those sources.  He died in 2005 in Dar es  Salaam just when his work was shown in Europe on AFRICA REMIX exhibition organized by Jean-Hubert Martin. He was therefore the only dead artists out of 82 presented on this exhibition of contemporary African art. But his works became famous much earlier. The same Jean-Hubert Martin contributed to George Lilanga´s fame through maybe the world´s most important African exhibition Magiciens de la Terre in Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1989. Still this was not the first time George Lilanga was discovered. Internationally it was in 1978 in Washington DC where he showed 100 different works which were compared to the art of the French artist Jean Debuffe. It had profound influence even on modern west art, for instance it is said that Keith Harring was inspired by Lilanga. But the first person ever to discover Lilanga´s talent was Jean Pruit who founded House of Culture in Tanzania and who now  runs Dogodogo centre there.
Now Lilanga has passed away but new history is emerging. It showed up that after his death new works still flooded the market. Explanation is easy – Lilanga employed tens of people in his neighborhood in Mbagala in Dar es Salaam. Both statues and paintings were made by Agustino Malaba, Robert Karinto, Hendrick Lilanga, Costa Lilanga, Noel Kapanda just to name some of them. (photos provided by Robino Ntila, Noel Kapanda and Robert Karinto)

AFRICA REMIX - official website of the exhibition during which George Lilanga died

www.lilanga.info - rich source of information. You can buy great book on Lilanga and see some videos

www.lilanga.org - this site presents artists who really made some of George Lilanga´s artworks

Wikipeida - information on George Lilanga on Wikipeida

http://www.georgelilanga.com - coroulful website about George Lilanga.

Museum Kunst Palast - Website of Museum Kunst Palast . It contains information about the director Jean-Hubert Martin who organized the 1989 exhibition in Pompidou Centre in Paris

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