Trios
Portfolio by Herbert Kalule / Introduction by TWR
Although many collectors may not know him, Herbert Kalule is among the great artists of our time. He has been quietly at work since the early 2000s, when he set out to become an artist in his own right following a brief stint as a gallery attendant with Afriart Gallery in Kampala. In the beginning he was experimenting with materials, from acrylic paints to fabrics and batiks inspired by the work of his mother, a tailor and fashion designer. Although he remains versatile decades later, capable even of carving sculptural works out of wood and metal, it is Kalule’s paintings that stand out.
In much of Kalule’s work, there is the recurring motif of three figures usually in disagreement or at odds, but sometimes seemingly in perfect accord, underscoring a key aspect of the lived experience: community. Kalule told The Weganda Review that this image of threesomes, so to speak, came to him when he first became a father and was possessed of such a rare feeling of excitement that he used to plan, practically speaking, around three figures. “I used to think in terms of three,” he said. “Three became my signature.”
But he took his argument further in a detailed interview with TWR, pointing out that three people are usually more interesting than two: “Normally when a talk is between three people, it is more exciting and more inspiring because you get to have different ideas. They used to say that when two heads meet, at times they move towards the same direction. But when you get the third force, then you get to know the right direction to take.”
Despite his lack of formal art education, Kalule doesn’t like to think of himself as a self-taught artist. He was naturally drawn to an artist’s life. Growing up in a tailor’s home full of much color plus his early interactions with artists at work was all the education he needed, he said. “Because when you live by the art, you get to learn from the artists, your fellow artists, and then you get to learn from the things that are surrounding you, that’s [how] I came to art,” he said.
TWR is pleased to present a portfolio of a dozen paintings by Kalule. These exemplary pieces represent a small fraction of the artist’s body of work, which has been exhibited at home and abroad in solo and group shows. As an art entrepreneur, he is also associated with Kampala’s Umoja Art Gallery, which he helped bring into existence in 2011. That gallery, which maintains a democratic attitude when it comes to mounting exhibitions, has helped elevate the careers of many Ugandan artists. “We decided to do the Umoja thing, to have an open door for everyone,” he said.
Kalule’s paintings, rich with texture and color, charm because he paints with the freedom of a child in a distinctive figurative style that describes the immediate presence of life in an African setting. There is in some pictures a bit of tension between abstraction and representation, so that what emerges from the canvases can sometimes be subject to multiple interpretations. But certain things are clear enough, like the expressive eyes he gives his figures, as if stubbornly returning the viewer’s gaze.
A painting like Do Not Disturb, a masterpiece executed by Kalule early in his career, stands out for the remarkable story it appears to tell. It is the picture of a couple whose peace is about to be interrupted by someone (or the thought of someone) who is knocking on the door. In such a setting it could be anyone – a debt collector, or an intrusive neighbor, or even a ghost.
Kalule said he’s had to overcome great challenges to reach where he is today as an artist making works that resonate with a range of collectors. Selling pictures in Kampala is as hard as it can get, he said, so that the artist who lacks patience can easily be sidetracked. “With art you have to be patient and love what you are doing,” he said. “And the second thing is that you have to do something that really talks to the people.” ▪
