John Njenga Kamau aka "Wanyu Brush" 1947 - Present
Stored at the Journalism Department at California State University, Northridge are 10 paintings created by the legendary artist, John Njenga aka Wanyu Brush. Characterised as paintings that represent the time that he was most prolific, Prof David Blumencrantz from the institution revealed,
“Our goal is to find a home for the artworks – a home deserving of the work of one of Kenya’s best-known painters. In the process we intend to finally earn Brush the compensation these paintings deserve.” Emphasis added.
“Wanyu” is an adoptive name, borne out of his artistic process and has a cultural connotation. The artist used it to describe himself and his career. Indeed, as he says: “Wanyu is a Kikuyu word that means I am yours so appreciate my work. I settled for the word together with brush, which signifies moving forward my career — brushing forward, literally,” he says.
As a child, he would scribble figures on floors and walls for sport – a behaviour for which his mother constantly scolded him. The alternative? The insistence that he should pursue formal education with serious intention. Wanyu studied formally up to high school before dropping out in form two due to the lack of school fees.
He is originally from Ngecha, a village in Limuru, 14 Km west of the capital Nairobi and famous for having a substantial number of practicing visual artists. Commonly referred to as “village of artists, Ngecha also plays host to two functioning commercial art galleries i.e. Banana Hill gallery. Born in 1947, the self-taught artist trained in Batik printing in 1967 at Shauri Moyo YMCA. He would quit his training sooner rather than later due to the oddly foul smell of wax used in the time-consuming and laborious process. In Wanyu’s words; “I could not stand the smell of wax used in the batik process and so I stopped.”
Wanyu was intimately drawn to painting. But he had to do menial jobs to help him put food on the table and meet other daily expenses especially because art wasn’t paying. Nonetheless he continued to nurture that artistic spark in his heart. Setting up his studio at his home in Ngecha, he painted mostly at night while seated on his three-legged stool, a traditional relic for most African societies.
It’s really Gallery Watatu that attracted international interest in Wanyu’s aesthetic. Fittingly, until the mid 90s, it was one of the most common yet successful launchpads for Kenyan visual artists’ rise to international fame. Wanyu’s first artworks instantly attracted Ruth’s attention who was the gallery’s owner.
“…when I took my first artworks to Ruth, she wondered where I had been all along as I painted like a veteran,” Wanyu revealed in an interview with a journalist from Daily Nation.
And from that inaugural solo exhibition in 1990, he had now initiated, on a weekly basis, a consistent cash flow, not less than KES 100,000 from the sale of his portraits. It would be, unfortunately, Ruth’s death in 1996 that left a deep hole in his pocket as well as other artists exhibiting at the currently defunct historic gallery. For John Njenga, to create and sell art without access to Ruth’s marketing edge and abroad connections was no easy fit. Even Ruth’s husband, Adama Diawara’s installation as the new director of the gallery, did very little to redeem his and other artists’ art sales to the former ground-breaking earnings.
But as if his elevation to international fame in the commercial art world by Ruth, was not enough, wait till you discover his 2011 groundbreaking sale. The painting title? Never, Never, Never Again, which connotes the violently transformative post-election scene of 2007. Bought by an Italian, at KES 2 million, it remains the largest sale not only for Wanyu but also for the hosting gallery, Gallery Watatu.
At first glance, Wanyu’s artworks appear chaotic, idiosyncratic and surreal all at the same time. You would be forgiven for choosing to look at his artworks in a purely abstract way. But with time and perhaps more focus the subjects of his figurative style begin to make sense. A narrative always belies the grotesque figures displayed on the canvas.
Now at 77 years old, the monumentally important artist soldiers on albeit under the duress of old age, arthritic joints and dwindling eyesight. He is an artist whose old-age years no longer speak of the life-changing successes he had at his most prolific years. His most recent major exhibition was in 2020 at Banana Hill Gallery, a show that featured 48 of his paintings – 34 of which were oil on canvas or board. Of the remaining 16 works, all but 3 of them were acrylic paintings. And the proceeds from their sale were geared towards catering for his medical expenses.
But there is more to him besides his compositions of allegorical city life. Notably, he has been involved elsewhere, including the co-founding, in 1995, of the Ngecha Association of Artists. In addition to over 1000 works of art, prime Wanyu Brush mentored Jua Kali artists and children in drawing and painting.
Elsewhere, although no longer a darling of the commercial art world internationally, at least for his new artworks, his earlier masterpieces are listed for thousands of dollars private holdings worldwide. With over 1000 pieces to his name, whether in museums, galleries, private collections or homes (collector’s choice), he is truly a generational talent. Yes, he’s recognized among Kenya’s so-called First Generation of artists within art circles, the rest of whom include Jak Katarikawe and Sane Wadu. His latest productions, although fewer and far between, occasioned by his diminished output, still trumpet his instinctive gift of composition.
