Untitled I
Artist: Damian Boniface K. Msagula
(Tanzania, 1939 – 2005)
102 x 90 cm (approx.)
Paint on jute
Year unknown
This is the smallest work of Damian Msagula in the Emerson’s collection. There is not much background information on the work which calls us to look for ourselves, not guided by preconceived analyses. This work does contain much of the technique and content that makes Msagula’s work unique.
We invite you to have a closer with one basic request: Look and focus on what you see and leave interpretations and associations aside. Think of technique, material and content.
In the exhibition, next to you should be pencils and paper. You can use that to note down or draw what you see. If we later combine all these observations, we will build up together a new archive of what the work is about.
If you want a more detailed list of questions to consider, just play the second track of this audio now!
Visual Inventory and Emerging Questions
At first glance, the viewer encounters a nearly square jute canvas, marked by line drawings and fields of color. The composition includes four human figures, a house with an entrance, trees, grass, several calabashes, horns, two wings, a disembodied head with pointed ears, and a bucket containing an unidentified substance.
Below is a partial but not exhaustive inventory of depicted forms, along with some of the questions they begin to raise:
Half circles appear in the composition, each connected at the back to another, forming a chain that extends almost to the lower edge of the painting. Below them, grass is depicted in single tranches, stretching from the bottom left to the bottom right of the canvas. What might these connected half circles represent?
The half circles are rendered in a different hue. While not a one-to-one gradient, their colors shift gradually across the image, from red to yellow, then to greenish tones, and finally brown. Could this transition in color carry symbolic meaning?
A tree stands with a single stem and two branching limbs, each bearing pointed leaves marked by distinct, visible veins.
Might the shape of these leaves offer a clue to the tree’s identity within the painting?
Could the pattern of leaf veins help us determine its species?
The leaves are neatly colored green, contained within their outlines—does this deliberate coloring suggest something more?
A head with a neck and upright, pointed ears emerges from within the tree, gazing toward the left.
Who—or what—is this figure?
Where is the body it belongs to?
And where, exactly, is its gaze directed?
A bald man with a beard sits on the left side of the painting, squatting with a patterned cloth draped over his legs. He holds a bucket, licking the substance inside. His eyes are directed to the left from his seated position. His form and color seem disconnected, save for his tongue, which provides the only link.
Who is this man?
What does he hold, and what is he consuming or tasting?
What might his wild beard symbolize?
Where does his gaze rest?
What is his attire?
How does he relate to the other figures in the scene?
A house with a vertically drawn roof, its walls divided into vertical and horizontal sections. The door reaches three-quarters of the house’s height. In front of the house, there are repeated half circles. The colors of the house don’t follow a specific pattern, containing shades of red, green, yellow, and brown, with the door in a darker hue.
What kind of house is this? Does the structure reveal anything about its place of origin?
Is the door open or closed?
Whose house could this be?
A calabash stands in front of the house, adorned with horizontal decorations and containing a substance. The lines and colors align.
Is there any significance to the shape of the calabash? Do the lines hold meaning?
What is typically kept inside?
Does it stand closer to the three figures or to the man on the left?
Above the house, a calabash sits with a red triangular shape (representing fire?) emerging from it.
The line of the calabash connects to the tree, and the lines and colors align.
Is the calabash physically connected to the tree, or is it suspended in the air?
What might the red substance coming from the calabash symbolize?
What is the significance of the calabash?
Next to the calabash is an animal horn, decorated with red (representing fire?) emerging from it. The horn touches the man sitting beside it, and the lines and colors align.
Can we determine what kind of horn this is?
Is the horn physically connected to the man, or is it suspended in the air?
What does the red substance coming from the horn signify?
What might the horn symbolize?
Three figures sit close together: a bearded man on the left wearing a checkered cloth, a topless woman with a necklace and a cloth patterned with ovals, and a child dressed in a checkered skirt.
They hold each other closely. The man and woman look to the left, toward the child, while the child gazes to the right. The colors and lines across their bodies do not seem to align directly.
The three seem positioned closer to the foreground of the painting compared to the man on the left, what is their relationship to him?
Who are they looking at?
Why do they sit so closely together?
Do their clothing and the necklace offer any insight into their relationship, status, or roles?
Two tree branches with round leaves and visible veins extend across the scene: the left branch rests above the man’s head, and the right branch reaches the child’s head.
Does the shape of the leaves provide any clues about the type of tree depicted?
Do the veins in the leaves suggest something about the tree’s species?
The leaves are filled with green color, staying neatly within the lines, what might this detail indicate?
A calabash with fire (?) and two wings on either side.
Is the calabash connected to the woman, or does it appear to be floating in the air—almost as if it’s flying?
What might the red substance coming from the calabash symbolize?
What is the symbolic significance of the calabash itself?
Are the wings part of the calabash, or do they carry a distinct meaning?
Keep in mind the people, objects, positions, directions, and colors, as they will reappear, offering deeper insight into your understanding of Msagula’s ideas and theys can form your joined stories.