Rosemary Namuli Karuga (19 June 1928 – 9 February 2021) was a Kenyan visual artist. In 2017, she was named ''Artist of the Month'' by the

National Museums of Kenya The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, archeology, ethnography and biodiversit ...

. She is known to be the first woman artist to have studied at

Makerere University Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...

Personal life and education

Karuga was born on 19 June 1928. in

Meru Meru may refer to: Geography Kenya * Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya ** Meru County, created by the merger of *** Meru Central District *** Meru North District *** Meru South District * Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park Tanza ...

, Kenya to a Ugandan father and a Kenyan mother She was the first female graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts,

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

between 1950 and 1952 where she studied design, painting and sculpture. She worked as an art teacher in rural Kenya, retiring in the 1980s to pursue art professionally. During this period in her life, she got married in 1953, then having three children from her marriage. In 1987, she became artist in residence at the Paa ya Paa Arts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2006 she moved to Ireland to live with family and obtain medical attention due to her failing health. She passed on at the age of ninety-three at the Amberley Nursing Home in Dublin, Ireland where she lived with her daughter. She lived there until her death on 9 February 2021.

Career

After completing her education at Makerere University in Kampala, she moved back to Kenya worked as a teacher. She retired from teaching in the 1980s to pursue arts professionally. In 1987, she became an Artist in Residence at the Paa ya Paa Arts Centre in Nairobi. She usually created collage arts using the paper packaging from

Rexona Rexona is an Australian deodorant and antiperspirant brand, owned by British conglomerate Unilever. While marketed under the Rexona name in most countries, it is known as Rexena ( ja, レセナ; ko, 레세나) in Japan and South Korea, Su ...

soap and Unga flour. In the 1990s she was commissioned to illustrate

Amos Tutuola Amos Tutuola (20 June 1920 – 8 June 1997) was a Nigerian writer who wrote books based in part on Yoruba folk-tales. Early history Amos Olatubosun Tutuola Odegbami was born on 20 June 1920, in Wasinmi, a village just a few miles outside o ...

’s magical book, ''The Palm Wine Drinkard.'' Subsequently, her collage ‘illustrations’ was exhibited in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and in the Studio Museum in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

.She was the only woman in Studio Museum Harlem’s exhibition Contemporary African Artists: Changing Tradition (1990), and received a lifetime achievement award from the African Voice newspaper. Her work lives on in several collections, including the Red Hill Gallery, National Museums of Kenya, Murumbi Trust, and the Watatu Foundation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karugs, Rosemary 2021 deaths Kenyan artists Kenyan women artists Makerere University alumni 1928 births Kenyan expatriates in Uganda Kenyan expatriates in the United Kingdom People from Meru County Place of death missing