Art, Design & Fashion
Landmark
Stephen Kappata
1936 – 2007
Painted colonial and post-colonial Zambia as it actually was, with the captions written in
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zambia Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A self-taught painter who documented colonial rule, independence and what followed in flat, deadpan, captioned scenes — and did not spare the new rulers any more than the old.
Stephen Kappata was a self-taught Zambian painter, born in 1936 in Mongu district.
He painted the social history of his country in a flat, direct, narrative style with the commentary written onto the canvas — the humiliations of colonial rule, the coming of independence, and the conduct of those who inherited it, which he satirised as readily as he had the colonisers. His work was collected internationally and is among the most quoted visual record of twentieth-century Zambian life. He died in 2007.
He painted the social history of his country in a flat, direct, narrative style with the commentary written onto the canvas — the humiliations of colonial rule, the coming of independence, and the conduct of those who inherited it, which he satirised as readily as he had the colonisers. His work was collected internationally and is among the most quoted visual record of twentieth-century Zambian life. He died in 2007.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.