Joseph 'Bertiers' Mbatia Njoroge (signs Joseph BERTIERS) , 1963

Joseph Bertiers (also seen as Berthiers) is an artist from Nairobi, Kenya who began his artistic career in his teens painting signs for local bars, butcher shops, and beauty parlors.

Frustrated with the limitations of creative expression offered by his commercial work and exercising his signature humor, he launched a series of paintings entitled 'Painting a Cat--I Really Hate It', suggesting that only brushing paint on live cats could be worse than sign painting.

Fools and dreamers, heroes and charlatans, domestic bliss and marital discord, personal foibles and national tragedies-all have found expression in Joseph Bertiers ' spirited and penetrating work.

source: African Colours (photo)