Leeb-Du Toit JC 2003 Thesis.Pdf (1.539Mb)

CONTEXTUALIZING THE USE OF BIBLICALLY DERIVED AND METAPHYSICAL IMAGERY IN THE WORK OF BLACK ARTISTS FROM KWAZULU-NATAL: c1930-2002 by Juliette Cécile Leeb-du Toit Submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art, in the School of Language Culture and Communication at the University of Natal Pietermaritzburg 2003 Abstract As art historians uncover the many sources and catalysts that have contributed to the emergence of black contemporary art in South Africa, one of the principal influences is that derived from the Christian mission churches and breakaway separatist groups - the African Independent Churches (AICs). Histories of African art have failed adequately to consider the art that emerged from these contexts, regarding it perhaps as too coerced and distinctive – merely religious art subject to the rigours of liturgical or proselytizing function. The purpose of this dissertation is to foreground this art and its position in the development of both pioneer and contemporary South African art and to identify the many features, both stylistic and thematic, which distinguish this work. The incidence of religious based imagery in the work of black artists from KwaZulu-Natal is substantial, reflecting the abovementioned patronage as well as a post-colonial context of education, ethnology and alternate theologies that reinforced such content. However, as this art functions and was initially nurtured within both a liturgical and secular context, different readings and applications have accrued in relation to it, depending on its reception and shifting patronage base. While the focus in this dissertation is on the work of black artists, essentially it also considers the nature of church patronage and intervention, the influence of national and international developments in acculturated religious forms, educational developments and a historical context of theological revision from which it drew. My research has led me to examine some of the major art training initiatives in KwaZulu-Natal from which such art emerged, as well as independent initiatives by artists and patrons. I examine these diverse contexts with a view to establishing an understanding of initial motivations and the many expectations that have accrued around such art. I consider further how Biblically derived imagery became increasingly autonomous, personalized and idiosyncratic as artists implicitly challenged the ethos of the mission church and considered the applicability of religion to a context of state autocracy and segregation. Further, it will be shown, some art from the region addresses affinities between Biblical mores and practice and traditional belief systems and cultural practice. Reflecting at times both the desirable cross-culturalism that was later mooted by the church and its developing theologies, such art was mostly prompted by the skepticism and assertiveness of those individuals who challenged the suppression of indigenous belief systems in the regio It is further argued that religion inspired art requires foregrounding in that it established important precedents for the function of art, its iconography and the positioning of the artist in relation to a given community. This thematically specific art also provides insight into the dialogue between the colonial centre and its periphery, and that far from being critiqued as merely another sign of colonial invasiveness, such art needs to be re-examined as a reflection of the syncretic vitality that is highly visible in all spheres of contemporary black culture in the region. It is also an art form that parallels and even precedes discourses in literature, theology and religious practice. In this it functions as an important articulation of the centrality of belief in African cultures. In this disseration I have largely confined my research to a rather narrow definition of art, focusing primarily on graphic art, painting and carving, well aware that many other media have been used and developed by artrists in the region. These require further scrutiny in subsequent research. Declaration This dissertation is based on my original research unless otherwise stated and acknowledged, and has not been submitted in any form to any other institution. Juliette Cecile Leeb-du Toit April 2003 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the many people who have contributed to making this research possible through their generous assistance in providing information, expertise, encouragement and support: The many artists who generously provided information and shared their thoughts with me Professor Eleanor Preston-Whyte (initial supervisor) Professor Bill Guest (current supervisor) Professor Terence King (co-supervisor) Sr Pientia Selhorst OMM (friend and mentor) Brendan Bell (Director of the Tatham Art Gallery) Staff of the Campbell Collections, especially Yvonne Winters Lorna Peirson (artist, educator and colleague) Fr Kinch OMS (Servite Priest) Colleagues at the Centre for Visual Art – for their patience The many helpful religious at Mariannhill, especially Sr Adelgisa and Sr Gereon The Mariannhill Generalate in Rome My family for their support and endless patience To my parents for their support and love I am indebted to the National Research Foundation for a grant issued in 1995 enabling me to visit mission archives and informants in Rome, Holland, Germany and Sweden. Without this financial assistance I would not have been able to access much of the material that has been incorporated into this dissertation. Additional assistance, for which I am most grateful, was provided by the University of Natal Research Fund in the form of generous grants which assisted me in research projects which have resulted in articles and conference papers, some of which were drawn on for inclusion in this dissertation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 8 Chapter 1: Historical background 22 1.1 The intersection of religions in Africa 23 1.2 Indigenous belief in KwaZulu-Natal 28 1.3 The mission context in Natal 30 1.4 The African Independent Churches 40 1.5 Isaiah Shembe and followers of Ibandla lama Nazaretha 52 Chapter 2: Contextualizing the rise of art training and patronage 60 2.1 Contemporary art in Africa 60 2.2 The interface between art, education and religion 66 2.3 Ethnography and anthropology 73 Chapter 3: The church and art patronage in KwaZulu-Natal 76 3.1 Missions and art 76 3.2 Early mission inspired art 81 3.3 Mariannhill 92 3.4 Fr Kinch and artists from Hlabisa 128 Chapter 4: Secular training and religion–inspired art 138 4.1 Ndaleni in context 149 4.2 Rorke‟s Drift in context 168 Chapter 5: The contemporary context 216 5.1 Revisiting the contemporary context 216 5.2 Laduma Madela: inyanga and Zionist 219 5.3 Contemporary religion-based imagery 224 5.4 Conclusions 236 List of Illustrations Bibliography INTRODUCTION Much early pioneer contemporary black South African art was nurtured within the confines of the mission context. It was here that artists were educated and their artistic capacities recognised and largely channeled into the production of sacred art. In KwaZulu-Natal this pattern continued from c 1930 until the 1980s, and still continues in a few church contexts, albeit to a much lesser extent and informally. However the region has simultaneously seen the rise of a Biblically or religion derived art that has a far broader and more complex origin, based in separatist churches and independent groups, emergent theologies and idiosyncratic preference. The rise of such art, it will be seen, is further intrinsically linked to religio-political events that marked South African history during the designated period In this dissertation I examine aspects of the intersection of beliefs - mostly Christian and some Zulu indigenous or traditionalist - manifest in the visual arts as reflected in the work of black artists who lived or worked in KwaZulu-Natal. This relatively unexplored dimension in the visual arts is set against the interrelationship between religion, culture, and politics, and it will be shown how biblically derived motifs and concepts are adopted, modified and syncretised into new manifestations, often including indigenous belief and practice. The time frame for this dissertation (c1930 – 2002) might at first appear to be somewhat extensive, but can be justified by the fact that initially during this period little contemporary western influenced African art was produced in South Africa or Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). It was really only after the 1940s that any major undertakings in western art training occurred in the region, much of which was initiated by missionaries or within the embrace of the church. In the post enlightenment, increasingly industrialized and urbanized context in the west, religion has become almost anachronistic. Church and state are separate and Christianity, rather than being perceived as central to western culture and its moral authority, hardly pertains, becoming increasingly marginalized as merely one of many world religions. In Africa, however, the centrality of belief and persistent recognition of the realm of the metaphysical remains an indivisible part of human experience. In the current context of desacralization of art in the West, it is therefore significant that many of Africa‟s contemporary artists continue to focus on cosmogonies and belief systems in their work, albeit hybridized in the wake of colonialism. Colonialism, described as an „economic and political structure of cross-cultural domination‟ (Slemon 1995:47),

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