THEART Compiled by GRIZEè LL AZAR-LUXTON Sam Nhlengethwa and DALENA LE ROUX Sam Nhlengethwa wasborn on 9 January Librarian,Central Collection 1955 at PaynevilleTownship, Springs. He studied artthroughthe ELCArt and Craft rtcannotexist without society. Centre at Rorke'sDrift. Hisexperience also There can be no line separating includesthat of set designer. `A the artist from his community. The progressive effectof our societygives Pippa Skotnes riseto culturalgrowth. The artistmust seek The few tinygroups of San who stillexist new formsof changing hissociety for the todayinthe Kalahari Desertin Botswana better.' are avidly studied by anthropologists, and Profoundwordsdatingbackasfar as1987 have beenthe subjectof a number of docu- and containedin a letter to the editor by a mentary films. Buttothe Dutchfarmers of reader of a largely black-read newspaper, the eighteenth century the nomadic San, or The New Nation.Wordsthatembody Bushmen as they called them, were vermin much of what has transpired in the visual to be tracked down and ruthlessly extermi- and other formsof artduring the pastthree nated. decades. We take a look at a selection of In South Africa, allthat remain ofthe San some verycollectible artists whose work Ebrahim, one ofthelastresidents of District are their beautiful and elegantrock paint- encapsulates protestor resistance art- a Six. The chairs were usedin Naz'shouse for ings, executed in the colours of the earth, most powerful medium in the peoples of the last celebration of the Eid feast in Dis- and to be foundin shallowcaves right across South Africa'sstruggle forliberation. Many trict Six, and were draped with white the country. Itisknownthat painting was of their worksare held in stock. sheets in mourning for those who had left. centralto the life ofthe San people, thatthe Theinstallationwas called Thelast supper.`A Sfiso Ka Mkame imagesoften referred to the state achieved tape played throughout: a recording I had inthe trance dance when man would be Ka Mkame wasborn in Durban, an area made of statements and memories ofthe imbued withthe strengths and skills ofthe where violence inthe townships had people of District Six, their music, the calls animalshe hunted, butthe preciseinter- become endemic, and the police were fromthe Mosque and the scraping, crashing pretation of these images is often elusive. notoriouslyrepressive. sounds ofthe bulldozer.' Style and the recovery of meaningin He received a sporadic arteducation Southern rock paintings wasthe title of a over the years- `whenwe were growing up Norman Catherine thesisfor a Master'sdegree in archaeology we made picturesinthe sand, and cowsout Catherine isone of the hardestworking by printmaker Pippa Skotnes. of clay. At schoolwe did maps and I used to artists inthe country,working from nine in Images from the past - the marks, struc- draw for other students, but I didn't realise the morning to midnight daily in the studio turesand objectsleft behind by the plun- it wasart.' ofthe house he built at Hartbeespoort dered and the plunderers- constitute much `I have been told my work istoo political, Dam, near Johannesburg. Some years ago of Skotnes's artistic vocabulary.Traditional but I say, my work is what I see when I wake he wasknown for surrealistic imagesand etching techniques, sensitive crosshatching up in the morning,' Ka Mkame once said. the perfection of hisairbrushed finishes, and aquatinting on copperplate produce butthe carefully-modulated huesthen gave tonesdown into the deepestvelvety blacks. Sue Williamson way to flat, often brilliantcolour and strong Her printshave an air of melancholy and a `In August1977,I spent seven days watching patterning. strange, heightened reality the total demolition by state employees in Catherine also makes frequent use ofthe bulldozersbackedup by police ofthe 2 000 sortof found objects township kids collect Willie Bester houses of Modderdam, a settled squatter to maketheir toycarsand bicycles:tin cans, Renowned Cape artist Willie Bester once communityjustoutside CapeTown. wire, metal scraps. Welding was a skill said in an interview with erstwhile director `Witnessing the cold brutality of this Catherine learned when building hishouse, ofthe Library Service Fransvan der operation had a profound effect on my life. I andthetechniquegavebirthtoawholenew Merwe, that he sees art as partof our daily became involvedin community action, an tribe of comically recognisable living-in- livesand people need to be constantly involvement which spilled over into my Africa characters- the sangoma with his exposed to it. `Art helps to create a certain work in the studio.' bones, the kugel, and the BOSS figure, amountof communitypride - people want In 1981, bulldozerswere knocking down lackeysat hisfeet, who dominatesand con- to be partthereof - it can even play a role in the last houses in CapeTown'shistoric Dis- trolsall the others. curbing the crime rate.' trict Six, an overcrowded but dynamic Catherine'shumourisoften black, nour- Today Bester, once runner-up in the1991 coloured suburb, declared `white' fifteen ished by a fine sense of overkill. Triennial, the country'smostprestigiousart yearspreviously. The corrosivewitthat amuses and shocks competition, hasgainedinternational She collected the rubble left behind - atthesametimeisequallyapparentintwo recognition. bricks, chunks of wall with layers of wall- masterfully handled drypoints, Dog of war paper, broken plates, discarded school and Carnivores. `It'sthe animal in man that William Kentridge books, piled it on the white tiled floor of a I'm portraying - hiscarnivorousaspects,his Pierre-Auguste Renoir'sfamous painting CapeTown gallery,and surrounded the pile territorial instincts.' The subject matter is The boating partygivesusa vision of a with six chairs borrowed from Naz classic Catherine. golden world, shimmering with light and Cape Libr.,Mar/Apr 2002 42 U Charlotte Maxeke was the first black South African womanto obtain auniversity degree.This artwork, a photo etching/screenprint collage, is one ofa series titled A few South Africans by SueWilliamson R Sfiso Ka Mkame's artwork, titled Letters to God is donein oil pastel on paper L Titled, Human rights, this collage byWillie Bester,is one offive in the Central Collection U Norman Catherine's colourful silkscreen work titled Green Man Salon D Sam Nhlengethwa's collage on paper titled Putco Strike R One of six screenprints which are part ofthe port- folio done by Pippa Skotnes for her thesis for a Master's degree in archaeologyin which she portays ... `acensure of man's arro- gance and the destruction he has wrought around him' % Kaapse Bibl., Mar/Apr 2002 43 THEART andlived and workedin his native Namibia until his untimely death at the age of 43 in November1987. His chosen medium was the linocut, printed almost alwaysin black `because itdoesn'ttire the eyes'. Reviewing his London exhibition in1983, the critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote that it repre- sented`consistently the bestof allthe modern African masters ofthis medium - Muafangejo is a printmaker of world class.' Muafangejo was a Kuanyama of the Ovambo people who straddle the wartorn border between Angola and Namibia. A deeplyreligious man, the conflicts between church and state, the violence which beset hisland, the racialprejudices of society and his own desire for reconciliation are all reflectedin his prints. Denying that his work was political, Muafangejo once replied,`It is the world which is political.' intoxicating colour, in which relaxed diners u Charcoal and pastel drawing titled Billy Mandindi laze onthe verandah of a riverside inn. Wadeville by William Kentridge `Atfirst, when Iwas thinking about art,I `The greatimpressionist and post- thoughtit was aboutdrawing and allthose impressionist paintingsgive me such plea- things...I then suddenly became aware of sure', says artist William Kentridge,`a sense 1886. The celebrations were, in fact, can- what was happening around me and I tried of well-being in the world, a vision of a state celled after an outcry from concerned citi- to capture that. In our art,I think there was of grace in an achieved paradise.' zens who feltthatthe cityhad nothing to be something missing. It's still missing. Some of One of his works, the well-known mixed- proud of. Kentridge's powerful image, with the things that happened years ago, the media triptychTheboatingparty"1985) is its overtones of George Grosz'scomments results are stillcomingnow, soinmy work,I based on Renoir's painting. But the idyllic on Nazi Germany,reinforces that view. amtrying to gofarbackandmixit withwhat scene has changed to one of horror. is happening now.' `The state of grace in inadmissible to me,' John Muafangejo About his zinc sculpture, Fire games he says Kentridge. `I know this is contradictory. John Ndevasia Muafangejo'slinocut The said he wanted to do work that reflected The world has notchanged that much Battle of Rorke's Driftis one of the few he the whole of1985. Mandinihas used the betweenthen and nowinterms of human did on an historical subject, butlike almost brightcolours and the assorted small-scale misery. In bad years peasants starvedinthe all of his work, is filled with action. The elements to impart a toy-like quality to his countryside around Tiepolo's ceilings. But in compositionis strong, the lines crisply piece, butthis is a gameboard of a deadly paintings of the time the effect is not of his- incised, and the massed figures cramthe kind. `It'sthe watchtowers and vans and a tory distorted but of a benevolent world. space. factory and some banks and a jail and However, it is one thing to be grateful for Bornin1943 in Angola,Muafangejo was a AK47s and all those things.' Mandini saw those lies and quite another to perpetuate graduate of the art centre at Rorke's Drift those watchtowersin Zwelethemba when them.' he wenttoWorcesterin1985. `This was the Kentridge'slove of postersled to three year ofthe first state of emergency.They striking silkscreens being makein1988 - Art d This linocut on paper,titled The Battle of had those towers around the townships, in a state of grace, Art in a state of hope Rorke's Drift by John Muafangejo is a good and the lights were going across the and Art in a state of siege.