Contemporary South African Black Art at the
De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, the University of Fort Hare.

Socio-Historical Period

Pioneer Painters

In the 1930s, few Black artists had the means or experience to engage in fine arts, especially painting. Despite the obstacles however, a small number of men did venture into this realm. The University of Fort Hare collection holds works by Gerard Sekoto (born 1913), George Pemba (born 1912), Gerard Bhengu (born 1910), Selby Mvusi (1929-1967), and John Mohl (1903-1985).

Transitional period

In the early 1960s, the pioneer painters were joined by a small number of younger artists, who, like them, worked alone and in relative obscurity. Unlike the pioneer painters, who generally depicted the pain and joy of every day life, the painters from the transitional period turned to more expressionistic (but still figurative) styles. Among these painters are Eric Ngcobo (1933-1987) and Gladys Mgudlandlu (born 1925).

The Polly Street and Jubilee Art Centres

Until the 1960s, Black artists in South Africa had extremely limited access to art education, to art media and technology, to workshops where they could share ideas and innovate, and to galleries to promote and further reach out with their creations. At the same time, the pain and rage built up after a generation of increasing oppression demanded new forms of expression.

Building from a new consciousness among some Whites concerning the merits of Black artistic creation, however, and despite the heavy weight of the aparthied system, two institutions sprang up as cultural oases for Black artists. One of these, the Polly Street Art Centre in Johannesburg (later succeeded by the Jubilee Art Centre), was established by Cecil Skotnes in the 1950s. Skotnes, an important South African artist in his own right, dedicated his energy and skill to the instruction of budding artists in a great range of media. While offering support and education to Black artists, Skotnes never tried to train them in his own style; instead he offered a broad range of techniques, and encouraged artists to innovate and seek their own forms of expression.

Many people’s lives were touched by the Polly Street Art Centre, including painters Ephraim Ngatane, Louis Maqhubela, Durant Sihlali, Eli Kobeli, Welcome Koboka and David Mogano; and sculptors Sydney Kumalo, Lucas Sithole, Ben Macala and Ezrom Legae. In later years, the Jubilee Arts Centre fostered the talents of Leonard Matsoso, Nat Mokgosi, David Mbele, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Godfrey Ndaba and Patrick Mautloa, among others. Most of these artists are represented by works at the University of Fort Hare.

Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre

Not ten years after the beginnings of the Polly Street Centre, a second opportunity for Black artists appeared, this time in Natal. The Swedish missionary Peder Gowinius started the Art and Craft Centre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (ELCSA) in 1961. Moved to the Oskarsberg Mission at Rorke’s Drift in Natal, it is generally known as the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre.

Rorke’s Drift offers workshops in weaving, pottery, textile printing and sewing, as well as the Fine Art School. Rorke’s Drift artists regularly exhibit in South Africa and abroad, extending pride in African heritage into contemporary forms of expression. In addition to training artists, Rorke’s Drift has inspired and fostered other, more recent arts institutions in South Africa, including the Ndaleni Art School in Natal (where George Ramagaga trained) and the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Fort Hare.

The number of artists trained at or inspired by Rorke’s Drift is too long to include here. Among them are Charles Nkosi and John Muafangejo.

The Township Art Movement

In the late 1960s and 1970s, apartheid reached what might be considered as the depths of violence. Black people had no political rights and few legal ones; they were forced to live in designated residential areas, forced to accept a degrading educational system, and subjected to constant surveillance and harrassment with no legal recourse. Those seen as rebels, and often just people trying to live their lives, were imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Urban townships, the ghettos into which many Blacks were forced to live, became the home for despair but also for defiance, pride and powerful artistic expression.

Township art, while strictly not a movement or a single style, has in common a powerful emotionality, a shift away from naturalism in order to express the emotions, and particular attention to Black experience. One of the only truly indigenous art forms emerging from South Africa, township art includes an unusual range of artists, from those with extensive training to those who are entirely self-taught, and from those with talent for innovative, powerful expression, to those who clumsily imitated or simply failed to translate their intentions into paint. Within this great range, some artists cry out for more focused attention. At the University of Fort Hare, these include Ephraim Ngatane, Dumile Feni-Mhlaba, Julian Motau, and Andrew Motjuoadi.

The Post 1970s

After the initial surge of emotion, narrative and sometimes outright rebellion expressed in township art, some Black South African artists began branching out into more personal, complex and more subtle expressions. Reference to African mythology, and to mystical experience characterise the work of some, such as Cyprian Shilakoe and Fikile Magadlela, while original creations in a folk idiom have enlived the ouvre of others, such as Noria Mabasa and Tommy Motswai.

The University of Fort Hare and Black South African Art

In difficult times, when honest expressions of pain or outrage were enough to expose a Black artist to harrassment and imprisonment, the University of Fort Hare provided a safe place for the preservation of unique works by the then little-known artists. Now the University is proud to display these works at the De Beers Centenary Gallery, which is open to the public. The gallery also has works by Fort Hare graduates, such as Ronnie Ndzombane, Dan Rakgoathe, and Lizo Pemba

Artist

George Pemba
Gerard Bhengu
Dumile Feni-Mhlaba
Julian Motau
Welcome Koboka
Andrew Motjuoadi
Ephraim Ngatane
Charles Nkosi
Cyprian Shilakoe
John Muafangejo
Sydney Kumalo
George Ramagaga
Fikile (Magadlela)
Tommy Motswai
Noria Mabasa
Ronnie Ndzombane
Dan Rakgoathe
Lizo Pemba