The reflection of the apartheid era at the Yakhal’ Inkomo exhibition at the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Javett Art Centre continues to stir emotions while highlighting how the past has shaped present-day South Africa.
Yakhal’ Inkomo is the title track of the album of the same name, composed and rendered by the legendary Winston Mankunku Ngozi and his quartet in 1968.
With the exhibition running since March and ending in January, the demand for it to be extended has prompted the university to release a book narrating the essence of the 138-piece visual art collection.
Titled Mihloti Ya Ntsako, loosely translated, “tears of joy” in Tsonga, the book is explained as “the coming into being of the collection” by Bongiwe Dhlomo, a renowned visual artist in her own right, responsible for collecting the art pieces.
It is a unique compilation of artworks from the previous century by any artist who expressed their emotions through art, mostly art by well-known and unheralded black South African artists. The book will make an exclusive launch on Friday at Javett Art Centre-UP.
Dhlomo says she was excited to learn the country demanded more on the collection, and it will be preserved forever in a book.
“The demand is overwhelming. We now realise people have been hungry to learn how people expressed their emotions through art in the previous century. I believe people will also enjoy the book.”
The famous artist says she travelled across the country and all provinces, going as far as England in search of South African artworks from the 1960s to 1990s.
“They are diverse pieces but meant to put in one room to elicit the emotions of various artists from across the country. What they felt during the tumultuous 20th century and to facilitate meaningful dialogue between contemporary audiences on the country’s recent history,” Dhlomo explains.
She says her three-year-long journey dedicated to collecting the artwork was exciting, especially when she learnt that most artists managed to sell their work at a time when most black South Africans were having a hard time under the oppressions of apartheid.
“I was commissioned by the Javett Art Centre, under the University of Pretoria, to put together a collection of art from black South African artists because the university had a similar exhibition, but it was white-dominated. People felt that the stories from the time of apartheid were not told as they should be because black people suffered the most, yet they were not represented enough.
“I did not necessarily go out specifically in search of artist reflecting the politics in the arts but truth is, just living under apartheid made people feel their oppression, and it came in different forms.
“It is true, politics influence our way of living, and we influence politics.”
Dhlomo says it was generally a struggle to get hold of old artworks by South African black people because most of the pieces were sold as artists and family members were desperate to put food on the table.
She collected a total of 100 prints, paintings, sculptures and embroidery pieces of art, carrying mixed emotions, including sadness, pressure, darkness and most importantly, the joys of living in South Africa. Some of the artworks collected include Mo Mahaena Ho Thata by Helen Sibidi, loosely translated, at home it is difficult. This is a 1993 oil on canvas painting of various
people and animals squashed together to symbolise suffocation and lack of movement, which may, from the eye of the viewer, mean they all feel there is nothing they can do.
Dhlomo said her personal favourite would be the Louis Maqhubela’s Exiled King painting, which draws inspiration from Nebuchadnezzar II, a character from the Bible, who was king of Babylon, most referred to as the destroyer of nations. The artist, who was born in South Africa, lived in exile since 1973 and reportedly died of Covid-19 in England last year, aged 82.
“This, for me, is a very dark piece depicting the pains of living in a foreign country where you would feel like you have no sense of belonging or you need to do whatever you can for survival. His companions are holding firm while they wait for him to rise and rule as he should, in my view. The art collection itself is viewed differently by people from differing backgrounds.”
The book will be launched at Javett Art Centre-UP.
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