South African Art: A Look Into the Innovators of the Continent

By: Connor Joseph

The Chicago Art Expo is one of the biggest showcases of new artistry in the world. For many Black Artists, this becomes a huge stepping stone as far as exposure and helps to kick off their many careers. This year when looking at the Black Art on display I saw some of the most innovative and, what some might describe as, eccentric art which, transcends reality and sucks you into its experience. Something I haven’t seen in a while. I believed that it was a testament to how diverse diasporic art has become and in many cases that is true. However, there seems to be a trend amongst the origins of the Who's Who in Black Art. The majority of the Black artists displayed at the expo came from South Africa. In 2020, Forbes foretold about this trend citing that the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) helped to cement the country's status as an international art capital. So why is that? What makes South African art so innovative and different from the rest of the Art world?

To understand this current phenomenon, we must first understand what makes South African Art so distinctive. South African Art, as we know it today, emerged from the experience of native South African people under apartheid as well as years of Dutch involvement and influence. When I first started my quest of understanding Black South African Art, I realized that not much had been written about earlier modern-day artists. In fact, when Google searching “first mainstream modern-day South African artists” white artists William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas are some of the most common names to pop up.

George Pemba (1912-2001), Epolojice My Warship

It wasn’t until I added the context of color that I started to find connections to the art that first caught my eye at the expo. We can thank South Africa’s long seeded racial history as the cause of this lack of exposure. The apartheid made being not only a black person, but specially a black artist nearly impossible for a land these people called their home. A similar experience can be found in the ways Jim Crow terrorized Black Americans.  Black South African artists like Gerard Sekoto and George Pemba helped to break through the mostly white-run field of Art during the apartheid which helped led a to voice to an otherwise silenced population. Pemba and Sekoto’s work of social realism still relied heavily on European techniques, however, it is the mere presence of blackness being showcased which makes this art so revolutionary. Pemba works in the Negro and Bantu Art exhibition in the 1930’s made waves all across South Africa, something unheard for black artists at the time.  In 1940 Sekoto became the first black artist to have a picture purchased for a museum collection by the Johannesburg Art Gallery.  Both artists’ work was seen as signs of the revolution during the 1970s. These subtle political strides in turn gave leeway to Black South African Artistry to become more mainstream.

Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993), Wash Day

Today you can look for artists like Athi-Patra Ruga and Manyaku Mashilo to continue this trend of innovation. Athi-Patra Ruga is a Mthatha – born artist whose grandiose art finds no boundary. It is playful, eye-catching, and “beyond the curve”. With blackness at its center Ruga, uses surrealism throughout different mediums to explore culture, sensuality, and ideology to create elaborate cultural hybrids. I believe this is best showcased through his painting Nomalizo Khwezi Rendered in the Prevailing Mannerism, which in many ways reminds me of the work of Gerard Sekoto and the stillness that comes along with their characters. however, unlike Sekoto, Ruga's characters have a hidden sense of strength behind them almost as if they are in direct opposition to the past.

Athi-Patra Ruga (1984- ), Nomalizo Khwezi Rendered in the Prevailing Mannerism

Manyaku Mashilo is a Limpopo-born artist who uses mixed mediums and whose artistry isolates its subjects to address themes such as memory, ancestry, community, and spiritual identity. Mashilo's work brings you into a cosmic space of oneness with their subjects which creates an intimate experience between the viewer and the art. I found this sense of intimacy to be similarly found in the works of George Pemba. However, unlike Pemba, Mashilo's goal is to have to the viewer transcend reality into the "otherness" of the characters in which she creates.

       To truly understand why South African art is leading the trends of the art world is to understand the delicate lane South African artistry has placed itself, drawing from the past but placing it in abstract view becoming the epitome of what we know as Black Surrealism with touches of Afro-futurism. This subtle combination is not only South African innovation but is also important to Black Diasporic Art history as a whole. The boundaries I’ve seen broken by the actions of Pemba and Sekoto are the same boundaries I’ve seen being broken in the artistry of Ruga and Mashilo and in many other South African artists. All of which makes me excited to see what more South Africa and other countries amongst the diaspora have to offer. This, I believe, is only the beginning for the innovators of the continent.

Manyaku Mashilo (1991- ), Mollo wa Badimo

Sources

Digital, P. (2017, November 23). South African art. Brand South Africa. https://brandsouthafrica.com/22111/overview-history-south-african-art/ 

Dunn, A. (2023, February 21). African art market trends - growing demand from western collectors. OneArtNation. https://www.oneartnation.com/african-art-market-trends/ 

Expo Chicago 2023. Artsy. (n.d.). https://www.artsy.net/fair/expo-chicago-2023/artworks 

George Pemba - 49 artworks - painting. www.wikiart.org. (n.d.). https://www.wikiart.org/en/george-pemba 

Gerard Sekoto. Sothebys.com. (n.d.). https://www.sothebys.com/en/artists/gerard-sekoto 

MoMAA, E. (2023, April 15). African art market trends: What to expect in 2023. MoMAA. https://momaa.org/african-art-market-trends-what-to-expect-in-2023/ 

Mun-Delsalle, Y.-J. (2020, August 21). South Africa is fast becoming the African continent’s art and Design Capital. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/yjeanmundelsalle/2020/08/02/south-africa-is-fast-becoming-the-african-continents-art-and-design-capital/?sh=21209877366d 

About. Manyaku Mashilo. (n.d.). https://www.manyakumashilo.com/about 

Milwa Mnyaluza “George” pemba. Milwa Mnyaluza “George” Pemba | South African History Online. (n.d.). https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/milwa-mnyaluza-george-pemba 

Delagrange, J. (2023, May 8). The top 30 African painters you need to know today - contemporary art issue. Contemporary Art Issue - Platform, Publisher & Gallery on Contemporary Art. https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/the-top-30-african-painters-you-need-to-know-today/