Township Scene IV Oil and collage on canvas Size: 28 x 35cm (image) 34 x 41.5 x 4.5cm (framed) Sam Nhlengethwa Township Series 2005 In this series of fifteen prints, Sam Nhlengethwa has turned his focus onto the Townships of South Africa. Township life has been an important source of inspiration for Black South African artists since the early twenties. This work is best recalled in the paintings of Gerard Sekoto and later Durant Sihlali. The "Township Art" genre became discredited in the late seventies and eighties as artists jumped on the bandwagon and started to create work that was sentimental and unoriginal. In this series of prints Sam Nhlengethwa tackles this tricky past and returns to the strength of the work that Sekoto and Sihlali mastered. Sam Nhlengethwa has travelled around the country observing life in both small and large townships. What he has discovered is that as much as things change they still remain the same. People continue to live in their communities and spend their days getting on with very ordinary tasks such as clothes washing, visiting the hair salon and gossiping. These are the images that Sam Nhlengethwa has focussed on and chosen to record, thus capturing the sense of life in South Africa's townships as we head towards the world cup in 2010. An idea that would have delighted Sekoto and Sihlali. |
© 2006 All rights reserved. Origination by Di Conradie.