Dumile, "Goya of the Townships"

Dubbed the "Goya of the Townships" for the eloquence of his drawing, Dumile was born in Worcester in the western Cape. He worked as an apprentice at a sculpture, pottery and plastics foundry in Johannesburg and started drawing and decorating walls in hospital when he contracted tuberculosis. In 1965 he received support from Gallery 101 in Johannesburg and two years later his work was exhibited at the Sao Paulo Bienale. In 1968 he went into exile in the USA, and his work was exhibited in London in 1969. In the seventies his work appeared in group exhibitions in South Africa (1970, 1975, 1977) and London (1975). In the USA he was artist in residence at the African Humanities Institute, UCLA in the late 70s, and in the 80s he was a Visiting Lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art. In the 80s his work was rarely exhibited: at the African National Congress' Culture & Resistance Symposium in Gaberone, Botswana (1982); his only USA exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library (1988); and as part of a printmaking exhibition at the South African National Gallery in 1989.

In recent years South Africa's Department of culture & society and National Gallery have collaborated to retrieve Dumile's works from New York, including his sculptures, many of which have never been exhibited publicly. An artist of astonishing power who had few opportunities to develop his art, and whose despair led him to substance abuse, Dumile, perhaps more than any other African artist, deserves a proper retrospective. Despite the adversity he faced as a black South African artist, or perhaps because of it, Dumile's work communicated a depth of emotion that was exceptional and there can be no doubt that he deserves a wider audience.

Link to dumile feni foundation website, designed and maintained by SAHO