Unsuccessful efforts were made to raise funds for the development of the Durban and Pietermaritzburg Art Centres again in 1981, with approaches made to the Ford Foundation and the Swedish Church.
Malin Lundbohm, art teacher at the Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre from 1968 to 1975 and visiting consultant in 1982, wrote in support of further applications for funding, and in the 1981/1982 Report of the Natal Region of the Institute wrote the following:
"The general activities of the Art Centre in Durban have increased to the point of 'taking oner' the regional secretary, who has been involved with the Centre since its inception nearly 20 years ago...We are glad to report that with the assistance of Mr D Grice the Anglo American Chairman's Fund donated an amount of R10 000 for two years in order to proceed with the development envisa This means that Jo Thorpe will now be able devote herself full-time to the organisation development of the Art Centre at little cost to the Institute..."
I assumed the official position of coordinator of African Art Centre in May 1982, and relinquishec position as regional secretary of the Natal Region o Institute of Race Relations.
Gerard Bhengu
Isangoma by Gerard Bhengu Fort Hare
Collection
Gerard Bhengu was born in 1910 at the Mariannhill Mission Station in the Bulwer district of KwaZulu-Natal. He was a charming and modest man who was recognised as an important artist long before the African Art Centre was established.
Over the years, after moving to Umlazi outside Durban, Bhengu brought in sepia portraits of Zulu traditional people, for which he was very well known.
His work is now much prized by fortunate buyers, and is in most South African galleries and museums, including the Fort Hare Collection and the Killie Campbell Collection.
Bongiwe Dhlomo and Daniel Mbongwe
An exhibition titled People Seen Through a Black Eye was arranged at the Art Centre in March 1965. It comprised 15 linocuts by Bongiwe Dhlomo and 15 sculptures by Daniel Mbongwe.
Bongiwe Dhlomo, after training and working as a secretary for a few years, decided to give up assured employment in a
large corporation and go to the Rorke's Drift Art School, where she completed the two year course. At the time of the exhibition she was working as a part-time assistant at the Art Centre.
She later moved to Johannesburg to join her husband Patrick Muatloau, a fellow graduate of the Rorke's Drift Art School, and has since played a major role in art development in Johannesburg. Seven of her linocuts referred to forced removals and were titled The Past...The Future. Bulldoze the Black Spot, Resettlement, Against our Will, From Here...Where To?, Aftermath and People Are Living Here.
One is entitled Cemetery Unrest - Premature Resurrection. The significance of the title of the linocut - which she dedicated to her father, who was opposed to people being uprooted under the Government's removal laws - was that the Cemetery in the Bergville area, where he was minister of religion, was uprooted in 1961 and many of the people 'uprooted' were buried by him. .
Though Dhlomo had exhibited in group exhibitions before, it was this collection that established her as an important artist and one of few black women artists to be recognised at the time. Her work was well reviewed by both Marilynne Holloway, Natal Mercury critic and Andrew Verster, who wrote:
"The story is familiar to us through the Press and photographs, but her version touches us more because it is not Wand and dispassionate but involved and full of comment. She heightens the emotion and fragmatises the events through the use of distortion. The figures of the police, for example, are drawn in a bigger scale and so have the effect of striding giants through a landscape of smaller people and houses. Their presence is real and symbolic."
Dhlomo went on to be an active curator of exhibitions, and particularly of the Johannesburg Biennial Africus 1995.
Daniel Mbongwe's beautifully carved sculptures in mthombothi wood showed none of the social and political comments of Bongiwe Dhlomo's strong and stark linocuts.
His titles themselves reflect this - Mother's Love, Lovers, Friends, Pondo Woman. It may be the devotion of the sculptor to his wood that prompts his subject matter, and as Andrew Verster said in his review:
"The series of curved shapes which result is harmonious and gives his works a great tranquility for there is nothing jarring or jagged."
In all an exhibition of contrasts.
On June 24, 1982, a ‘21st birthday party’ was held for me at the Art Centre. It took the form of an exhibition described on the invitation as some of 'Jo's Specials'.
The exhibition comprised 25 small and large sculptures by Philemon Sangweni - it was his first exhibition - 13 small burnt wood carvings by Bheki Myeni, which was the first composite showing of his insects and small carvings, and some dolls by Thembi Mchunu and Busaphi Ngubane. On the exhibition as well were tin can candlesticks and candelabras by Petros Khuzwayo.
The catalogue shows the subject matter and prices of Sangweni's pieces to be varied. Cock and Tortoise in mthombothi wood, bought by the Durban Art Gallery, was priced at R175.
Other pieces were a tortoise at R 15, a peacock at R75, a tadpole at R12 and Idi Amin at R25. In his review of the exhibition Andrew Verster described Sangweni's work as impressive and wrote:
"His forte is animals, which he carves with insight and understanding. The forms are simple yet specific, the surfaces treated in textures that represent skin, fur, shell or feathers."
Bheki Myeni's carefully observed insects, butterflies, bees and other creatures showed progress towards more complex subject matter. Examples were Iqulo lezinyosi (bees nest), Uvemvane Embalini (butterfly on a flower) and Ulwembu (spiders on the tree)
There were only two human figures, a woman and a man, each holding a small round mirror. The two pieces, according to Myeni, were interpreted in a modern folk story as follows:
"The woman noticed that her husband was always looking at this thing, and one day when be was not there she decided to look at it. Not having looked in a mirror before, she became the jealous wife and said 'so this is the woman he is always looking at'.
Andrew Verster said of Petros Khuzwayo, who died shortly after the exhibition:
"He makes wondrousiy intricate candelabra from discarded tin cans which he cuts, bends, folds pleats and solders with great imagination. Two of the most elaborate, having space for six candles, are crowned with objects which are a cross between a Boeing and the spaceship Columbia."
The African Art Centre logoKhuzwayo was introduced to the Art Centre when he brought in the quite simple tin can oil lamps which were no doubt used in hostels and houses without electricity. These were gradually transformed into candle sticks and then candelabras. Thembi Mchunu had received recognition following the Things People Make exhibition, while Busaphi Ngubane was involved in the modest beginnings of bead-cloth sculpture, though she did not go on to excel in the medium as some other women have done.
Smart Gumede
Smart Gumede held his first one man exhibition at the Art Centre in December 1962, comprising 10 sculptures and seven paintings. At the time he was teaching at the Ntuzuma Teacher Training College, having trained at the Ndaleni Art School. He later went on to complete a degree in Fine Art at the University of Fort Hare.
Smart Gumede with some of his wares
in 1968
In December 1987, an exhibition of sculpture and etchings by Gumede was arranged at the African Art Centre. Sales from the exhibition enabled him to return to the University of Fort Hare to do an honours degree in sculpture.
His etchings particularly attracted the attention of art galleries and a number were bought. The Tatham Gallery bought six; True Friendship, The Cul-de-sac, The Night Rider, Take Care of the Young, The Honey Seekers and Walker in the Night.
