Tito Zungu was born in 1946 in Mapumulo district, Natal. Zungu received no formal education or art training. As a teenager he made clay models and in 1957 he began drawing with coloured pencils and later experimented with ballpoint and felt-tip pens. In I960 Zungu began selling the envelopes which he decorated to workers sending letters home. In 1966 he made his way to Pinetown, Natal, where he worked in a dairy.

Later in the 1960s he worked in Durban, first as a gardener and then as a cook. In 1970 a friend of Zungu's showed his work to his employer Mary Clarke, who brought it to the attention of Jo Thorpe at the African Art Centre, Durban where his work was first commercially marketed.

Exhibitions:

1971: DAM (Art SA Today).

1973: DAM (Art SA Today).

1975: DAM (Art SA Today).

1981: Durban (Festival Art Exhibition).

1982: WITS (solo, sponsored by Totem-Meneghelli Gallery and the SA Institute of Race Relations).

1985: Africana Museum in Progress, Johannesburg (Tributaries).

1987: Primitive Art and Antiques, Johannesburg (solo).

1988: JAG (Vita Art Now).

Awards:

1971: Art SA Today (award).

1977: African Arts magazine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA (award).

1973: Art SA Today (Hajee Suliman Ebrahim Memorial award).

1981: Durban Festival Art Exhibition (award).

Commissions:

1976: African Arts magazine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA (cover drawing for tenth birthday edition).

1988: Design for tapestry for UWC (not yet completed).

Collections:

African Art Centre, Durban, DAM; JAG; WITS. SANG; TAG; UNISA

References

Sack, S. (1988), The Neglected Tradition, Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Collections in the Archives