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Michael Zondi : South African sculptor.

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Zondi's advocacy of Western cultural paradigms, which facilitated the interface, resulted in the public presentation of this black artist's work at a time in South African history when this was exceptional. This research study serves to reposition the work of Michael Zondi within the context of the current discourse of 20th century South African art.

Positioning within the matrix of contemporary South African art

6They presented themselves as 'other' - "to the gaze of the colonial audience to whose hegemony they were subjected and on whose patronage they depended" (Nettleton, 1998:86). 8 The artificial and 'controllable' colonial construct of a rural order established under the Native Administration Bill of 1927, where chiefs were recognized as leaders (Nuttall belied the fact that the cultural identity of the so-called 'Zulu' majority was not coherent not (Leeb-du Toit.

The amaKholwa 12 - Zulu Conversion to Christianity

Liberation Theology

Referring to the emergence of liberation theology from situations of power imbalance, Leeb-du Toit refers in particular to conservative governments that saw a close connection between this theology and Marxism. In a quest to humanize people trapped in mindsets of slavery and fatalism, liberation theology offered the backing of biblical scriptures through which racism and capitalism were critiqued, class struggles and oppression acknowledged—then to be politically and historically contextualized—and reflected in art-making. (Leeb-du Toit.

Seltbood

The Literary Elite - Political Involvement

The monolithic “Zulu-ness” is reflected in the arbitrary labeling of artifacts – as “southern” African or Zulu – associated with the strong European consciousness of Shaka's army. He saw in the subjects of black South Africans the portrayal of their humanity and their emotions (Grossert, 1968:42).

Educational Development and Training .1 'Synthesis'

Art-making institutions and Contemporary Artists

On the site of the industrial school attached to the Wesleyan Mission75 is the Ndaleni Art SchooC6. Two of the four South Africans represented at the Venice Biennale in 1966 were Michael Zondi and Sydney Khumalo as the first two black sculptors.

Emergence into Modernism

  • Individualism in Western and African Traditions

101In his link to traditional sculpture, Rankin thinks of the use of indigenous forests as the preferred medium to identify with Africa (Rankin, 1989:42). 102Klopper argues that until the expansion of the Natal trade in the 1850s, skilled carvers—to have access to the necessary tools for fme-made wooden objects—stayed near iron smelters who were employed by the courts to work with the valuable item (Klopper). 1992:93).

Museum and Exhibition Traditions

Art and Artefact - Museum traditions in South Mrica

From the 1920s, black art was included in the South African Academy Exhibitions in Johannesburg. Furthermore, his work was shown in the context of an exhibition on Zulu culture that toured European countries and in 1976 he was able to exhibit his work in Paris, under the auspices of the Ministry of Information.

Evaluation Criteria

Furthermore, the appropriation of those objects as 'art', still made in a 'traditional' context, has been attributed to a 'quest for exoticism' (Nettleton also involves an emphasis on the art maker steeped in a western concept of a unique creator status.The long road to the appreciation of contemporary rural African art is seen as facilitated by postmodernist concerns (Rankin.

Contextualising Michael Zondi's work within the local art world from the 1960s

But this would imply an indiscriminate, uncritical position of the artist in his political and social awareness. The rhythmic strands of styled grass find an echo in the even wisps of the woman's hair. Zulu nationalists in the leadership of the Natal Native Congress at the beginning of the 20th century appropriated the idea of ​​territorial segregation (La Hausse de Lalouviere, 2000:19).

In the discourse of correcting the neglect of black South African artists from the past, this interest in self-. The arms of the full-size figure were joined on the torso (Leeb-du Toit and Nieser, 2002a). Zondi, 1986a and 1986b), but he was able to execute a mural in the new Education Department of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus, 3° on one of his few commissioned works.

There was a glass window near the relief sculpture that gave a view into a room where children's behavior could be studied. Unpublished paper presented at the 19th Annual Conference of the South African Association of Art Historians, 13 September 2003, Stellenbosch.

Illustrations

Michael Zondi

South African Sculptor

Research Methodology

Kirsten Nieser

As Michael Zondi's active career spans roughly three decades beginning in the mid-20th century, my analysis is a qualitative historical analysis. Considering the almost 50 year photographic base of my work (see above) and considering the fact that I use digitally generated negative as well as 35mm. However, in my communication with the artist, I have seen the artist's mastery of the English language profound.

34; paternalistic" (the Scheurich process than that expressed in 'giving' more control over the interpretation of the interviewee's words. Drawing our attention to the issue of power inequalities in the interviewing process22, Scheurich speaks of the cessation of dominance. interviewers/researchers) by some resistance on the part of the interviewee. Clifford cites the "mythical Western opposition" as an expression of the West's ambivalence about the "primitive",34 (Clifford in Clifford et.

Literature Review

General Publications on South Mrican Art: their focus 7

Implicit in the criteria for the inclusion of a black artist in the art historical discourse of the 1970s appears to be evidence of either a 'formulaic Africanism' (Atkinson, 1999:16) or overt political expression as occurred within the defense of an art of such. the institutions. Equally focused on descriptions of white South African others as Berman in the 1970s (Berman, 1970 and 1975) is Fransen's 1981 publication Drie Eeue Kuns in Suid-Afrika (Fransen, 1981)15, including black artists specifically in their view. media and styles, with Sydney Kumalo as sculptor6. Its focus is on foregrounding the work of black artists in the year before Sack's Neglected Tradition, discussed below.

Sack (Sack, 1988) focuses on factors related to economic and political matters, as well as religious and educational issues in the lives of people involved in art making. He divides the 'pioneers' of the 1920s and 1930s into different lifestyles with a rural or an urban background - or artists who moved between the countryside and the city (Sack, 1988:9). While describing the artist's personal qualities, he reveals the artist's concern with the artist's expressiveness. 38The photographic images – such as those in De Jager's 1973 publication – come from the plate made in the 1960s by P.H.

Identity and Seltbood

  • Zulu Identity
  • Cultural Identity and Ethnicity
  • Custom

Klopper refers to the "fluidity of ethnic designations" (Klopper, while Leeb-du Toit points to "stressful attempts to locate identity..often indirectly in relation to ethnic cultural paradigms" (Leeb-du Toit, 2000:22t4• He cites as a factor, which contributed to the perception of a cohesive Zulu identity is the collection of Zulu material culture, as well as the search for an African idiom by white South African artists – who, with their indigenous motifs, 'validate' the notion of a 'disappearing culture' of the native 'Zulu'. Fischer's conception of ethnicity as "deep-rooted emotional components of identity" that can be used during retrospection "to obtain a vision for the future" (Fischer is confirmed by the appropriation of the "tribal" dimension of ethnicity in recalling the heroic past in order to invoke cohesion related to national aspirations for the future - (Couzens , 1985:146 and Nuttall, as seen in the case of the marginalized black literary elite of early 20th century South Africa (Leeb-du Toit. 43 When he states the reason for the difficulty in attributing artefacts to specific regions, he refers to ethnicity in the sense of a political process of grouping people together, where distinguishing between them involves inevitability.

Referring to Western paradigms rooted in the Enlightenment, his discourse incorporates notions of conversion to Christianity from that part of the African experiencing the "civilizing mill", as well as African individuality outside 'tribal' parameters (Mbembe, 2002:248) . DWomo was the first major black South African playwright - and the most representative - of what Couzens terms the 'lost generation' of the 1930s and 1940s (Couzens, 1985). DWomo used Gerard Bhengu's art to affirm a heroic 'Zulu' past in order to mobilize a national unity in opposition to the segregationist policies of the South African government.

Curatorship and Museum Practice

  • National and Government Sponsored Exhibitions
  • Academic work and exhibitions at the turn of the 21 st century

Sack believes that the foundation of the "fine art" tradition among black South Africans was established in the 1940s, when art reflected a response to Christianization and the money economy (Sack, 1988:15). Thorpe discusses the selection criteria and names the catalog entries of the black laureates for the important national exhibition Art: South Africa Today (Thorpe between 1963 and 1975 (Thorpe. 60. Art: South Africa Today was an initiative of the Natal Region of the Institute of Race Relations in conjunction with the Art the Durban Gallery and the Natal Society of Arts.

They reflect on the galleries established at the turn of the 20th century, "which claim to have the multi-valued (imported) European tradition of 'high art.' They note the mid-century incorporation of the work of local white artists into "settler interpretations." Sack speaks of the "autonomous aesthetics" of a work displayed "outside the world of art" that was immediately marketed and commercialized (Sack, 1988: 27), while Kasfir speaks of the "formative moment" of decontextualization and "transformation" of tourist attractions or the countryside. souvenirs of 'legitimate art' (Kasfir, 1999:41).

Patronage - Evaluation

  • Neglect - Dearth of Literature
  • Evaluation
  • New Curatorial Practices
  • African Aesthetics

New perspectives can be seen in publications such as Engaging Modernities: Transformations of the commonplace (Nettleton, 2003), where the notion of modernity is expressed in works that arise from consumer culture, including the recycling of materials - the resulting art is considered no less ' authentic' (Nettleton, 2003: 14). Sack addresses the issue of the lack of literature on black artists despite their recognition beyond their own communities, given to them by art lovers in South Africa and abroad, while "official histories and art museums" neglected to represent the work (Sack, 1988:7) ) . Rankin gives as one of the reasons why Zondi was outside the focus of the art world in the 1980s - having gained recognition in a time when fewer black artists were brought to the fore - as his new interest in the avant-garde as well as an expectation of unmistakable 'development and change' in artistic work.

Using Bhengu's 'indigenous' scenes as examples of the commissions early pioneer artists received from white patrons, Sack elaborates on the demands of such patronage to portray the 'exotic' Other (Sack,1988:1O)8o. In portraying the social characteristics of his people, Leeb-du Toit believes that Bhengu's subject matter reflects the “environment and context of black South African art” and draws attention to his multicultural audience (Leeb-du Toit, 1995: 33). In order to place South African art on a national and international stage, Leeb-du Toit calls for exhibitions such as Jabulisa 2000 - The Art of KwaZulu-Natal to become a forum for the comparative assessment and appreciation of art, as well as critical public reception both in SA than abroad (Leeb-du Toit, 2000:21).

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