David Koloane the soul of South African art

by Gwen Herat

When I was in South Africa a few years back with a firm mission of digging into the story behind South African art, what I discovered was heart-rending and sad; the way it had started to what it is today. And if not for the determination of spirited artists like David Koloane, the system would have remained static. Art was involved in the ugly grip of apartheid. There was no escape, no hope for black talent leave alone painting.

Blaze, Acrylic on canvas.

And along came its saviour, breaking the shackled chains of apartheid though it was the beginning. With this breakthrough came a turn-around to the system though slow and painful.

David Koloane had arrived.

Later, he was able to establish a reputation both locally and internationally as a pioneer black artist in apartheid South Africa, supporting and promoting black art in his country from the mid-1970s.

Koloane was filled with an inner confidence in what could be when he looked around the art scene. The pain of watching adult fight, resist, give up but carry on and the little Koloane was fascinated by these conditions and other facets of life. He reinvented the possibilities of its alternatives as he grew up. With the passing of years, the boy’s mind took on a new awareness. It dawned on him that beauty belonged to everyone no matter what his skin looked like. He read not only about South Africa but also about other countries that still had apartheid in some way.

Writing started to call him. Books became a part of his life, especially those that questioned the unjust system. Though creativity was as remote from his home to Johannesburg, it did not lull him. On the contrary, it spurred his determination to draw a long brush stroke right across South Africa and in doing so, he wakened the deep feelings of a breakthrough in some hearts that were not compassionate. Came with his paintings, a new form of artistic expression, such as abstract that was not a real option for black South African artists who were encouraged to remain with certain confines. This was the result that the genre did not require formal instructions for them to progress.

The restrictions were hard but Koloane had the blessings of such artists like Polly Street group who were identified with a new found liberty and justice for the blacks. The resulting expressions developed a sub-market within the mainstream of South African market in the late 1960s.

Separate art for separate races?

Slowly the black artists ventured into more challenging forms of expression though they risked becoming victims of harassments. Some of them had to leave the country because the secret police were watching and interfering with their lives. It was still too soon for Koloane to be aware of the cruelty that prevailed behind the scene. He never realised the bleakness of his vision. But the experience for this young painter, opened a door, presented a new horizon and unlocked his mind. It was like rising from the ashes.

A strong feeling of anxiety in Koloane’s vision focused on the city at night when he used dark tones, muted and earth colours. It was a palette of rich greys and blacks with unexpected spots of white. The haze laid a veil on Johannesburg that also made the night mysterious. They were drawn into chaotic lines that mixed with neon lights and encompassing darkness. This was the background for women of the night.

Men with lust and broken hearts preyed on their flesh. Women of the dark were sad at what they were doing. They had no other option. They painted their lips red, cracked under thick layers of cheap lipstick but they did not hide the suffering of their souls.

Koloane saluted their bravery of existence. What else had they to do with the sword of apartheid upon their heads. He painted them vividly.

They were the survivors of misery; sister, daughter, mother, wife, etc. Deep wounds were inflicted upon them. They were left to toil the soil to feed their families, planting seeds that would grow slowly and walk the night in the meantime. The lucky ones would go home to the township after a day’s work.

Letters Assemblage - 2001

After about a century, destinies for them changed when they started to journey through rich and wider landscape, not yet with a rainbow in the sky. One such glaring example was Saaritjie Boatman who found her way home, lured to London from South Africa in 1810 after being told she could make a fortune by displaying her body. She was tabbed as the ‘hottentot Venus’ and was paraded in Britain and France like a circus animal. Saaritjie died, lonely and tired with hard liquor to keep her company. Her body was dissected, her brain and private parts exhibited in a paris museum until they were withdrawn from the public in 1974. All these were witnessed by Koloane who used his brush magnificently to erase the trauma that apartheid had on his country. He did not give up his mission. He became a brilliant painter through his medium.

An object never stands alone, mused Koloane and out of the need to create something more immediate, more tactile, something rich in spontaneity, he made a series of assemblage works. Touching objects, putting them together was different from applying paint. He discovered an object that had been discarded and left behind by people, gave him a satisfying feeling both physically and spiritually. He was really fascinated by Piccaso who had a warehouse filled with paraphernalia. He went there and reinvented ideas behind closed doors. It all inspired him. Nothing was lost, nothing was wasted as Koloane was on his way to establish himself as South Africa’s greatest modern artist.

David Koloane wanted to make new what had become old. He had more confidence when he realised that there was a great change in his nation, slowly but steadily. Painters came out in full force and they were not restricted in any form but allowed to blossom out. A fellow-painter, Veronique Tadjo has written immensely upon Koloane’s work, putting them on the international map. She is a writer from the Ivory Coast who kept a tab on Koloane’s art and used her poetic skills to weave the strands of thought and theme on Koloane’s atmospheric art.

Artist, writer, arts administrator and curator, David Koloane was born in 1938 in Alexandria township of Johannesburg. He studied art at the Bill Ainslie Studios in Johannesburg and later completed a Diploma in Museum Studies at the University of London.

He established himself as a pioneer black artist in apartheid South Africa and was the founder member of institutions promoting and supporting black talent in South Africa from the mid-70s.

He is also the co-founder and director of the Fordsburg Artists Studios. In 1997 Koloane was appointed a member of the National Arts Council of South Africa. He has been the curator in a number of international group shows with his art being featured at major exhibitions including the Venice Biennale.

The conditions created by the apartheid system have to a large extent transfixed the human conditions as the axis around which his work revolves because David Koloane’s work reflects the socio-political landscape of South Africa both past and present. He had eight solo exhibitions and thirty four group exhibitions from 1975 to 1997.

His awards among others include: British Council Scholarship - 1983, Vita Quarterly Award - 1993 and Prince Clause Fund Award - 1998.