Archive: Issue No. 76, December 2003

There is an obvious aesthetic attraction when encountering the bold use of colour and line in the artwork of Esther Mahlangu. However, it is the artist's ability to glide the viewer's eye effortlessly over the variety of geometric shapes that captivates and ensures a pleasurable experience for the sense of sight. Mahlangu's elements of line, repetition, contrast, and colour work seamlessly together. Each time a new glance is given to Mahlangu's mural paintings, the eye dances, swirls, and skips, finding movement in distinctly two-dimensional works.

As one ascends the stairs of the Irma Stern Museum, the first of a series of new works entitled Abstract (2003) literally points the viewer and her gaze towards the exhibition. Six triangular wedges, which can be pieced together to create a solid hexagon, have been separated and mounted along the wall of the stairway. Each slice contains a dynamic pattern distinguishing it from the others. Yet a small photograph of the completed work shows a kaleidoscope-like sequence of natural pigments that suggest an exceptionally personal worldview.

This return to natural pigmentation, primarily clays and cow dung, underlies the great strength of Mahlangu's most recent work. Primary colours surge inwards and outwards, pushing against the heavy, straight black lines that work to keep the colours contained. Against canvas the natural pigmentation appears more muted than the loud acrylic paints the artist has used previously. This mute quality adds an illusion of texture, allowing the artist to create tonal variations within blocks of black, white, and cow dung. By working with a variety of media, Mahlangu shows the multiplicity of her artistic vision. She combines her knowledge of Ndebele tradition with the choice of hues and types of colour readily available to her today.

To its credit, this show mounts a selection of Mahlangu's artwork. Four ceramic plates, several pieces of beadwork, including the artist's wedding blanket, and pottery speak to the artist's range of interest and abilities. A note explaining that the plates are a less explored medium for the artist oddly accompanies the plates, which have been painted and glazed with Mahlangu's abstract geometric designs. The brief elucidation seems like a rationalized afterthought; it draws attention and unwarranted concern.

Several semi-figurative paintings, in both natural pigment and acrylic paint, are integrated amongst the abstract works. Souvenir de Paris (2003) is a mixed media work in which the artist recounts her first international trip. Mahlangu depicts her home juxtaposed with several Parisian monuments such as the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower. In the centre of the canvas, a smartly decorated airplane with its angular bands of colour provides a metaphorical bridge between the two societies.

Regrettably, the positive energy generated by the majority of this exhibition is undermined by a rather acerbic encounter with two black and white photographs hung centrally above Mahlangu's Ndebele TV (2003). The photographs, which grab the viewer's attention because of their lack of colour amid the bright paintings, are by South African artist Zwelethu Mthethwa. Although Mahlangu's murals are beautifully captured by Mthethwa, the inclusion of another artist's work in Mahlangu's solo show is jarring and struggles to find its place.

The wall text beside Mthethwa's work explains that the two artists have an amicable relationship and have exhibited together previously. The display of the photographs suggests that "�this magnificent woman, whom up till now, has never been acknowledged in her own country" needs the validation from an internationally acclaimed male artist to justify and bolster the artistic value and significance of her work.

Apart from this incongruous curatorial slip, Mahlangu's meticulously applied brush strokes, her aesthetically deliberate combinations of colour, her ability to stimulate the eye for movement, and her capacity to abstractly represent ordinary objects are presented proudly. With the windows wide-open and natural light and fresh air streaming into the gallery space, the artworks of Mahlangu come to life. Her pieces not only stand alone as works of art but also seem to rightly adorn the walls of Irma Stern's residence. The exhibition proves that her first solo show within South Africa should have come sooner.