John Hlatywayo: remembering a great Zimbabwean artist who was woefully neglected by history

Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, Rhodes University

John Hlatywayo, who has died at 96, was a terrific painter, sculptor and mentor. Nevertheless he’s woefully uncared for within the artwork historical past of Zimbabwe and southern Africa.

Belonging to an early technology of Zimbabwean artists, Hlatywayo was overshadowed by worldwide curiosity within the nation’s mainstreamed stone sculptors. But he was one in all Zimbabwe’s most versatile artists. He may work with totally different media and produce intriguing conceptual items. However he was primarily drawn to portraying facets of individuals’s day by day lives.

He educated in neighbouring South Africa and went on to exhibit his work in Johannesburg, Cape City, Salisbury (now Harare) and London. His items are within the collections of the Wits Art Museum and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

In 2018 I had the chance to interview Hlatywayo as one of many Black artist-teachers on the centre of my PhD thesis. My thesis tries to broaden Zimbabwe’s trendy artwork canon, arguing for the inclusion of marginalised artist-teachers like Hlatywayo.

A selfless particular person, Hlatywayo labored tirelessly to show and develop artwork in his group. His story can be necessary to the area because it represents the transnational sharing of artwork traditions between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Education

Hlatywayo was born in 1927 at Chikore Mission within the Ndau-speaking Chipinge district of Rhodesia – immediately Zimbabwe. (Ndau is a Shona dialect spoken in southeastern Zimbabwe.)

At main college on the Mount Selinda Institute, a US mission college, he took an curiosity in artwork lessons provided by a US expatriate. As a carpentry and constructing trainee, he helped the self-sustaining establishment with the development of homes.

South Africa

In 1948 he set off for South Africa. He instructed me about how migrants had been screened by officers on the Musina border put up. Below the system applied by the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, those that had been match to work within the mines progressed to Johannesburg. The remainder had been taken to work on the close by farms.

In Johannesburg he was settled in a compound amongst different migrant labourers who labored within the mines. Earlier than lengthy, he moved to Pretoria, discovering work at a steel smelting plant, doubling as a “teaboy” serving a white supervisor with whom, he mentioned, he by no means held a standard dialog.

Again in Johannesburg he teamed up with a cousin to start out a carpentry store. It was there that he met a consumer who ended up introducing him to celebrated South African artist Cecil Skotnes.

Artwork college

From 1952 to 1966 Skotnes ran the Polly Street Art Centre, changing the previous Grownup Non-European Recreation Centre into a spot the place artists would prepare and fraternise, no matter their background in a racially divided South Africa throughout apartheid.

Artwork historians note that the educating on the establishment usually adopted “worldwide modernist types” with Skotnes additionally inviting some artists of European origin to work with him. Students indicate that on the centre, data and abilities had been imparted by way of mentorship or apprenticeship. The objective was to fast-track trainees into skilled apply. Moreover providing studio area and supplies to Black South African artists, the centre additionally exhibited work alongside non-racial traces.

Hlatywayo labored at Polly Road from 1954 to 1960, assembly many different sculptors and painters – together with Ephraim Ngatane, Durant Sihlali and Louis Maqhubela. His mentors had been primarily Skotnes and South African sculptor Sydney Kumalo. This group had a right away constructive affect on his inventive growth. Quickly he had staged his first solo exhibition, with others to comply with.

Praised

Two accounts highlighted by teachers point out that Hlatywayo’s work stood out. In 1960, he participated within the necessary City African Artwork present. Commenting within the Fontein Quarterly journal, Skotnes singled out the work of Hlatywayo and Kumalo.

In 1963 he took half in a joint exhibition in Cape City of Polly Road artists. Professor and gallerist Neville Dubow was so impressed by Hlatywayo’s work that he wrote, within the Cape Argus newspaper, that

Hlatywayo exhibits a agency feeling for organising types; he’s adept within the monotype approach and is maybe essentially the most expert craftsman of the group.

Rhodesia and Zimbabwe

Within the mid-Nineteen Sixties Hlatywayo returned dwelling and exhibited works in a number of establishments. His first solo present in Zimbabwe was at Gallery Delta in 1979. That very same 12 months, his work titled Lady received second prize on the annual WeldArt exhibition in Harare.

After independence in 1980, Hlatywayo’s work continued to be exhibited on the Nationwide Gallery of Zimbabwe and at quite a few worldwide establishments.

As just lately as 2016, in the direction of the tip of his lengthy profession as a multimedia artist, Hlatywayo participated in a two-man exhibition with Tafadzwa Gwetai, a Bulawayo-based painter and collage artist. The present, The People Watchers, was additionally offered in London. In it, Hlatywayo presents steel sculptures which might be curved and elongated to seize emotion.

Trainer and mentor

However Hlatwayo was additionally a outstanding trainer. Noticing how few adults confirmed an curiosity in artwork, he made pleas for faculties to show the topic, particularly at main college and in decrease grades of highschool. As he was quoted within the Rhodesia Herald in 1971:

No training can declare to be full that doesn’t embrace educating of artwork.

Hlatywayo dreamed of beginning his personal artwork centre. When a constructing in Mbare was secured by the nationwide gallery for artwork lessons, he volunteered to show there on a part-time foundation. He additionally taught college students from his dwelling.

Moreover creating and educating, he additionally served on a number of panels and committees selling artwork.

Why his story issues

Hlatywayo’s story highlights the cultural trade between South Africa and Zimbabwe that continues to today, with many Zimbabwean artists working with South African galleries.

He additionally represents a spot in data about Zimbabwean artwork that urgently must be crammed to grasp the contributions and affect of those uncared for artists.

Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, Postdoctoral Fellow with the NRF/DST SARChI Chair Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa and International Souths analysis programme, Rhodes University

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