Notes

Sydney Kumalo’s magnificent bronze sculpture St Francis is one of the artist’s best known and most sought after works. The sculpture portrays the Christian saint who renounced a life of wealth and privilege to devote himself to serving the poor and vulnerable, and he remains renowned for his acts of compassion. He is often portrayed in art in the company of birds and other animals.

St Francis of Assisi was born at the end of the twelfth century and is often dubbed the ‘other Christ’. He encouraged pathos in his teachings and communicated the scriptures in a way that was accessible to the masses for the first time. Whereas older images of Christ had stressed awe and power, St Francis humanised the presentation of biblical figures. This single charismatic individual was largely responsible for earthlier portrayals of Christ and for effecting a change in the way biblical figures were painted from the early Renaissance onwards.

The brilliance of Kumalo’s bronze St Francis rests in the way that he captures and conflates both Christian and African symbolism. Kumalo’s St Francis is firmly rooted on sturdy, splayed and bent legs reminiscent of African wood carvings that not only support the commanding, stylised and elongated torso but provide a perfect counterbalance for the angled head leaning towards the left and the outstretched right arm. Kumalo masterfully captures the pathos, spirituality, humility and human frailty of the saint that he depicts with an African mask-like face. Kumalo’s St Francis embodies both serenity and burden, vulnerability and potency, also made manifest by the contrasting and exceedingly strong and muscular neck that supports the head of the saint.

The tension created between the left arm protectively cradling a stylised dove, a gesture of peace, and the victoriously raised right hand pointing dramatically heavenwards in a gesture that is both a Christian blessing and an echo of the black power salute, Amandla, used to signal solidarity and resistance to oppression during the apartheid era, emphasises the dualities and complexities of Kumalo’s rendering of St Francis.
Kumalo was born in Soweto in 1935 and it was not long before his artistic talent was apparent. From 1948 he attended Polly Street Art Centre where he studied under Cecil Skotnes. He subsequently became a teacher and mentor at the school, which later became known as the Jubilee Art Centre after a move to new premises.

In 1957 Skotnes was approached to provide imagery for the newly built St Claver church at Seisoville on the outskirts of Kroonstad, imagery that would be more relatable and fitting for the church’s black congregation. For the commission, the students were drawn into discussion of Christian symbolism and African imagery that could be used for the ceiling painting. Skotnes encouraged his students to look at designs of African, Oceanic and Aboriginal pots in his collection as well as at African art in the Africana Museum in Johannesburg. The amazing speed and certainty with which Kumalo worked on the ceiling panels led to the artist being commissioned to sculpt images of both Jesus and Mary and to model the fourteen Stations of the Cross for the same church. Other commissions followed for relief panels and sculptures at Our Lady of the Rosary, Thabong, and St Joseph the Worker, Bosmont.

The clarity of Kumalo’s emotionally charged images prompted Skotnes to approach Edoardo Villa to provide greater professional support for Kumalo to grow his talent and understanding of sculpture. Kumalo then began to work in Villa’s studio twice a week.

Arguably the most important influence on Kumalo’s work began in 1962 when Kumalo was introduced to the collector and gallerist, Egon Guenther. In 1962 Kumalo had his first solo exhibition (a sell-out) at Guenther’s gallery and showed again later in the 60s with Guenther’s Amadlozi Group, which included Villa, Skotnes, Cecil Sash, Giuseppe Cattaneo and later Ezrom Legae. Kumalo held another two solo exhibitions at Guenther’s gallery, one in 1966 and the other 1967. When Kumalo eventually left Guenther’s gallery he continued his successful career, first with a stint at the Grosvenor Gallery in London before later joining Linda Givon at Goodman Gallery.

Provenance

Egon Guenther Gallery, 26 August 1969.

Exhibited

Norval Foundation, Re/discovery and Memory: The Works of Kumalo, Legae, Nitegeka and Villa, 28 April to 10 September 2018, another cast in the edition exhibited.

Literature

Stephan Welz (1989) Art at Auction in South Africa: Twenty Years of Sotheby's/Stephan Welz & Co 1969–1989, Johannesburg: AD Donker, a terracotta version of the work illustrated in black and white on page 194.
Elizabeth Burroughs and Karel Nel (eds) (2018) Re/discovery and Memory: The Works of Kumalo, Legae, Nitegeka and Villa, Cape Town: Norval Foundation, another cast in the edition illustrated in black and white on page 107 as figure 8.