Notes

Ephraim Ngatane is an important mid-twentieth century South African painter. He studied under Cecil Skotnes at Polly Street Art Centre between 1952 and 1954, where he also met and befriended Durant Sihlali. Along with Sihlali and David Mogano, Ngatane earned a reputation for producing highly individual studies of township scenes using watercolour.¹ He debuted on the second Artists of Fame and Promise exhibition in 1960, held at the Lawrence Adler Galleries, Johannesburg, and in 1963 presented his first solo exhibition with the same art dealership, renamed Adler Fielding Galleries. Despite holding sell-out exhibitions throughout the 1960s until his premature death in 1971, as well as his role in mentoring Dumile Feni, the white art market adopted a "patronising attitude" to Ngatane and treated his work as a "step-child of mainstream South African art," according to artist David Koloane.² Ngatane was nonetheless regarded as important figurehead. Artist and playwright Matsemela Manaka, quoting Ezrom Legae, describes Ngatane as "one of the forerunners"³ of township art, a once-dominant style of social-realist painting descriptive of black urban life.

Ngatane's "muscular style"⁴ however challenges easy categorisation. An accomplished colourist, his work is marked by its lyrical impressionism and selective use of abstraction. While his dominant subject is segregated black life under apartheid, Ngatane's output is an expression of a rounded personality. His work records many instances of pleasure: boxing and jazz performances, notably, but also weddings and a 1967 snowstorm in Soweto. "He was an excellent boxer and played both the penny-whistle and alto-saxophone well," records art historian EJ de Jager. "He loved company and his untidy studio was often filled with friends making music and discussing the events of the day. Ngatane seriously contemplated life and its meaning. Creative self-fulfilment, rather than public recognition, was important to him."⁵

1. Steven Sack. (1988) The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art (1930-1988). Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, page 16.
2. David Koloane. (1989) 'The Polly Street Art Scene', in African Art in Southern Africa: From Tradition to Township, Nettleton, Anitra and Hammond-Tooke, David (eds). Cape Town: Ad. Donker, page 225.
3. Matsemela Manaka. (1987). Echoes of African Art: A Century of Art in South Africa. Braamfontein: Skotaville Publishers, page 15.
4. Olu Oguibe. (2004) The Culture Game. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press page 181
5. EJ De Jager. (1992) Images of Man: Contemporary South African Black Art and Artists. Alice: University of Fort Hare, page 48.