Notes

Accompanied by reproductions of an article and letter of response published in World newspaper about the artwork in 1966.

In October 1966, Dumile Feni received a South African Breweries Art Prize merit award for this expressive drawing titled Mother and Child. He was only the second black South African artist to win an accolade of such significance (Azaria Mbatha had won the Cambridge Shirt Award the year prior). Feni’s drawing caused some controversy at the time, however, particularly after it was ridiculed in The World, the country’s biggest black newspaper, supposedly by its editor, Mr MT Moerane. The work prompted a parochial plea from Moerane: ‘In Africa let us refuse to have this stuff pushed on us. Let us keep it out of our homes. Let us keep our art as pure as the summer skies, as exciting as our wildlife, as strong as our mountains. Let us keep it African.’ Reading between the lines, the editorial voice of this white-owned mouthpiece might have been pushing a common Apartheid agenda by discrediting internationalism.

…one of the most culturally significant and historically important works made by any black artist working on the African continent during the sixties. – Warren Siebrits

Provenance

Private Collection, Cape Town.

Aspire Art Auctions, 14 February 2020, lot 41.

Acquired from the above by the current owner.

Exhibited

South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South African Breweries Art Prize, travelling exhibition, September to October 1966.

Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South African Breweries Art Prize, travelling exhibition, October to November 1966.

Johannesburg Civic Theatre, Johannesburg, South African Breweries Art Prize, travelling exhibition, November to December 1966.

Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South African Breweries Art Prize, travelling exhibition, January to February 1967.

Literature

South African Breweries Art Prize, exhibition catalogue, illustrated on page 8.

MT Moerane (1966) ‘Editor’s Column’, The World, 28 October, illustrated in black and white.

Esmé Berman (1970) Art and Artists of South Africa, Johannesburg: AA Balkema, illustrated on page 83.

Prince Mbusi Dube (2010) Dumile Feni: The Story of a Great Artist, Volume 1, Johannesburg: Mutloatse Arts Heritage Trust, artwork illustrated on page 85, article accompanying lot illustrated on page 218.