Artists

Gerard Bhengu was born in 1910 in Southern Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) and expressed his artistic talent from a young age. While most teachers reprimanded him for doodling in his schoolbooks, Mr Duma encouraged him and gave him crayons, and Mr Jowett supplied him with his first set of watercolours. Not long after, Bhengu became ill and gifted a drawing to the doctor who treated him. Dr Köhler was so taken by Bhengu’s talent that he commissioned the boy to create several images for him to use in his lectures. The doctor further provided him with painting supplies and suggested that he paint the people and scenes from his village. Bhengu’s talent grew, and in 1936, the Department of Native Affairs commissioned him to paint a frieze in their building in Johannesburg for that year’s Empire Exhibition. In the 1940s, he sold his artwork through the Payne Brothers department store in Durban, where he found success in the tourist market. He went on to exhibit in the 1979 Contemporary African Art in South Africa touring exhibition and the Historical Perspective of Black Art in South Africa exhibition in 1986. Bhengu’s art is photorealistic in style and he worked primarily in watercolour and sepia. His works are included in the collections of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, and the University of Fort Hare, amongst others.