Artists

Trained in the traditional Fingo and Xhosa mural painting traditions by her grandmother, Gladys Mgudlandlu was largely otherwise self-taught although she was mentored by fellow artists Katrine Harries and Marjorie Wallace at times. She responded to Maggie Laubser’s work and made a point of visiting the older artist’s exhibitions in the Cape. Mgudlandlu often painted birds, especially those species found in the Eastern Cape, and called herself ‘uNontaka', the 'bird lady'. Another favourite subject was township scenes of the Cape Flats. She worked as a nurse and as a teacher in and around Cape Town before taking up painting seriously from 1957 onwards and after that exhibited regularly in the Cape and, in 1964, in Johannesburg. She sometimes used several viewpoints in one work, a practice possibly stemming from Xhosa mysticism where folktales typically present multiple views of an issue. A retrospective exhibition of her work toured South Africa in 2002.