Artist Database

Jabulani Ntuli was born in Ntumeni near Eshowe. He attended the Mission School at the American Lutheran Church. Apart from one art lesson at school, Ntuli was largely a self- taught artist. He was taught Zulu history and custom by his grandfather and it was based on this knowledge that German anthropologist Dr Katesa Schlosser engaged Ntuli in the illustration of Die Bantubibel.

Before settling in Ntumeni in 1958 as a full-time artist, Ntuli’s work was purchased in Durban by Dr Killie Campbell who exhibited his drawings in Cape Town in 1947. Ntuli’s pen and ink drawings are noted for their accute observation of everyday Zulu life, depicting details of everyday activities from stick-fighting to the storage of food, a woman weaving, or a hut being rethatched. His drawings often include tiny figures and relate scenes of Zulu culture.

Ntuli’s work was exhibited in 1966 at the Museum for Ethnology at Kiel University in Germany, and is represented in a number of significant collections in South Africa including the Campbell Collection in Durban, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Zululand Historical Museum in Eshowe.