Notes

From 1959 to 1960 Lucas Sithole studied painting and sculpture under Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Art Centre which has played a pivotal role in the development of South African art. Elza Miles, in her seminal book on the subject, sees the Centre as a crucible of two distinct modes of expression, one more mimetic that reflects everyday life while the other is more interpretative. ¹

Sithole is more representative of the latter approach, drawing on African art forms and modernist language to create sculpture that is more imaginative than imitative. He was known as a gentle, sensitive and empathetic person whose concerns over the sufferings of others were fearlessly addressed in his work.

Nevertheless, alternative forms of expression had to be found at a time when opposition to the political order was severely punishable. Proud and Angry presents two faces, encapsulating some of the socio-political tensions that were rife at the time, the solidarity experienced amongst likeminded people and defiance in the face of systemic violence.

In Elza Miles’ assessment, Sithole understood his materials. Rather than producing preliminary drawings for sculptures, “Sithole felt with his hands the shape of the creature that he had to liberate from the wood or stone”. ²  He had a particular affinity for wood prizing it for its warmth and seeing in it analogies with life and humanity.

In Proud and Angry empathy for his fellow human beings and sensitivity to materials are reinforced in a powerful statement. As Sithole said, “I am an African whose imagination is definitely influenced by the life of my people which I absorbed as a child. But when it comes to the emotions experienced by humanity, we are not all that different from each other”. ³

¹ Elza Miles. Polly Street: The Story of an Art Centre, The Ampersand Foundation, 2004, page 134.
² Ibid, page 134.
³ K. Brooke, ‘Black myth, legend in Sithole sculptures’, The Argus, 24 October 1975 quoted in Marilyn Martin. ‘Lucas Sithole’ in Our Art 4, The Foundation for Education, Science and Technology, Pretoria, 1993, page 184.

Provenance

Gallery 21, Johannesburg.

Die Kunskamer, Cape Town.

Exhibited

Gallery 21, Johannesburg, March 1977 catalogue number X73, September 1977 catalogue number X23, 1978 catalogue number X13.

National Gallery of Rhodesia, Salisbury, November 1977.

Bulawayo Art Gallery, Bulawayo, 1978.

South African Association of Arts, Pretoria, South African Art to Rhodesia, 1978.

Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg and Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria Sithole Retrospective Exhibition, 1979.

Lookout Art Gallery, Plettenberg Bay, 1980/1981.

Standard Bank, Soweto, Black Art Today, 1981.

Ernst de Jong Studio, Pretoria, 1981, catalogue number X13.

Alliance Française, Pretoria, Historical Perspective, May 1986.

Literature

FF. Haenggi, Lucas Sithole, A Pictorial Review of Africa's Major Black Sculptor, Gallery 21, Johannesburg, 1979, page 157, illustrated.

Matsemela Manaka, Echoes of African Art, Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg, 1987, page 42, illustrated in colour.