Gamblers

Notes

Ephraim Ngatane was born in Lesotho and moved to Johannesburg in the early 1940s. He studied under Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Art Centre between 1952 and 1954. Although Ngatane earned a reputation for producing highly individual social-realist paintings descriptive of black urban life under apartheid, his output also records many instances of pleasure: boxing, jazz performances, weddings and a 1967 snowstorm in Soweto. He held sell-out exhibitions throughout the 1960s and up to his premature death in 1971 and was an important figurehead, playing an important role in mentoring Dumile Feni, among others. An accomplished colourist, his work is marked by lyrical impressionism and a selective use of abstraction.