Provenance

Dr and Mrs L Sifrin.

Private Collection.

Exhibited

The Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties, 1 November 1989 to 10 February 1990, cat no. 56.

Strauss & Co, Johannesburg, Working Life in South Africa: Gerard Sekoto & Lena Hugo, 1 April to 30 May 2025.

Literature

Lesley Spiro (1989) Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties, exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg: The Johannesburg Art Gallery, illustrated in colour on page 82 with the title Mother and Child.

Notes

In 'The Mother on the Road', Gerard Sekoto depicts a family unit - a mother with two children around her, including one tied to her back. The mother carries a large bundle on her head, likely containing her possessions, suggestive of preparation for a long journey. This scene would have been common at the time the painting was executed. Then, it was usual for many families to tie their belongings into a large fabric sheet and carry them in this way when relocating or travelling long distances. This, of course, cannot be read outside of histories of migration, dislocation and dispossession.

The palette used in the painting is bold yet somewhat sombre. Sekoto employs rich and highly saturated hues-deep purples, reds and navy blues dominate the composition. These intense colours add to the emotional weight of the scene, softened by a yellow that appears subtly throughout the painting, used almost like an outline.

In the background, two modest homes are visible. These resemble the typical township houses found throughout South Africa, often referred to pejoratively as "matchbox houses" - the four-roomed houses that for many people carry memories of home, safety, family and belonging.

'The Mother on the Road' is littered with small, but not insignificant, gestures that point to the broader socio-political context of the country, as is usual in Sekoto's oeuvre. Decisions on what objects to include in the frame and how to render them speak of the realities of the people Sekoto chose to depict. For instance, patches of fresh green grass intersect with narrow walking paths, a small detail that now can perhaps be read through the frame of desire paths - those informal trails that form over time as communities walk through them, speaking to literal paths but also to movement and the daily rhythms of a community.

Sekoto is proficient in coding, using small details to tell larger narratives. The interaction between the older child and the younger child, for instance - playing, adjusting their clothing or offering care - introduces a moment of intimacy to the picture. And yet he manages to remain ambiguous, without being vague. The rendering of the faces does not convey their specific emotions; it is unclear whether the subjects are experiencing joy, pain or indifference.

The composition of 'The Mother on the Road' contains a sense of rhythm, perhaps obvious given Sekoto's deep interest in Jazz (he later worked as a pianist in the nightclub, l'Echelle de Jacob, in Paris, to support himself). Outside of the angular forms of the houses and the verticality of the trees, much of the painting is composed of softer and rounded shapes, resulting in a kind of lyrical flow to the image.

Like much of the works in Sekoto's oeuvre, 'The Mother on the Road' holds a quiet contradiction, juxtaposing dignity with hardship and presenting a scene that is simultaneously grounded in resilience and struggle. The painting is exemplary of his nuanced approach to depicting everyday life under conditions of displacement and socio-political oppression.