Notes

Born in KwaThema, a township southwest of Springs on the East Rand, Lucas Sithole was mentored by Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Art Centre in central Johannesburg. According to Skotnes the attenuated proportions of Sithole’s animal and human figures owed a significant debt to his fellow Polly Street artist, Sydney Kumalo.¹ Sithole is well known for his depictions of mythical animals. The simplicity and strength of his vertically proportioned human figures prompted art historian EJ de Jager to liken Sithole’s work to early Gothic art.² Proficient in clay, hard wood, stone and liquid steel, Sithole’s preferred technique was woodcarving. He started working in wood when he enrolled at Vlakfontein Technical College, where he studied carpentry, cabinet making and welding. He would travel as far as Knysna to find wood for his sculptures, paying particular attention to the wood’s form.

This work is produced from wood of the Msimbithi tree (Millettia grandis). Common to coastal forests in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal areas, the wood of this tree is also used for poles and its bark for medicine and string. In interviews, Sithole detailed how he found the wood shortly after meeting a traditional healer, or “witch doctor” as he described him in the vernacular of the time. Sithole, who moved to Spekboom in the Pongola district in 1981, did not specify the exact location of the encounter. His retelling emphasised the fearsome strangeness of his subject, whose neck and body was adorned with snakeskins. Returning home, Sithole sketched the man. Later, after partially completing his sculpture, Sithole returned to the village where the man lived to show off his work in progress. “He did not want to see it and threatened that I would not get away alive if I showed it to him. So I left in my truck and he never saw the sculpture.”3 The completed work was exhibited at Gallery 21 in Johannesburg and drew extensive coverage.

^1. Miles, Elza (2004) Polly Street, Johannesburg: Ampersand Foundation. Page 70
^2. de Jager, EJ (1992) Images of Man, Alice: Fort Hare University Press. Page 120
^3. Haenggi, Fernand F. (2015), Lucas Sithole, Lucas Sithole: 1931-1994 Highlights, Base. Page 118

Exhibited

Gallery 21, Johannesburg, 1982, 1983 and 1985, catalogue numbers X06, X18 and X15

Literature

The Star, Johannesburg, 9 December 1982, illustrated.

Gallery 21 invitation for the Selected Sculptures 1980-1983 by Lucas Sithole exhibition, illustrated.

Where Magazine, Johannesburg, 11 March 1984, illustrated.

Hello Magazine, Johannesburg.

Gallery 21 advertisement, February and May 1984, November 1985, illustrated.

Sowetan, Johannesburg, 30 October1985, illustrated.

Informa, Pretoria, December 1985, Vol.  32 No. 10, illustrated on the cover and on page 16.

Various Authors. (1993) Our Art 4, Pretoria: F.E.S.T. Illustrated on page 184.

Haenggi, Fernand. (2015) Lucas Sithole 1931-1994: Major Works in Private, Corporate or Public Collections throughout the World, Basel and Johannesburg: The Haenggi Foundation. Illustrated in colour on page 119.