Artist Zwelethu Mthethwa
Zwelethu Mithethwa says, "I chose color because it provides a greater emotional range. My aim is to show the pride of the people I photograph" (National pp). Born in 1960 in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mithethwa holds diplomas from the Michaelis School of Fine Art from the University of Cape Town (National pp). As a recipient of a Fullbright Scholarship, he studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology and in 1989 received a master's degree in imaging arts (National pp). Mthethwa left teaching in 1999 to devote himself fulltime to his artwork (National pp). He has received national and international recognition and has had over thirty-five solo exhibition in galleries and museums in the United States, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland and South Africa (National pp). Residing in Cape Town, Mthethwa is best known for his large-format color photography, however he also works in pastel and paint (National pp).
Zwelethu Mthethwa, who is one of the best known artists of the middle generation in South Africa, considers painting and photography to be equally important and is continually transferring notions from the one to the other field (Culture pp). In his photos, the people portrayed are a as carefully positioned and the forms and hues as strictly composed as the part of an abstract painting, yet his vivid paintings and pastels recall photographs or film stills (Culture pp).
Like many born in the 1960's who grew up with television, Mithethwa's paintings "seem to have been influenced by sequential perception in often having a near, middle and far distance more juxtaposed than merged, as if viewed in series" (Culture pp). In recent years, Mthethwa's work has been shown in more exhibitions than those of any other South African artist, having been shown in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia (Culture pp).
Ashraf Jamal writes, "It...
Mthethwa achieves through photography and pastel drawing and in both mediums it is the empirical, the re-presentation of an actual event or scene, that is key (Jamal pp). "For Mthethwa 'traditional documentary photography treats people as subjects not as human beings," which is why his work never merely records, but rather, "each element in a work is imbued with an aura, a quality that transfigures and ennobles the seen" (Jamal pp).
Mthethwa is currently among nine other contemporary artists on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art's 'Insights' exhibit in Washington, D.C. (National pp). "By displaying ensembles rather than individual works, the exhibition reveals the artistic process and play of experimentation, continuity and change in each artist's chosen subjects and materials" (National pp). Artists' insights are presented in quotes that illuminate and personalize the works on display, while the curators' comments provide the cultural and political themes of each work, and together these insights reveal the varied use of "visual metaphor, allegory, myth and even movement to evoke a range of experiences - the joy of masquerade, the resiliency of community, pride of place and the physical and psychic violence of political oppression" (National pp). The exhibit reflects the collection's strength in contemporary South African art (National pp).
Mthethwa's subjects speak of human dignity and self-awareness and allow witness to the post-apartheid era that unfortunately has not changed the desperate circumstances faced by many of Cape Town's residents (National pp). Two pieces from 'Insights' that are particularly compelling are 'Open Letter to God' and 'Where Angels Fear to Tread IV.'
Mthethwa's 2000 'Open Letter to God' is a 116 x 135cm digital giclee print on canvas. It…
