Sydney Kumalo

Sydney Kumalo
Born
Sydney Alex Kumalo

13 April 1935
Sophiatown, South Africa
DiedFebruary 11, 1988(1988-02-11) (aged 52)
Johannesburg, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
EducationPolly Street Art Centre
Notable workStations of the Cross Catholic Church Kroonstad, Stations of the Cross Catholic Church Orlando, Johannesburg
MovementAfrican Impressionism
AwardsAcademy for Science and Art, Medal
Patron(s)Egon Guenther
Websitehttps://www.kumalo-legae.org/

Sydney Kumalo (1935–1988) was a South African contemporary artist and sculptor.[1] He's best known for his clay and plaster sculptures which he then cast in bronze.

Early life

Kumalo was born in 1935 in Sophiatown, Johannesburg and raised in a Zulu family.[1] This upbringing, cultural, and political differences in his community would later have a good amount of influence within his work. He attended Madibane High School in Soweto, South Africa. He then attended the Polly Street Art Center in 1952 to get a start on his art training.[1] He went to the art center until 1957. Also in 1957, he was commissioned to do a church piece, which was his first big opportunity as an artist.[2] He originally worked with watercolor paint, was commissioned to do artwork for church ceilings, and later in his career started to use more mixed media.

Art Education/Polly Street Art Center

Most of his art training came from the Polly Street Art Center.[3] There he received guidance from Cecil Skotnes and Egon Guenther.[1] In 1958, Kumalo studied with Edoardo Villa, a South African sculptor, for 2 years. He also worked as an assistant to Skotnes.[4] Working with Villa had a great influence on Kumalo's style and form of expression. He also worked on his medium of metal casting. He helped to implement modernism with an African background into Kumalo's work.[5] In 1960, he began to teach at the center full time until 1964.[5][4] During this time he moved from Art Center to the Jubilee Art Centre located in Soweto.[4]When Kumalo retired from his teaching post at the Jubilee Art Centre in 1964, Ezrom Legae replaced him, first as an assistant and then as co-director of the Centre.

He was part of the Amadlozi Group founded in 1963, which included Cecily Sash, Cecil Skotnes, Edoardo Villa, and Guiseppe Cattaneo.[6][4] The name “Amadlozi” (Zulu: spirit of our ancestors) was used for a conscious appropriation of African sculptural traditions; this group had an African influence in their art and to use their culture as a form of expression. Their group was promoted by Egon Guenther. Guenther influenced the group with German Expressionism and arranged exhibitions in Italy during 1963 and 1964.[5] This would be the start of Kumalo's international career. Kumalo became a full-time artist after 1964, which in turn, had him resign from his teaching career at the Art Center.

International career

Kumalo's international career truly began in the mid 1960's.[5] He participated in exhibitions in locations such as Europe and New York.[5] He was invited to multiple international events and to receive awards. In 1967, he was invited to visit the USA and Europe because he was a guest at the United States/South African Leadership Exchange Programme, or the USSALEP.[1] He won a travel bursary from the Transvaal Academy in 1967.[5] Kumalo was also a guest in 1960 at the "Artists of Fame and Promise Exhibition" His work was included in multiple South African exhibitions and in 1988 in "The Neglected Tradition Exhibition" at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.[5] While still travelling internationally, he still managed to contribute to Republic Festival exhibitions.[4] He also won the Philip Frame Award at the Art South Africa Today exhibition at the Durban Art Gallery.[1]

Art Style

Kumalo's most used medium was terra cotta. The terra cotta was then cast in bronze.[1] His work showed a great amount of expressionism and contemporary aspects. It also showed ideas of symbolism and imagery.[1] There was a large attention to detail during the molding and casting process. It's evident that he took inspiration from life in his work. His main subject for his work were mostly humans and using the human body to convey certain scenes and emotions. He took into account that different bodily motions, configurations, and rhythms were a way of expressing spiritual feelings.[1] The themes that he work with the most were the idea of the human, the beast, and shaping the human body into anthropomorphic forms.[7][1] He work mostly reflects things such as on reincarnation, the influences of good and evil, and the influence of ancestors.[1]

Kumalo saw the human body and the animal body to be in close relation to each other physically and spiritually.[8] The stance of his figures mostly resemble animals.[8] His work can be closely related to early African carvings and tribal art. They both conveyed true passion and emotion and showed the fear of evil powers over them that they had no control of. His style can also show influences from primitivism.[9][8] Many of his works' facial expressions could be compared to African Tribal masks.[10] His figures where usually disproportionate with larger features and elongated torsos.[1] There is a sense of controlled movement, simplicity, and somewhat restraint within his work.[1]

Awards and Accolades

Sydney Kumalo received many awards and accolades in acknowledgement of his talents, both in South Africa and internationally, at a time in South Africa’s history when official policies were intensely discriminatory and negatively impacted black people.

  • 1960: Special Award for ‘the most promising up and coming artist’ at the Artists of Fame and Promise exhibition, Lawrence Adler Galleries, Johannesburg, July 1960 for his sculptures Praying Woman (1960) and Pregnant Young Woman (1960).
  • 1963: Philip Frame Award, Art South Africa Today, Durban Art Gallery, August 1963 for his terracotta Girl with Dove (1963).
  • 1966: Exhibited three works at the 33rd Venice Biennale, June – October 1966 - Head Big Ears (Elongated) (1965), Horse (1964) and Seated Woman (1959).
  • 1967: Travel bursary for three months to the USA as a guest of United States/South African Leadership Exchange Program (US-SALEP), April – June 1967.
  • 1967: Ninth Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, September – December 1967 sculptures exhibited: Lying Woman (1964), Madala V (1967), Tongue Out (1966) and Zulu Chief (1962).
  • 1967: Bronze Medal: Fourteenth Exhibition of the Transvaal Academy, Johannesburg Art Gallery, October to November 1967 for his sculpture Madala I (1966).

Exhibitions

  • African Artists, Polly Street Centre, Helen de Leeuw Gallery, Johannesburg, 1958
  • Artists of Fame and Promise, Lawrence Adler Galleries, Johannesburg, 1960
  • An exhibition of Sculpture and drawings by Sydney Kumalo, Egon Guenther Gallery, Johannesburg, 1962
  • Art South Africa Today 1963, Durban Art Gallery, 1963
  • Exhibition of the Amadlozi Group in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice in 1963 and 1964.
  • African Painters and Sculptors from Johannesburg, Piccadilly Gallery, London, 1965
  • Opening of Egon Guenther’s New Private Gallery, Linksfield, Johannesburg, 1965
  • South African Artists, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1965
  • Ninth Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, 1967
  • Sydney Kumalo, Bronzes and Drawings, Egon Guenther Gallery, Johannesburg, 1967
  • Contemporary African Art, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1969
  • Sydney Kumalo Solo Exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, 1973
  • Amadlozi ’85, USA, 1985
  • The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art (1930 - 1988), Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1989
  • Re/discovery and Memory, the works of Kumalo, Legae, Nitegeka and Villa, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, 2018
  • The Sculptures of Sydney Kumalo and Ezrom Legae, a Retrospective; Strauss & Co., Johannesburg, 2023

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jager, EJ (1992). "Art: Sydney Kumalo (1935-1988)". Africa Insight. 22 (1). Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  2. ^ Macdonald, James (2016). Tracing the Passion of a Black Christ: Critical reflections on the iconographic revision and symbolic redeployment of the Stations of the Cross and passion cycle by South African artists Sydney Kumalo, Sokhaya Charles Nkosi and Azaria Mbatha. Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town.
  3. ^ "Art Centers and Workshops for Black Artists". africa.si.edu. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Sydney Kumalo - Revisions". revisions.co.za.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Johans Borman Fine Art / Artist Biographies / Kumalo, Sydney". www.johansborman.co.za.
  6. ^ Okeke, Chika (2003), "Africa: Modern African art", Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/oao/9781884446054.013.60000100082, ISBN 978-1-884446-05-4, retrieved 16 June 2022
  7. ^ "Sydney Kumalo (1935–1988) Dancing woman". archive.stevenson.info. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Worth, Dr. AJ (1984). "Art: Influences of primitivism on South African Artists". Africa Insight. 14 (3). Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  9. ^ "The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994". Moma.org. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  10. ^ Proud, Hayden (2006). Revisions: expanding the narrative of South African art : the Campbell Smith collection. Pretoria: SA History Online: UNISA Press. Retrieved 15 November 2021.

Sources

  • Nel, Karel (2018). Re/discovery and Memory: The works of Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae, Serge Alain Nitegeka and Edoardo Villa. Norval Foundation. ISBN 978-0-6207-9391-9.
  • Watkins, Gavin Graham; Skinner, Charles (2023). The Sculptures of Sydney Kumalo and Ezrom Legae: A Catalogue Raisonné. Strauss & Company. ISBN 978-0-6397-6015-5.
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