Esther Mahalangu
Esther Mahalangu (Middelburg, 1936) è una pittrice sudafricana.
[modifica] Biografia
It is one of the few African artists whose art is often exhibited on the international scene. His works are in major private collections including that of the Swiss Jean Pigozzi and in many Western museums. Despite being an internationally famous artist Esther Mahalangu lives in his village in close contact with their culture. Woman of few words, Mahalangu has dedicated his life to his art. Esther Mahlangu is a painter, born in 1936 in Middelburg, Mphumalanga, South Africa and belongs to the tribe Ndebele. This term refers to several ethnic groups in Zimbabwe and western popular in the province of Transvaal in South Africa. The division of the nation amaNdembele dating from the early sixteenth century when they began a series of internal feuds of the tribes to rule that led to the current division into three groups of what is regarded as the nation amaNdembele: the Matabele nation of Zimbabwe, the Transvaal and Northern Transvaal Ndembele Ndembele South in South Africa. The art and tradition [edit]
Esther Mahalangu began painting just ten years, following the teachings of his mother and grandmother, and since then has not stopped since, as she confides, her art makes her feel "very happy". The artist follows, thus, a local tradition that states that this particular type of painting technique is handed down in the family, communicated, learned and transmitted only by women. These paintings are closely connected with the ancient tradition of decorating the houses on the occasion of the rite of passage for boys. Between eighteen and twenty years, the youth of the tribe went to "school of circumcision" and suffered a particular ritual which confirmed their passage to adulthood. To celebrate this event the women completely repainted the inside and the outside of their houses with a preparation of cow dung and chalk using a vast repertoire of traditional figures. These designs were characterized by the presence of repeated geometric shapes, bounded by a thin black border in distinct contrast with the white background, a very clear path. The colors are flat and stand out in a very much alive thanks to the board and the background used. The geometric abstraction that is revealed by these paintings is underscored by the constant repetition of such simple shapes that make the whole work, however, quite complex. In essence symmetries of lines, shapes and colors are absolutely dominant. Opera [edit]
Despite continuing to use the same "artistic vocabulary" closely tied to the traditions of his race, Esther Mahlangu has dramatically changed the media and techniques with which they work. The artist, in addition to using industrial pigments and colors, decorated with its lines and its geometric paintings, sculptures, ceramics, automobiles and even airplanes. The Mahalangu has in fact achieved in 1991 the first "African Art Car", decorated with typical motifs of the tribe Ndembele a BMW 525i, and collaborating with artists such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Frank Stella. These drawings were also reported in 1997 on the tails of the planes from British Airways and more recently the same technique has been reproduced painting by the artist on the new Fiat 500 on the occasion of the exhibition "Why Africa?" (2007, Turin). The poetic [edit]
Also present in the work, the art of Esther Mahalangu the tension between local and global, between the anchor and detachment. The artist, in fact, moves, builds his own work from a strong local tradition, which draws on both hands and that, as she herself admits, the world wants to represent and preserve at home. And that is why in his tribe Mahalangu directs a school which teaches young girls not only painting but also to report the details of his technique of painting designs on particular compositions of beads. We must not think of the tradition as a static entity, immutable, always looks to the past. As the work of the same Mahalangu suggests, "tradition" is a mobile field, ready to incorporate stimuli of different nature and future-oriented. In fact, although South Africa is now one of African States to facilitate and promote further the work of their artists both nationally and internationally with the likes of the biennial event in Johannesburg, the work of Esther Mahalangu shows itself very courageous because he was born and grew up in a political and social problems from the known. In such a situation remains even more problematic to propose an art so proudly linked to ethnic claims such as that which is revealed in the works of Mahalangu.
