Untitled
1993
Linocut on paper
2002-14-5, bequest of Charlton E. Williams

This small linocut features an outlined head of a figure of Senufo origin, stars and stripes. With this pastiche of imagery, Jantjes alludes to modernism’s indiscriminate mining of African forms and advocates the reclamation of these forms to be used as nationalist symbols by African states in flags, currency and the like.

b. 1948, South Africa

Raised in Cape Town's District Six, Gavin Jantjes received his masters of arts from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany. Rather than returning to a South Africa under apartheid, Jantjes stayed in Europe where he became a founding member of the German Anti-Apartheid movement, later served as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees and became an active participant in the British arts community. He now lives and works in Norway.

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