Untitled
1988
Screen print on paper
2002-14-6, bequest of Charlton E. Williams

A skilled printmaker and painter, Jantjes has often used his works to comment on the politics of his native South Africa and to address issues of cultural identity, lost histories and experiences of shared humanity. The screen print is a study for a larger painting (96-23-1, on exhibit) from Jantjes’ Zulu series, in which he recalls the Khoi San peoples’ myth about the creation of the Milky Way. In the myth, a young girl reaches into the fire and throws burning embers into the sky.

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.

Please click to on this artwork.

.