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Where Angels Fear to Tread IV
2001
Pastel on paper
2001-11-1, museum purchase
b. 1960, South Africa
Zwelethu Mthethwa began his career as a painter and has since received
international recognition for his vivid pastels and photography.
Mthethwa ennobles even the humblest scene and subject, negating images
of urban life as harsh and unjust. His subjects speak of human dignity,
self-awareness and resistance in the face of lifes challenges. These
works gain poignancy as a product of and witness to the post-apartheid
era in which political fortunes may have changed, but the dehumanizing,
debilitating situation faced by many of Cape Towns rural migrants
have not.
Best known for his large-format color photography, the works exhibited
demonstrate Mthethwas mastery of multiple media. He considers painting
and photography to be equally important and is continually transferring
notions from one to the other. Many of his compositionswhether in
paint, pastel or photography evoke the influence of television and sequential
perception.
Mthethwa has also experimented with black-and-white imagery. In Open Letter
to God children are presented as silent, helpless witnesses to and victims
of AIDS in South Africa. The artists choice of black and white immediately
brings to mind photojournalism and documentary photography and suggests
a solemnity appropriate for the subject.
Please click to on this artwork.
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