HAPPY BIRTHDAY Speelman Mahlangu and Jan-Henri Booyens Speelman Mahlangu (1 October 1958 – October 2004) spent much time with the Ndebele people in his childhood, even though he lived near Germiston. His grandfather introduced him to the legends and symbolism of animals and ancestor sacrifice, while the elder women taught him about Ndebele patterns. This knowledge he painted into surreal landscapes. In the artist’s words, his work describes things that one cannot see but can only feel. His themes are drawn from an exploration of spiritual mythical ideas of the world to come. In 1980, he won the New Signatures Award from the South African Association of Arts [Pretoria]. Born in Johannesburg 1 October 1980, Jan-Henri Booyens lives and works between Cape Town and Pretoria. He studied at the Durban Institute of Technology and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, and has taught in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Stellenboosch. Booyens was one-third of the infamous artist collective Avant Car Guard and his work is part of numerous collections, including the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris. Images 1-3: Speelman Mahlangu Images 4-6: Jan-Henri Booyens
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:50:00 +0000
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