The pivotal moment when the graphic technique of lino-cutting made its entry into the history of art making in South Africa occurred in 1962. Swedish artist Peder Gowenius had been sent out by the Church of Sweden Mission together with his wife, Ulla, to direct the Evangelical Lutheran Art and Craft Centre (ELC), located at the time in the rural district of Mapumulo, KwaZulu-Natal. The function of the Centre was to teach arts and crafts to Africans in the area, and while the women were learning weaving, Gowenius struggled to find an art activity the men enjoyed. Trained as an abstract painter himself, Gowenius found his students did not seem to enjoy painting.
In desperation, he demonstrated the process of linocut printmaking for the first time to one of his students, Azaria Mbatha. Gowenius inked up the incised piece of lino, placed paper over it and rubbed the print with the back of a spoon to transfer the ink, then peeled off the first proof to reveal the image. The twenty-one-year-old Mbatha was delighted with the almost magical nature of the process and soon made it his own.
The simplicity of the technique is both its strength and its weakness. Corrections are difficult, and the artist must cut with confidence, understanding that the image will print in reverse. The contrast between the cut white lines and the black surface background lends itself to symbolism, a quality fully appreciated by Mbatha.
Coming from a family with strong religious values, many of his prints had biblical themes or addressed the morality of racism. In 1965 Mbatha’s work earned him a scholarship to the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, where he studied for two years, in 1967 returning to the ELC to teach others.
Mbatha then returned to Sweden in 1969, where he has lived ever since. His prints have continued to explore the themes close to his heart in different ways. A number show a white man and a black man in close conversation in the foreground of the image. Of his 1968 print Reconcilation Mbatha has written: “In this picture I drew black and white people divided by walls which separated each from the other. Beneath this image they were drawn together under the Crucifixion and Jesus was shown to be both white and black. The black figure is myself. The pains caused by the Cross were to be forgiven at last. The greatest desire that I felt when I returned in 1967 was to be needed. To my sorrow I discovered that the expectations from black people were too large for me to be of any help . . . and knowing my limitations I left, once more.”
Mbatha is regarded as one of the country’s most important early printmakers, and his work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Reconciliation 1968
Linocut
27 x 31 cm
Image courtesy of the artist
© Azaria Mbatha