Nelson Mukhuba was one of the most talented of the Venda sculptors, with an exceptional eye for the line and detail of a pose. Born in 1925 in Tshakhuma, not far from Kruger National Park, Mukhuba was also one of the most tragic, eventually committing suicide in 1987.
As a young man, Mukhuba worked in Johannesburg in the building trade for about fifteen years before returning to his home in the country in 1958. It was at this time that he started carving domestic and other objects for local use, occasionally selling carvings to passing tourists from a roadside stall. Unlike fellow carvers whose works aimed to please this market with curio objects, spoons, and bowls, Mukhuba produced figurative sculptures of people both observed in the media, on postcards, and from his imagination and dreams.
Curator Ricky Burnett selected a Mukhuba sculpture of a ballroom dancing couple to exhibit in the 1985 Tributaries show. It was one of the critical successes of the exhibition. Tributaries opened first at the MuseuMAfricA in Johannesburg and then traveled to Germany. The praise it received helped turn the spotlight on to the Venda and Shangaan artists who had been invited to participate. In order to build on this interest and market and promote the artists of Venda, the Ditike Arts and Craft Centre was established in the Venda town of Thohoyandou in 1985 and became an important draw for visiting foreign curators.
Inspired by the acclaim received for his work in Tributaries, Mukhuba began to draw even more strongly on imagery from the white urban world, which was increasingly entering his own sphere. Many of his works were playful, drawn from media images, such as his miniature Sammy Davis Jr. portrait placed inside a radio. Other pieces featured ballet dancers, a drunken white farmer, and sportsmen, all culled from images Mukhuba saw in magazines and newspapers. But other works reflect a darker psychological state, such as a self-portrait with his chest painfully ripped open to expose his ribs and heart.
Though no stranger to the city, Mukhuba had experiences with the urban-based art world that often left him feeling that he was being exploited. These perceptions eventually threw him into a state of personal turmoil. Having returned from an exhibition in Johannesburg in 1987 where he was guest of honor, he set out on a nightmarish path that led him to destroy himself and his world. He locked his wife and two daughters in his house, which was packed with his art works, and set the house on fire, thereby burning his family to death. Completing the cycle of destruction, Mukhuba hanged himself from a tree.
Although he once described himself as “a doctor of wood” because he could “see inside the wood,” Nelson Mukhuba had proved unable to heal his own psychological disturbances.
Ballet Dancer 1974
Wood, paint, polish
119 x 50 x 38 cm
Collection: Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Galleries), Johannesburg
Photographer: Bob Cnoops
Nebuchadnezzar c. 1979
Wood, enamel paint
64 x 148.5 x 43 cm
Collection: Johannesburg Art Gallery
Photographer: John Hodgkiss