Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmangankato Helen Sebidi (born 5 March 1943) is a South African artist born in Marapyane (Skilpadfontein) near

Hammanskraal Hammanskraal is a trans-provincial region anchored in northern Gauteng province, South Africa. The region consists of multiple residential, industrial, and commercial areas in a decentralized settlement pattern. History The historical roots of ...

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, who lives and works in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

. Sebidi's work has been represented in private and public collections, including at the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openi ...

, Washington and New York, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, New York, and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. Her work has been recognised internationally and locally. In 1989, she won the Standard Bank Young Artist award, becoming the first black woman to win the award. In 2004, President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

awarded her the

Order of Ikhamanga The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African civilian honour that recognises achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports. Before the order was established on 30 November 2003, such achievements were recognised by the ...

in Silver – which is the highest honor given to those considered a "national treasure". In 2011, she was awarded the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art, while in 2015 she received the

Mbokodo Award The Mbokodo Awards are presented annually by Carol Bouwer Productions to honor South African women who have made contributions to the arts and culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social no ...

. In September 2018, Sebidi was honoured with one of the first solo presentations at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town – a retrospective entitled ''Batlhaping Ba Re.'' Her work represents a mode of African modernist painting and sculpture, wherein she depicts her experience of having grown up and living in the South African countryside, and later her experiences as a black artist, living and working under an apartheid regime. Sebidi's portraits often depict abstracted African subjects in bright colours and a rich palette. She is often associated with the realist and quasi-

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

schools, with her vivid paintings of life in both rural and urban South Africa and similarly striking clay sculptures.

Early life

Mmakgabo Mmapula Helen Sebidi was born in Marapyane, outside

, South Africa. She learned the crafts of murals, knitting and sewing, embroidery and beadwork, and

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

decoration from her grandmother. Sebidi's name, "Mmakgabo", which means "keeper of the flame", refers to her grandmother's work ethic and belief in vocational labor's role in creating community. Sebidi was born to a working class mother, who was a domestic worker in the city of Johannesburg. As was typical of children born to migrant labourers, Helen was raised in the country side by her grandmother who taught her mural painting and pyroengraving of calabashes. In an interview, the artist speaks about the relevance of seTswana storytelling as imagination and art education:

The old people told us stories...about how people live and...about how to see. They "read" the clouds. We used to sit outside in the courtyard, and especially in the very bright moonlight when there were a lot of clouds they used to read the stories for us and tell us: ''look at that, look at the soldiers, look at this!'' And they would tell us: ''you're going to have to see other life that's coming.''

As a teenager, Sebidi became a domestic worker and estranged from her mother and step-father. Sebidi sewed and knitted and decided to pursue her art in her off-time with encouragement from the wife of her employer, who also pushed Sebidi towards formal training. Sebidi exchanged artistic techniques with her employer who in turn demonstrated the application of artistic media such as

batik Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...

, tie-dye, and oil paintings.

Career

Sebidi took classes at

Dorkay House Dorkay House is situated on Portion 168 of Farm Turnfontein at 5–7 Eloff Street, Johannesburg, South Africa. It was constructed in 1952 and was designed by architect Colman Segal (1923–1988). It takes its name from the original owner, Dora Ko ...

after meeting Jonathan Koenakeefe Mohl by chance. She studied drawing with him, progressing from plants to landscapes to local architecture. Sebidi returned her hometown when her grandmother grew ill in the mid-1970s. She made art about her lineage at the encouragement of Mohl, through her grandmother's death in the early 1980s. Her grandmother let her work in secret and offered historical stories for Sebidi. She made connections with multiple arts organizations and artists Bill Ainslie and

David Koloane David Nthubu Koloane (5 June 1938 – 30 June 2019) was a South African artist. In his drawings, paintings and collages he explored questions about political injustice and human rights. Koloane is considered to have been "an influential artist ...

. Sebidi explored a number of the limited art training options that were available to her at the time. Sebidi met John Koenakeefe Mohl, a fellow artist and director of the White Studio. Mohl served as Sebidi's mentor and is credited for having encouraged Sebidi to pursue a career as an artist, and urging her to develop an individual idiom, establish an independent style and practice as opposed to emulating that of her peers. In 1980, Sebidi furthered her training by spending eighteen months at the Katlehong Art Centre in the east of Johannesburg. She also spent time at the Johannesburg Art Foundation-a multi cultural centre for art education, under the tutelage of fine artist and director Bill Ainslie. In 1985, she took up a teaching position at the Katlehong Art Centre near Germiston. Between 1986 and 1988 she worked for the Johannesburg Art Foundation while teaching at the Alexandra Art Centre. Her work was part of the group exhibition "Bild/konst i södra Afrika (Art/Images in Southern Africa)" which was shown at the Culture House in Stockholm from 19 May to 19 September 1989 and toured the Nordic countries until May 1990. In the late 1980s, her works became more abstracted without losing their figurative content. ''Miracle'' (1987) and ''Tears of Africa'' (1988) were two of her seminal works from this era, both in mixed-media charcoal and depicting "contorted, cramped figures with distorted or multiplied features and faces sometimes meeting at right angles". She received the 1989 Standard Bank Young Artist Award. A common theme in Sebidi's artwork is the return of moral values, especially those associated with precolonial Africa.

Exhibitions

* 2017: :*''Batlhaping Ba Re!,'' Norval Foundation, Cape Town :*''They Are Greeting'', Standard Bank Gallery, Albany Museum, National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa * 2016: :*Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil :* "Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi – An exhibition of paintings and prints", Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town, 2016 :* "They Are Greeting", Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, 2016 * 2013: :*Centenary Exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg * 2010: :* ''Spier Contemporary 2010'',

Africa Centre The Africa Centre, based in Cape Town, South Africa, is structured as a not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to provide a platform for Pan-African arts and cultural practice to function as a catalyst for social change. All the projects ...

, Cape Town * 2009: :*''Great South African Nude Exhibition'', Everard Read, Johannesburg * 2008: :*Joburg Art Fair 2008 with Everard Read, Johannesburg * 2004: :*''Visible Visions'' (travelling exhibition): Germany: Hagen, Essen, Berlin and Osnabrueck; Tilburg, the Netherlands * 2003: :*The Artificial Shelter Foundation, Tilburg, the Netherlands * 2002: :*''Head North: Views from the South African National Gallery Permanent Collection'',

Iziko South African National Gallery The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agenc ...

, Sweden :*International world summit exhibition: Tilburg, Netherlands :*International travelling exhibition, 'World Women, Visible Visions from 'International Women', Johannesburg :*Art in the context of the World Earth Summit on sustainable development * 2001: :*''The Markers' exhibition'', Venice Biennale, Italy * 2000: :*Axis Gallery, New York :*University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion *1999: :*''Changing Screens Exhibition'', The Firs, Rosebank, Johannesburg :*''Human Rights Institute Exhibition'', National Gallery, Durban *1994: :*''Six women from Southern Africa'', Civic Gallery, Johannesburg *1993: :*

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, Italy :*''Graphics Exhibition'', Jyväskylä, Finland :*''African Hei-ti-@e'', Uranienborgveien, Norway :*''Women From Africa'', Savannah Gallery of Modern Art, Bethnal Green, London, UK :*Standard Bank Young Artists Award Winners Exhibition, Zimbabwe National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe *1992: :*Art from South Africa,

, Cape Town :*''Future Realisms'', The Afrika Futuristic Gallery, Johannesburg :*''The Challenge to Colonisation'', 4th

Havana Biennial The Bienal de La Habana was a traditional Latin, Caribbean event, originated in Havana, Havana, Cuba, that aims to raise awareness to promote contemporary art and giving priority to Latin Americans, Latin-American and Caribbean artists. The eve ...

, Cuba :*Standard Bank Young Artists Award Winners Exhibition, Namibia *1991: :*''A Grain of Wheat,'' Common Wealth Institute, London, UK *1990: :*Zabalaza Arts Festival, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK :*''Art From South Africa'', Museum of Modern Art, Oxford UK *1989: :*1989 Standard Bank National Festival of the Arts, Makhanda :*Cape Town Triennial, toured South Africa *1988: :*''Art Images in Southern Africa'', Stockholm, Sweden :*''The Neglected Tradition'' :*Detainees Parents' Support Committee :*South African Potter's Association *1987: :*''Standard Bank National Drawing Competition'' which toured South Africa :*''Thupelo Workshop Exhibition'', toured to the Johannesburg Art Centre and the National South African Gallery in Durban :*''Delfiri/ FUBA Creative Quest Exhibition'', Johannesburg :*''Vita Art Now'', Johannesburg *1986: :*''Thupelo Workshop Exhibition'', Johannesburg :*''Art For Alexandra'', Sotheby's, Johannesburg :*FUBA, Johannesburg *1980-88: :*Washington, D.C. *1980-88: :*Brush and Chisel Club *1977-88: :*''Artists Under the Sun'', Parkview, Johannesburg

References

Bibliography

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Early life

Career

Exhibitions

References

Bibliography

Further reading