Wits Art Museum is currently hosting a retrospective exhibition, curated by Boitumelo Tlhoaele, that highlights the extensive body of print work created by iconic South African artist Sam Nhlengethwa.

With jazz as an underlying theme, the exhibition, entitled Leeto: A Sam Nhlengethwa Print Retrospective, focuses on work created between 1978 and 2018.

We caught up with the renowned artist to find out how his journey began, what he loves most about printmaking and how jazz has inspired his work.

How did your artistic journey first begin?

I can trace my artistic journey back to when I was at primary [school] in Ratanda Location in Heidelberg where I grew up. I used to illustrate my classmates’ books.

Your new exhibition at Wits Art Museum celebrates your work since 1978. Is there a highlight from your career that stands out for you most?

It has been a leeto, a journey, indeed. I have enjoyed working and experimenting with different types of prints. I did printmaking in Rorke’s Drift, but it took a back seat when I started doing collage. As the winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award in 1994, I had to prepare a new body of work. I decided then to exhibit different types of media under the theme of jazz. Prints were part of the media I exhibited. I worked with Mark Atwood of The Artists’ Press on lithographs. Since then I have enjoyed the process of lithography and have ventured into other types of prints too.

The underlying theme of the exhibition is jazz. How has jazz inspired your work over the years?

I grew up around a brother that listened to jazz – my late brother Rankie was a jazz musician. I always play jazz in my studio while working and at home when entertaining friends or just chilling. Jazz simply inspires me. It’s my chill pill. The sound of jazz just pumps my creative juices, which then get translated onto the canvas.

Then take the first solo (2012)

As mentioned on The Artists’ Press website, your work often deals with the movement of people, paying homage to people and places. Why is this important to you?

I paint what I like. I paint what I see around me. To me, interaction with one’s surroundings is important. I connect with my surroundings and they impact what I produce. I live in Johannesburg. It is a vibrant city. Every day there are gems to feed the eyes. It deserves to be appreciated and documented.

You’ve created 163 prints with The Artists’ Press. What do you love most about printmaking?

I particularly like lithography. The process is laborious but fulfilling. I begin by making an original artwork, mostly in collage. I bring together different pieces to make one piece. During the printmaking process, I kind of “dismember” the piece through different colour plates. In the end, I put the colours on the plates together and reproduce the image.

Precisely my point (2012)

What advice would you give to emerging artists?

Be patient. Focus. Experiment with different media and themes. Stay disciplined.

Leeto: A Sam Nhlengethwa Print Retrospective at Wits Art Museum runs until 17 August 2019. For more information, visit wits.ac.za/wam.

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The Kalashnikovv Gallery in Braamfontein has just celebrated its one-year anniversary of pushing the limits, questioning the givens and drawing a completely new audience to the South African art scene. High art. Lowbrow. Low art. Murray Turpin hates labels and categorisations. “We uphold a no-brow manifesto,” he says. “We are taking back art for the masses.”

By putting the art back in party, Murray and his business partner Matthew Dean are inciting a revolution from their base in Braamfontein, the Kalashnikovv Gallery (named after the AK-47 assault rifle), and they’re taking their agenda to the city: curating Youth Day exhibitions and festivals with Constitution Hill; working with the Wits Art Museum (WAM) to put on the first WAM After Hours event.    

It was art and music that brought the pair together. Murray, who studied fine art at Wits, had developed an extensive practice over the years, taking occasional time off to DJ and record with his band Mtkidu; Matthew had run numerous clubs, and called Murray in to assist in curating a more concept-based sho called Neon. They went on to collaborate on Satellite Spaces/// The Untitled Gallery, where they took pop-up (another label Murray dislikes) exhibitions to different locations around Johannesburg.

The shows were such a success that Play Braamfontein offered them a more permanent space. As a “trade exchange”, they are creating two Kalashnikovv Portfolios made up of works on paper from each artist who shows at the gallery. One portfolio will also be auctioned off for charity. Kalashnikovv puts on a new show every two weeks, so the portfolio will include between 30 to 50 works.

Murray and Matthew’s ability to attract a massive younger audience to art gallery and museum spaces with music, visual displays and a mix of emerging artists has “ironically made [them] into a service providers of sorts” – called in to draw crowds. Even if students are not spending money on art just yet, Murray hopes by experiencing the events, they will become familiar with art and “when they’ve graduated they’ll remember, and they will become the buyers.” 

70 Juta Street, Braamfontein, kalashnikovvgallery@gmail.com, kalashnikovvgallery.tumblr.com

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Johannesburg lurches straight from Women’s Month into its 21st Arts Alive Festival, held during Heritage Month from 1 to 10 September. The festival is primarily a showcase of fantastic dance, music, art and drama, concentrated around the cultural hubs of Newtown (from the Bassline to the Market Theatre) and Braamfontein, with a few tendrils sneaking out into the suburbs and township areas. However, it also marks an annual “official” declaration of intent: the city belongs to all who live in it.

Night of the Museums, Wits University, Braamfontein

Although mornings and evenings are still pretty chilly in the City of Gold, the weather service is predicting balmy temperatures this week – the perfect time for an evening stroll around the campuses of Wits University, which is opening all of its museums and galleries for free on the evening of Thursday 5 September.

Night of the Museums means you can: check out an historical exhibition on the 1913 Land Act as well as a show of new works by Jeremy Wafer at the Wits Art Museum; engage with either the permanent exhibits, or the new spatial/urban planning/visual literacy project called “Walking The Corridors Of Freedom” (launching the same night) at the Origins Centre; nose-around the lesser-known Geological Museum and Life Sciences Museum, which are also in strolling distance; and investigate the university’s 50-year-old Adler Museum of Medicine, although you’ll have to pop into your car for a short trip to nearby Parktown.  

Joburg A Liveable City in Living Art, Braamfontein

With the help of students from the National School of the Arts, artist Neil le Roux will be building a sculpture of indigenous water-wise plants on Friday 6 September, on the embankment outside the school’s premises on Melle Street.  The artwork, which will be documented for the upcoming Joburg Art Fair, is intended as a deliberate, sustainable embodiment of the city bureaucrats’ Growth and Development Strategy 2040 objective to make Jo’burg a “liveable” city.  

Maboneng Township Arts Experience, Alexandra

Not to be confused with the Maboneng Precinct on the eastern side of Jo’burg’s inner city, the Maboneng Township Arts Experience evolved from the township’s historic nickname, Dark City (due to a lack of streetlights), and aims to reposition Jo’burg’s oldest township as a place of lights, turning township homes into curated gallery spaces.

The three-day Alex experience from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 September will be followed by similar programmes in Gugulethu (Cape Town) and Madadeni (KZN) in October and December respectively. The Maboneng Township Arts Experience has also been chosen as one of the projects to be featured as part of World Design Capital 2014.

Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery

The critically acclaimed travelling international multi-media art show Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art opens at the Johannesburg Art Gallery on Sunday 8 September, where it runs until 17 November.

Curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg of Art Works for Change, the exhibition has toured through the United States, Canada, Mexico and Spain, exploring the borderless territory of violence and gender – from the perspective of the political, the systemic, the community, the family and the individual – through the works of 30 international artists.

South Meets South

Shared History is a sort of mini-festival of food, music, dance, theatre and spoken word celebrating Indian history and experience in South Africa – and still feels like one of Jo’burg’s best-kept secrets! One of this year’s highlights is the South Meets South concert to be held at Mary Fitzgerald Square on Saturday 7 September, where South African icon Hugh Masekela will perform with Brazilian guitarist, pianist and composer Egberto Gismonti (Brazil), and Indian violin virtuoso Dr L Subramaniam. Also part of the Shared History programme, the Sufi Gospel Project will be performing at the Eldos Jazz Festival on Sunday 8 September, and at the Wits Theatre the following evening.

To download the full programme, visit www.arts-alive.co.za

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